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Calculating the Break-Even Point

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Calculating the break-even point
To avoid making a loss every business must at least break-even by achieving a level of sales that covers its total costs. But what level of sales is necessary to break-even?
To explore the concept of break-even, we need to define some basic terms:

Fixed costs: Costs that do not vary with output or sales e.g. managers salaries, rent and rates on business premises. Variable costs: Costs that vary with the quantity produced or sold e.g. costs of materials and wages Total cost: Fixed costs plus variable costs for any possible level of output. Sales revenue: The price of the product multiplied by total sales Profit: The difference between total revenue and total cost (where revenues …show more content…

The number of units needed to be sold (or made) to break-even is then calculated as: Fixed cost divided by Contribution per unit
Use of the break-even model on a computer enables managers to explore 'what if...? ' scenarios based on a change in:

selling price fixed costs variable costs sales.

Likely outcomes can then be evaluated and decisions made accordingly.
Now work out these two examples on your own:
i. Calculate the break-even point for a newspaper vendor. He buys in newspapers at 20p each and sells them for 50p each. His fixed costs are £60 a day including the rate he pays to the local council. How many newspapers must he sell each day to break-even? ii. A large business has fixed costs of £250,000 per week. Its average sales revenue per item is £2, and its variable costs are on average 50p per item. How many items does it need to sell to break-even?
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