SummitPentagon Premier Roofing Business Plan — Break-Even

The revenue and job volume needed to cover overhead at each crew count, and when the business crosses its own break-even.

Break-Even

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Revenue against break-even revenue
Figure 19. Revenue against break-even revenue.

Measure

Value

Basis

Gross margin, Year 5

35.4%

After materials and crew labor

Variable overhead

(9.1% of revenue)

Sales commission and workers’ compensation, which scale with jobs and payroll

Contribution margin

26.3%

What each additional dollar of revenue leaves behind

Fixed cost base, Year 5

$1,159k

Marketing, owner, administration, vehicles, yard, technology, licensing and non-comp insurance

Break-even revenue

$4.41m

Fixed cost divided by the contribution margin

As a share of Year 5 revenue

68.6%

Margin of safety

31.4%

Interest, Year 5

$88k

Across nine facilities

Break-even revenue including finance cost

$4.74m

The operative measure

As a share of Year 5 revenue

73.8%

Margin of safety including finance cost

26.2%

Equivalent replacement jobs

272 job-equivalents

At the Year 5 average ticket

Value of one percentage point of gross margin

$64k

At Year 5 revenue

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Revenue, $’000

535

1,625

2,960

4,538

6,424

Contribution margin

21.7%

22.8%

24.2%

25.3%

26.3%

Fixed cost base, $’000

227

433

676

913

1,159

Break-even revenue, $’000

1,046

1,899

2,793

3,609

4,407

Position against break-even

Below

Below

Above

Above

Above

A margin of safety of 26.2 per cent means revenue could fall by roughly a quarter before the overhead base is exposed. That is a reasonable buffer at maturity and it does not exist in Years 1 and 2, when the business is below break-even by design and funded to be there. It is also worth reading against the seasonality in Section 10.1: a trade whose revenue swings 40 to 60 per cent between peak and off-season months will be below break-even for part of every year regardless of how the annual figure looks.