Cleaning & janitorial
Cleaning Business Break-Even Calculator
Find the jobs or revenue needed monthly before the business makes money.
Result
Break-even, not a target. It is the point where the business stops losing money, which is a floor rather than a plan. Owner's pay only counts here if it is inside the fixed costs you entered.
Get a Free Business AuditWhat moves the number
- Fixed costs, which for cleaning are lower than most trades but not zero.
- Contribution per job after labour, travel and product.
- Whether cleaners are employed or self-employed, which changes what is fixed.
Where this one goes wrong
Treating employed cleaner wages as variable. If cleaners are employed and guaranteed hours, those hours are fixed cost regardless of whether the work is there, which raises break-even substantially.
Questions
About this calculator
What is fixed in a cleaning business?
Vehicles, insurance, any office or management, and employed cleaner hours where they are guaranteed. The last one surprises people.
Does employing or subcontracting change this?
Considerably. Employment gives control and quality and fixes the cost; subcontracting flexes with demand and gives less control over the standard.
How quickly can a cleaning business reach break-even?
Faster than most trades because start-up costs are low, which is also why the market is competitive.
The formula
break-even jobs = fixed costs / (average job value x gross margin%)
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How to use this calculator
- Monthly fixed costs ($). Rent, office wages, insurance, vehicle payments, software, advertising.
- Average job value ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $195.
- Gross margin per job (%). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 42%.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to jobs needed per month, and change it back. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
A worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with. Every number in the results column below is produced by the same calculation the page runs, so you can follow it through before putting your own figures in.
What goes in
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Monthly fixed costs | $11,000 |
| Average job value | $195 |
| Gross margin per job | 42% |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Jobs needed per month main result | 135 |
| Revenue needed per month | $26,325 |
| Gross profit per job | $81.90 |
| Jobs per working day | 6.1 |
You need 135 jobs a month, about 6.1 a working day, to cover $11,000 of fixed cost. That is $26,325 of revenue before the business earns anything.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only monthly fixed costs, this is what happens to jobs needed per month. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Monthly fixed costs ($) | Jobs needed per month |
|---|---|
| $5,500 | 68 |
| $8,250 | 101 |
| $11,000 example above | 135 |
| $16,500 | 202 |
| $22,000 | 269 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Monthly fixed costs ($)
- Rent, office wages, insurance, vehicle payments, software, advertising.
- Average job value ($)
- A money amount, starting at $195.
- Gross margin per job (%)
- A percentage, between 0 and 95, starting at 42%.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Jobs needed per month | The headline result. A number. |
| Revenue needed per month | A money figure. |
| Gross profit per job | A money figure. |
| Jobs per working day | A decimal figure. |
Time is the variable that bites
Pricing that works out on paper fails when the job takes longer than quoted. First cleans, heavily soiled sites and access problems all run over, so it is worth pricing the first visit separately from the recurring one.
Estimating is the easy part
The jobs you never hear about cost more than the ones you mis-measure. BDEVY builds the marketing, systems and automation that bring them in.