Months to Breakeven

[DCC_2006]

Hello,

Just found this forum and hope to contribute as well as get help from more everyone.

I'm curious about what other shop owners have found to be the number of months before you broke even? I know everyone's situation is a little different... just trying to get a general idea.

Thanks in advance!,

Allan

 

[kimbica]

break even

I think it really varies a lot from the people I have talked to. In the "optimum" location I think you can approach break even in 6-12 months, for many in smaller towns this can be closer to 1.5-2 years. I have decided to shoot for break even at the one year mark; this seems to be reasonable on the busy street I am trying to get into a lease on. Remember, you need cash reserves to carry the fixed costs while you are building up your customer base. I live in a city of 1 million or so, inicluding the suburbs which are really part of the county. The location I am trying to get a lease on is on a major street with 50K + traffic count in 24 hr. period. Good luck!!

 

[ontrees]

One month

The first shop I opened broke even in the first month.

Of course I was working 100 hour weeks!

The second shop I helped open (I didn't own this one) took a few months to break even.

Good luck!

Ontrees

 

[DCC_2006]

Great!. Thanks for the feedback.

Allan

 

[freetodream]

I am all about breaking even in one month - and am willing to work whatever to do it!

 

[H Man]

This might come off as sounding like a really, really stupid question BUT, are you guys defining break-even as the point at which your sales volume covers your expenses OR the point at which you recoup your start up costs and initial investment?

Thanks

 

[equus007]

breaking even

Breaking even means that you are running in the black. It doesn't usually mean you have recouped your start up costs. My shops both broke even in about 8 months but they were campus shops so I had to weather 3 months of virtually no traffic. Had almost 0 start up though and it paid my bills. I was however working about 90 hrs/week so if you compare it to what i would have earned if I were on someone elses dime I suppose it would be around 10-12 months.