How to use the break-even calculator
- List your fixed costs. Everything you pay each month regardless of how many jobs you do — insurance, vehicles, software, marketing, office, and the pay you need as the owner.
- Describe an average job. The average price and what it costs to do: labor, supplies, travel and card fees.
- Add your plan. Jobs per month you do now (or expect to), working days and what you invested to start.
- Read the break-even point. The number of jobs per month, week and day you need just to cover costs, plus your profit at your volume and how many months until the startup money comes back.
How the break-even point is calculated
Variable cost per job = labor + supplies + travel + payment feesContribution per job = price − variable costBreak-even jobs per month = fixed costs ÷ contribution per jobProfit = contribution × jobs per month − fixed costsPayback (months) = startup investment ÷ monthly profit
Contribution is the part of each job's price left after the costs of doing that job. It's what pays the fixed bills. Once enough jobs have covered all fixed costs, every extra job's contribution is profit.
Jobs per week use 4.33 weeks per month. Break-even is rounded up to whole jobs — you can't do 81.1 cleanings. The margin of safety shows how far your volume could drop before you start losing money.
Include your own pay. If the owner's pay is left out, "break-even" means working for free. Put in what you need to live on, so break-even means the business supports you.
Typical numbers for a small cleaning business
Typical ranges for a small residential cleaning company in the US or Canada. Every market is different — use these to spot numbers that look off, not as targets.
| Item | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Fixed costs, owner plus 1–2 crews (excluding owner pay) | often $1,500–$5,000 a month |
| Contribution margin per job | often 35–50% of the price |
| Insurance (general liability, bonding) | often $100–$400 a month |
| Startup investment, residential cleaning | often $2,000–$15,000; more with a new vehicle |
| Healthy margin of safety | 20% or more above break-even |
Worked example
A small company has $5,100 of fixed costs a month: $250 insurance, $600 vehicles, $150 software and phone, $800 marketing, $3,000 owner's pay and $300 other. Its average job is $170, with $80 labor, $10 supplies, $12 travel and 3% card fees.
- Variable cost per job: $80 + $10 + $12 + $5.10 = $107.10.
- Contribution per job: $170 − $107.10 = $62.90 (37% of the price).
- Break-even: $5,100 ÷ $62.90 = 81.1 → 82 jobs a month, about 19 a week or 3.7 per working day.
- Break-even revenue: about $13,800 a month.
- At 100 jobs a month, profit is $62.90 × 100 − $5,100 = $1,190 a month on top of the owner's pay.
- An $8,000 startup investment pays back in about 6.7 months.
Raise the average price by just $10 and contribution becomes $72.60 per job — break-even drops to 71 jobs, and profit at 100 jobs more than doubles to about $2,160 a month.
5 break-even mistakes to avoid
- Leaving out the owner's payA business that only breaks even without paying you is a job with extra risk. Include the pay you need.
- Treating labor as fixedIf cleaners are paid per hour or per job, labor is a variable cost per job, not a fixed cost — otherwise break-even comes out wrong.
- Using your best price as the averageDiscounts, recurring rates and small jobs pull the real average down. Use the average of last month's invoices.
- Forgetting card fees and travel3% fees and $10–$15 of fuel per job look small, but they come straight out of every job's contribution.
- Planning at 100% of capacityCancellations, sick days and slow seasons happen. Aim for a volume comfortably above break-even, not exactly at it.