Musings on Material Multipliers -- Dickeson

Here the critical assumption is that printing is a process that converts paper and ink to products! How much should you be charging to convert $500 of paper and ink into 1,500 units of product? $1,500? Isn't that what we should be thinking about and the way we should be thinking?

Now here's another Dristan to clear your mental sinuses. We can't forecast sales or job mix worth a hoot, but we really can predict operating expenses reliably. So, let's find the total of our operating expenses for the past 12 months. That includes labor, sales and administrative costs, interest, depreciation—everything but materials. Divide that 12-month total by 52. That was our weekly breakeven point for the preceding year.