How to Break Even, Even in the Worst Month for Your Printing Company -Carl Gerhardt

By Carl Gerhardt

What is your break-even sales number? Have you calculated it recently?

Why should you know this number? That may be self-evident, but I have always been surprised by how many business owners either do not readily know it or have an incorrect number in mind.

I have always felt it critical to keep constant track of my company’s sales break-even number. The strategy is to build your cost structure so that you can at least “break even” in the projected lowest sales month of the year. Then, when your sales are above that number, a lot of good things happen if you keep the company’s fixed-cost structure at that target level.

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Carl Gerhardt Author's page Carl Gerhardt is the chairman of Alliance Franchise Brands LLC, the parent company of Allegra Network LLC and Sign & Graphics Operations LCC, and a world leader in marketing, visual and graphics communications, linking more than 600 locations in the United States, Canada and United Kingdom. The company’s Marketing & Print Division, headquartered in Plymouth, MI, is comprised of Allegra, American Speedy Printing, Insty-Prints, Speedy Printing and Zippy Print brands of marketing, printing, mailing and Web services providers. Its Sign & Graphics Division, headquartered in Columbia, MD, is comprised of Image360, Signs By Tomorrow and Signs Now brands of sign and graphics communications providers.

Carl and his wife, Judy, owned and operated their own successful Allegra franchise for nearly 20 years before selling the $2.3 million operation in 2003. He is a PrintImage International/NAQP Honorary Lifetime Member and was inducted into NAPL’s prestigious Soderstrom Society in 2010 in recognition of his contribution to the industry.

How to Break Even, Even in Your Worst Month