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Pricing fundamentals

Sales Goal Calculator

Convert the income you want into units a week and hours at the bench — and find out immediately whether it fits.

Your numbers

Use your own costs — the defaults are only a starting point.

Your goal
A typical product
Your capacity

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Units to sell a year: 1,800
9 input fields available.

How this calculator works

An income target is not a plan until it becomes a number of units. Working backwards from the money to the volume, and then to the hours that volume takes, is where most ambitious targets meet arithmetic.

Enter what you want to earn, your fixed costs, and a typical product. This gives you the weekly and daily figures, and tells you whether they fit in the hours you have.

The formula

  1. Contribution per unit = price − unit cost − (price × fee %)
  2. Money required = target profit + annual fixed costs
  3. Units a year = ⌈ money required ÷ contribution per unit ⌉
  4. Units a week = units a year ÷ weeks worked
  5. Production hours needed = units a year × minutes per unit ÷ 60

What to watch for

  • The capacity check is the useful part. A goal that needs more production hours than you have is not a goal, and finding that out now is cheaper than finding it out in November.
  • Production hours are bench hours. Admin, sourcing, photography and customer service are real work but they do not produce units, so counting them here overstates what you can make.
  • If the numbers do not fit, there are only four levers: raise the price, cut the unit cost, cut the build time, or lower the target. Selling harder is not on the list — you cannot make what you do not have hours for.
  • Raising the price moves this far faster than working more hours. A 10% price rise on a 60% contribution margin cuts the units needed by about 14%.

Common mistakes

  • Working from revenue instead of profit, which understates the volume needed by the whole cost base.
  • Forgetting fixed costs, which have to be earned before any profit exists.
  • Counting all working hours as production hours.
  • Assuming 52 weeks and no holidays.

Frequently asked questions

How many products do I need to sell to earn a target income?

Add your target profit to your annual fixed costs, then divide by the contribution each sale makes after unit cost and fees. For a $30,000 target with $7,800 of fixed costs and $21 contribution per sale, that is about 1,800 units a year — roughly 38 a week.

Why does my sales goal need so many units?

Almost always because the contribution per unit is small relative to the target. Fixed costs have to be covered first, and only what is left over counts toward profit. If the number looks impossible, raising the price usually moves it further than any amount of extra effort.

What if I do not have enough hours?

Then the goal is not achievable as configured, and the calculator says so rather than letting you plan around a number you cannot reach. Raise the price, reduce the build time, simplify the product, or lower the target. Batching similar work is often the quickest real gain.

Should I use profit or revenue as my target?

Profit. A revenue target tells you nothing about whether the business works — it is entirely possible to hit a six-figure revenue goal and lose money. Set the profit you want, and let the calculator work out what revenue that requires.