How do you determine the sales targets for your business?

1. Most small and medium businesses do not have sales targets or plans.

2.But, it is important for all businesses to set targets and make a concerted effort to achieve them

3. However if a business wants to earn profits over a long period, it should carry out sales which exceeda a minimum level.

4. Do you know that your business should also have a minimum daily quantity of sales?

5. You should know this specific minimum quantity of sales pertaining to your business and conduct sales over that limit if you want to earn profits from your business

6. The below steps will show you how to find this minimum quantity of sales in your business.

7. First you should understand that there is a specific amount of expenses incurred monthly irrespective of the size and type of business.

8. These specific expenses do not change based on daily sales or operational interventions.

9. These specific expenses are named as fixed costs.

10. Think about your business and find out how much your fixed costs are.

11. As an example if you conduct your business in a rented building, the monthly rent is a fixed cost.

12. Assume that you have one employee. The basic salary or wage of this employee should be added to the fixed costs of the business.

13. If you analyze carefully, there is a fixed cost even in your telephone bill.

14. Thereby, every business has a set of fixed expenses depending upon the size of the business.

15. It is important for an entrepreneur to correctly calculate the fixed expenses in his business.

16. Knowledge on the total monthly fixed costs is essential to determine the minimum sales quantity.

17. Example: Followings are the components of the monthly fixed cost of a business.

Rent for building                                    Rs 4500/- 

Salaries                                                Rs 8,000/-

Telephone fixed rental                            Rs    350/-

Thus, the monthly fixed cost                Rs 12,850/-

18. Let’s us assume that the product of the above business is “X”. If the sale price of X is Rs 100 and it’s purchase price is Rs 90, the gross profit per unit is Rs 10/-

19. Therefore, the business should sell 1,285 units of X over a month to cover the monthly fixed cost of Rs 12850/- .

20. When 1,285 units are sold, it covers only the monthly fixed costs from the gross profit. At this point, the business has not secured any profit but not incurred any loss.

Under this scenario:

Monthly sales revenue                           Rs 128,500/-

Cost of purchasing                                 Rs 115,650/-

Gross profit                                           Rs    12850/-

It is obvious in this scenario that the monthly fixed cost equals to monthly gross profit. This position is called the BREAK-EVEN POINT (BEP) of the business provided that it sells only one product titled X.

	Situation 01	Situation 02 (BEP)	Situation 03
Quantity of sales	1284	1285	1286
Sales revenue	128,400	128,500	128,600
Cost of purchasing	115,560	115,650	115,740
Gross profit	12,840	12,850	12,860
Fixed cost	12,850	12850	12,850
Net profit	-10                            This is a loss situation	0	10

21. Any sale below the Break Even Point (BEP level) or break-even quantity will result in a loss to the business.

22. Sales above the BEP level will result in profits.

23. Therefore, businesses should sell more than the relevant Break Even level to earn profits.

24. Hence, sales target should be prepared daily, weekly and monthly in order to make the business profitable.