The break-even point is the revenue or unit volume where your total income equals total costs, no profit, no loss. Calculate it by dividing your total fixed costs by your gross profit margin (for revenue break-even) or by your contribution margin per unit (for unit break-even). Every small business owner should know this number before making any pricing, hiring, or expansion decision.
Break-Even Calculator for Catering
Pre-filled with real catering industry benchmarks
Catering is a feast-or-famine business, and your break-even calculation must account for that volatility. Unlike a restaurant with daily foot traffic, catering revenue arrives in large, irregular chunks tied to events. A single wedding can bring in $5,000–$20,000 in a weekend, but you might have two empty weeks in February. Your fixed costs, including a commercial kitchen lease, vehicle payments, equipment, and insurance, do not pause between events. Most catering businesses need 3–5 events per month to break even at average ticket sizes of $3,000–$8,000. The critical variable is food cost: catering typically runs 30–38% food cost (higher than restaurants because of transport waste, backup quantities, and presentation requirements). Labor scales with events but has a minimum floor for your core team. This calculator is pre-filled with catering benchmarks, including $3,000/month kitchen lease, 35% food cost, and 30% labor, so you can model how many events at your average price point you need monthly to stay profitable.
Break-Even Calculator
Pre-filled with catering industry defaults. Edit any field to use your real numbers.
Break-Even Units
60
Break-Even Revenue
$30,000
Contribution Margin
65.0%
Catering industry average margin: 65.0% gross margin with 35.0% COGS.