Work out your break-even
The figures below are an example: replace them with your own.
- Tickets to break even
- 40 tickets
- Tickets for your profit
- 50 tickets
- Buyer pays a ticket
- $41.97
- You receive a ticket
- $40
Sell 40 tickets to break even. Each ticket puts $30 toward the $1,200 in fixed costs: the $40 price less the $10 each guest costs you. To make $300 profit, sell 50 tickets. Buyers pay $41.97 a ticket with One Ticket’s booking fee, and you receive the whole $40.
Your profit needs 83% of your 60 places. Sold out, you’d make a profit of $600.
At other prices
| Ticket price | Buyer pays | To break even | For your profit |
|---|---|---|---|
| $30 | $31.80 | 60 tickets | 75 tickets |
| $35 | $36.88 | 48 tickets | 60 tickets |
| $40 | $41.97 | 40 tickets | 50 tickets |
| $45 | $47.05 | 35 tickets | 43 tickets |
| $50 | $52.14 | 30 tickets | 38 tickets |
How it works
- What each ticket covers. On One Ticket you receive the whole ticket price, because the buyer pays the booking fee on top. Take off what each guest costs you, like food or materials, and the rest goes toward your fixed costs.
- Tickets to break even. Your fixed costs divided by what each ticket covers, rounded up to a whole ticket.
- Tickets for your profit. Your fixed costs and the profit you want, divided the same way.
- Against the room. With the places you have, it shows how full the event needs to be, and what you’d make if it sells out.
If each guest costs you as much as they pay, no number of tickets covers your fixed costs: raise the price or cut the cost for each guest.
Worked examples
Example budgets from the ticket price calculator, at the price it suggests for each, with nobody counting on a profit.
| Event | Fixed costs | Cost for each guest | Ticket price | Tickets to break even |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| School trivia night | $350 | $8 | $27 | 19 tickets of 100 |
| Supper club | $450 | $35 | $70 | 13 tickets of 20 |
| Workshop | $350 | $15 | $55 | 9 tickets of 12 |
| Silent disco | $850 | $6 | $19 | 66 tickets of 100 |
| Fun run | $1,650 | $7.50 | $19 | 144 tickets of 200 |
Example figures, not quotes or averages: use your own costs.
The booking fee isn’t one of your costs
On One Ticket the buyer pays the booking fee on top of your price, so it never comes out of what a ticket covers. On a $40 ticket the buyer pays $41.97, and all $40 goes toward your costs. Free tickets carry no fee, and the fee is the same on every plan.
Know your costs and your numbers, but not your price? The ticket price calculator works out a price from them. Fees by price: One Ticket pricing.
Common questions
- How do I work out how many tickets I need to sell?
- Add up your fixed costs, the ones you pay whatever the turnout. Take what each guest costs you off the ticket price, divide the fixed costs by what’s left and round up: that’s your break-even. Add the profit you want to the costs to find your target.
- Does the booking fee change my break-even?
- Not on One Ticket: the buyer pays it on top and you receive the whole price. On a $40 ticket the buyer pays $41.97, and all $40 goes toward your costs.
- What if I can’t sell enough tickets to break even?
- Raise the price a little, cut a fixed cost, find a cheaper or smaller venue, or cover part of the costs another way, like a sponsor. Check the number against the room before you book anything you can’t cancel.
- What price should I charge?
- Start from your costs and the number of people you expect: the ticket price calculator works out a break-even price and a sensible price to charge, with the booking fee added for buyers.