Operate
Monthly revenue and order count required to cover fixed costs plus debt service. Includes margin-of-safety verdict vs current topline. Free. No signup.
Break-even revenue
$168,571
Monthly topline required to cover fixed + debt
Operable but tight. One seasonal dip is uncomfortable but survivable.
Break-even = (fixed costs + debt service) ÷ contribution margin. Lenders want to see current revenue ≥ 1.3× break-even — that is the DSCR 1.25 floor with a small buffer for operator take-home.
Steady-state monthly model. Seasonal brands should break-even against the worst-month revenue, not the trailing-12 average. Pair with the DSCR Calculator so the deal clears both the single-ratio underwriting floor (1.25×) and the sensitivity floor (margin of safety).
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5-minute SBA pre-qualification through eCommerceLending. No credit pull.
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Because after an acquisition the business is paying a bank every month for the SBA loan — that payment is as fixed as payroll. A deal that break-evens on fixed costs alone but not after debt service is a deal that can't service its loan, which is exactly the DSCR floor a lender will reject.
Contribution margin is gross margin minus variable fees that change per order (FBA, referral, ad spend). Gross margin flatters break-even by ignoring the variable costs that matter most on Amazon and DTC. For SBA underwriting, always break-even on contribution margin.
≥35% is comfortable. 15–35% is operable but tight. Under 15% means any bad month pushes you cash-negative, which is how a healthy-looking business becomes a default. Below 0% you are already under break-even — don't sign unless the deal price accounts for a turnaround.
DSCR answers "can the business service the loan?" — a single ratio of NOI to annual debt service. Break-even answers "how much can revenue drop before the business loses money?" — a sensitivity view of the same underwriting question. Both should clear the lender's floor (DSCR ≥ 1.25, margin of safety ≥ ~25%) before funding.
No — it's a steady-state monthly model. For seasonal brands (Q4-heavy retail, summer outdoor), compute break-even against the worst-month revenue, not average. A brand that break-evens on the trailing-12 average but falls under break-even every July will exhaust cash reserves by summer without a working-capital line.