it will cost Ronnie very little in extra overhead to sell up to $10,000 of records per month, so if she can achieve this volume, she will get to keep close to half of it.     a. How to Calculate Your Profit     Perhaps youre lucky enough that your break-even sales forecast shows youll make more than you need to break even. If so, you can easily calculate your profit. Simply multiply your projected sales revenue that is over the break-even point (Section F1, above) by your average gross profit percentage (Section F3, above).     Example: Deborah needs $140,000 to break even in her bookkeeping business. Her projected sales revenue shows that she will be bringing in $185,000 the first year-or $45,000 more than she needs to break even. To determine the profit, she multiplies her average gross profit percentage (0.692) by $45,000. Her profit will be $31,140.     b. If Your Forecast Shows a Loss b. If Your Forecast Shows a Loss     What will you do if your break-even sales forecast shows that youll lose money? First of all, dont panic. Youll need to do some sober, serious and meticulous thinking. Carefully check all your numbers and double-check your arithmetic. Incidentally, many people doing this exercise for the first time make some simple mistake in arithmetic that throws off the whole forecast. You might have someone with good math skills review your work.     Lets look at Antoinettes situation and see how her figures have turned out.     Antoinette needs $504,188 in sales revenue just to break even. That is $104,188 more than she expects the first year and $4,188 more than she expects for the second year. Despite her enthusiasm and determination, Antoinettes first reaction to this news is to panic and consider giving up. After some reflection, she re-examines the calculations to make sure she hasnt made a mistake in her arithmetic. Then she starts considering her options. Should she abandon her idea and work for someone else? Should she proceed with her loan application and fudge figures to show a profit? Or is there some other alternative?     In any business, only these things can improve profits:     you can increase the sales revenue by selling more of your product or service     you can reduce fixed costs     you can increase the gross profit percentage by raising selling prices or by lowering your product cost.     Lets see how Antoinette applies that knowledge to her break-even analysis. First, Antoinette thinks about increasing sales. Maybe she was too conservative in her original sales forecast. What would happen if she increased her annual sales forecast by $150,000 (to $550,000) and kept the same fixed costs and gross profit margin? That is more than the break- even sales and should be enough to give her a profit for her efforts. How much profit? Lets see.