Business Viability Dashboard

What this is. A cash model for deciding whether starting or buying a small business actually works — for you, not just for the business. You enter what you have, what it costs to get set up, what you need to live on, what the business costs to run, and a few revenue scenarios. It tells you whether the money lasts, and for how long.

How to use it. Work down the page in order; every figure is yours to change and nothing is required. The tab bar at the top holds independent scenarios — the Example — service business tab is filled in so you can see a complete model, and My plan is empty for your own. Duplicate a tab (⧉) to try a what-if without disturbing the original. Everything is saved in this browser only; use Export JSON to back it up or move it.

Rate — what the person is paid, in whatever unit the Pay basis says. Pick Yearly salary and it's their gross salary per year; Monthly salary is per month; Hourly is per hour (then set hours / week). Each box says its own unit underneath. This is gross pay — what lands on their payslip before their own tax is withheld, not what they cost you.

Paying by the project — three ways. They differ only in where the project count comes from, and that is what decides whether the pay moves when work picks up:

Per project (set count) — a set amount per project, and you type how many. Count them per month or per year, whichever way you think about it; the box under the count switches between the two and the monthly cost is identical either way (40 a year is 3.3 a month). Because the count is yours, this line does not move when your revenue does — right for someone who only takes the overflow, a fixed retainer of work, or a set number of installs.

Per project (from income) — the same amount per project, but the count is read straight from the Projects row of your income projections, for the months this phase covers. Nothing to type and nothing to keep in sync: raise the project count there, or switch to a bigger scenario, and this pay follows. Right for someone who is paid on every project you do. It shows $0 until that sheet has a project count — type a Projects or an Avg / project figure and it appears.

% of each project — a cut of what the project bills: commission, a partner's share, a finder's fee. Enter just the percentage; no count is needed at all, because taking 10% of every project is the same number as 10% of everything you bill that month, which the income projection already gives. It moves with revenue like the one above. If the person only takes a cut of some of the work, use their share of total billing rather than their headline rate — 20% of the half of the projects they touch is 10% overall.

Burden % — the extra you pay on top of their gross pay, as a percentage of it: the employer's share of payroll taxes and social contributions, unemployment or redundancy funds, and any compulsory employer insurance. It varies a lot by country and by trade — in the US it is commonly 10–15% for an employee (the employer half of Social Security and Medicare alone is 7.65%), while elsewhere employer contributions can be considerably higher. Put in your own country's number and confirm it with an accountant. A self-employed contractor who invoices you is normally 0% — they pay all of it themselves, which is why their headline rate is higher.

So Cost to you = gross pay × (1 + burden%), and that is the figure the business actually spends.

One warning about income-linked pay and break-even. Pay that follows your revenue never gets you closer to covering your fixed costs — every extra dollar billed hands part of itself straight back. That is true of % of each project, and just as true of Per project (from income), because the income sheet keeps the average project value fixed and adds projects when gross rises, so more billing means more of them to pay for. The Break-even gross revenue row on the Conclusions tab accounts for both, treating them like a material cost — a slice off the top, not a fixed monthly bill. If those slices and materials together ever reach 100% of a project, break-even shows —, because no amount of revenue would get you there.