How much do I need to turn over to take home €2,000 a month?

The honest answer is: it depends on what it costs you to work, and the number varies enormously from one trade to another. But the sum can be done, and it's done in four steps. Here's the method — you supply the numbers.

The sum is done backwards

Almost everyone starts from turnover and hopes something is left at the end. Instead you start from what you need and work back up.

  1. The net you need. €2,000 a month in your pocket.
  2. Plus tax and contributions. What you need net isn't what you have to earn gross: a share goes before you ever see it.
  3. Plus fixed costs. Rent, vehicles, insurance, subscriptions: what you pay even in the months you sell nothing.
  4. Divided by the margin. If out of €100 of sales you keep 30 once the goods are paid for, every euro you need takes more than three euros of turnover.
It's the last step that surprises people

Two businesses taking home the same net can have wildly different turnovers. Someone selling consultancy keeps nearly everything they invoice; someone reselling goods keeps a slice of it.

That's why numbers you hear second-hand are worthless: your neighbour's turnover says nothing about yours. What you need is your margin, and only you know it — or it can be worked out in two minutes from your purchases and your sales.

The sum, on your own numbers

Enter what you spend to keep the doors open and what you buy and sell: out comes the turnover you need, the point below which you're losing money, and what's really left after tax and contributions.

Do the sum on your own numbers
Questions that always come up
How much do I need to turn over to earn €2,000 a month?

There's no single number for everyone: it depends on what it costs you to work. You start from the net you need, add tax and contributions, then fixed costs, and finally divide by the margin left on each euro sold. Someone on a 30% margin has to turn over more than three times what someone on 100% does.

Why isn't turnover what I earn?

Between turnover and what's left to you there are three layers: what you pay to buy or make what you sell, the costs you pay anyway even if you sell nothing (rent, vehicles, insurance), and finally tax and contributions. Anyone looking only at turnover doesn't know which of the three is losing them money.

Where do I start if I've never done this sum?

From two numbers you already know: what you spend each month to keep the doors open, even with the shutters down, and what's left to you on average out of a hundred euros of sales. Everything else follows from those two.