Commercial trading pressure
Break-even customers calculator
Estimate how many customers per day a commercial site needs to cover rent and known monthly costs before you commit to a lease.
Quick break-even screen
Example only. Use the full check for the wider survival model.
Monthly rent
£5,000
Other monthly costs
£12,600
Average spend
£12.50
Opening days
26
Monthly cost base
£17,600
Customers per day
55
This site needs roughly 55 customers per trading day just to cover known monthly costs. The full check should test rent burden, cash after opening, downside revenue, and six-month survival before signing.
Formula
What break-even customers per day means
Break-even customers per day translates the monthly cost base into a practical daily trading target. It asks how many customers are needed each opening day before the site has covered known monthly costs.
Break-even customers per day = monthly cost base ÷ average spend ÷ opening days per month
If the monthly cost base is £17,600, average spend is £12.50, and the site opens 26 days per month, the break-even target is about 55 customers per day. That is the customer volume needed before the known monthly cost base is covered.
Cost base
What should go into the monthly cost base
The calculation is only useful if the cost base is complete enough. Missing regular costs can make a fragile site look workable.
Rent
Use the monthly rent figure, not just the annual headline rent.
Staff
Include realistic rota cover, employer costs, and any founder drawings if they must come from the site.
Utilities
Add electricity, gas, water, broadband, waste, and other regular operating costs.
Business rates
Use the expected monthly rates cost after any relief you are confident applies.
Service charge or other regular costs
Include service charge, insurance, maintenance, licence costs, subscriptions, and other recurring items where applicable.
Before signing
Why the daily customer target matters
A lease can feel attractive until the required customer volume is expressed per day. The number helps you compare the site against likely footfall, opening hours, staffing cover, and local demand.
Average spend can be optimistic
A small overestimate in average spend can make the daily customer target look easier than it really is.
Opening days change the target
Fewer trading days push more pressure onto each day. Holidays, quiet days, and restricted hours matter.
Break-even is not profit
Covering known monthly costs does not automatically create enough margin for tax, stock variation, owner income, repairs, or weak months.
Cash risk sits outside the formula
Fit-out, deposits, legal fees, opening stock, and setup costs need separate modelling before the site is treated as viable.
Rent pressure
Rent burden and break-even customers should be checked together.
Rent burden shows how much revenue is absorbed by rent. Break-even customers show the daily trading target needed to cover rent and known costs. One gives the percentage pressure, the other gives the operational target.
Rent burden asks
Is rent taking too much of expected revenue?
Break-even asks
Can the site realistically attract enough customers each day?
Limits
Break-even does not include upfront cash unless you model it separately.
The daily customer target helps test monthly trading pressure, but it does not show whether the site has enough cash to open, fit out, absorb deposits, or survive a weak start.
Full check
How the YieldLens commercial check goes further
The full commercial lease check connects the customer target to rent pressure, opening cash, downside trading, and six-month survival.
Next step
Test whether the lease can survive the real numbers.
Use the full commercial check to connect break-even customers, rent burden, upfront cash, downside revenue, and six-month survival in one decision-support view.
Important disclaimer
YieldLens UK provides indicative decision-support only. It is not financial advice, legal advice, tax advice, a valuation, or a substitute for professional due diligence.