Economics, Commerce and Trade Management: An International Journal (ECTIJ)
Creation of a basic revenue model
1. Creation of a Basic Revenue
Model
WWW.WHATISFORECASTING.COM
2. Why a revenue model?
When building a model for a startup or other
company with limited history, it’s usually advisable
to start with a revenue model.
A revenue model is a piece of a larger financial model
which, as the name might suggest, presents how
revenue will be obtained.
3. Step 1 – Determine Appropriate Units
The example case is a company which sells razors
and razor blades
The unit is a single razor as opposed to a case of
razors.
Razor blades are assumed to be sold in a package of
blades must be purchased each month,
Razor blade sales will be driven by the number of
current and prior customers.
5. Step 2 – Understand How Sales Will Occur
Through the Year
In order to add a little complexity to our model:
We assume that 25% of our razor sales come in December
(holiday gifts)
The rest of the razor sales occur equally throughout the year.
Our razor blades will be sold to existing customers only, since
new customers will receive a one-month supply with the initial
razor purchase.
7. Step 3 – Understand Internal and External
Drives
We’ll assume that our annual sales are 10,000 units
of razors
1% of our customers will “churn” or, in other
words, that we will lose 1% of our razor blade
customers each month
This is a new business, so the company has no sales
in month 1.
8. Step 3 – Understand Internal and External
Drives
9. Step 3 – Understand Internal and External
Drivers
We’ll assume that our annual sales are 10,000 units
of razors
1% of our customers will “churn” or, in other
words, that we will lose 1% of our razor blade
customers each month
This is a new business, so the company has no
customers at the beginning of month 1.
The result is a customer roll forward
10. Step 3 – Understand Internal and External
Drivers
11. Step 4 – Calculate Monthly Revenue
Calculate revenue for our “razor” and “razor blade”
product lines.
The razor revenue is just the number of razor sales in
a given month times our $5 price.
The razor blade revenue is calculated as the
(beginning balance of customers less churn) times
the razor blade price per unit.