3 builders who never spoke to each other

Turn the revenue target into a customer count

Divide the income you want by candidate price points and the answer is a number of buyers per month, which is a claim you can sanity check against the channels you actually have. Doing it before you build kills the ideas that need thousands of sales you have no way to reach. The same arithmetic exposes when a low price commits you to a volume business you are not equipped to run.

The method

1. 01

   Decide your business on two numbers together - the profit in one unit and how many units you can move monthly - before choosing what to sell.

2. 02

   At a low price point you are committing to a volume business, so confirm you have channels that can deliver hundreds of sales a month.

3. 03

   Do not rely on the thousand-true-fans idea unless your unit economics support it; work out what each fan would have to buy every month.

4. 04

   Translate a revenue goal into customer counts at different price points before you pick a market.

5. 05

   Work your price backwards from your revenue target and the number of buyers you can realistically reach, and check the two are compatible before you commit to the niche.

What it returned

• $10,000

  $10,000 a month from a $25 product at 80% margins requires 400 sales every month.

• $2,500

  To reach $2,500 a month from 1,000 fans each would need to buy three or four tracks monthly on iTunes, or stream your music 755 times a month on Spotify.

• $5,000

  $5,000 a month as 50 customers at $100, or 10 customers at $500, or somewhere between

• $10k

  A $10k monthly target works out as 100 customers at $100 a month, but at a $10 price point the same target requires reaching 1,000 buyers.

Sources

• How many units can you sell?Justin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Number of units sold x profit margin · undated
• Starting The Web App Challenge: From Zero to $5,000/month In 6 MonthsNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · The Web App Challenge · 2012-12-31
• The Place Card PitchCory Zue · coryzue.com · It’s a huge market · 2017-04-26
• 42 Questions to Ask Before Starting a BusinessPreetam Nath · preetamnath.com · Is there a large enough market to help my business reach its revenue goals? · 2021-01-10
• How to find a $1M SaaS ideaTibo Louis-Lucas · tmaker.io · How to find a $1M SaaS idea · 2026-06-18