Maker Profitability Tools

Craft Fair Profit & Break-Even Calculator

Estimate your craft fair profit after product costs, payment fees, event expenses, and every hour invested—then see how many sales you need to break even.

One event · USD · Sales forecast

One-event forecast

Enter your event plan

Calculations update live after all required fields are valid. Optional blank amounts and hours count as zero.

Sales forecast

Forecast transactions and the average sale before sales tax. Required fields are labeled.

Expected customer transactions (required)

Enter a whole-number forecast from 1 through 100,000.

Average order value ($, required)

Exclude sales tax collected from customers.

Average product cost per transaction ($, optional)

Include the materials, production, packaging, and labor costs you want assigned to products in one transaction.

Percentage of transactions paid by card (%, required)

Enter the percentage you expect customers to pay by card. Cash and other fee-free payments make up the remainder.

Card-processing percentage (%, required)

Payment-processing defaults are illustrative. Replace them with the rates charged by your actual provider and plan.

Fixed processing charge per card transaction ($, required)

The fixed fee charged for each card transaction, up to $10.00.

Event expenses

Optional blanks count as zero. Allocate only the costs you want assigned to this one event.

Booth or vendor fee ($, optional)

The fee charged to participate in the event.

Travel expense ($, optional)

Mileage, fuel, transit, parking, and similar travel costs.

Lodging ($, optional)

Hotel or other overnight accommodation for the event.

Food and miscellaneous expenses ($, optional)

Meals and other event expenses not entered elsewhere.

Helper or staff cost ($, optional)

Enter the total staff cost allocated to this event, not an hourly rate.

Display or equipment cost allocated to this event ($, optional)

Only the portion of a display or equipment cost you want assigned to this event.

Other event costs ($, optional)

Any other fixed expense allocated to this event.

Time invested

Include all time spent preparing, traveling, setting up, selling, packing down, and returning home—not only the hours the event is open.

Product preparation and packing hours (optional)

Hours spent preparing products, inventory, and packing.

Travel hours (optional)

Include travel to and from the event.

Setup and teardown hours (optional)

Time spent setting up, packing down, and loading.

Selling hours (optional)

Hours spent actively staffing the event.

Optional goals

Leave a goal blank to omit it. An explicit zero is a supplied goal and remains visible in results.

Target event profit ($, optional)

The event profit you want the sales forecast to reach.

Desired earnings per hour ($, optional)

The profit per total hour you want this event to produce.

Craft fair profitability

Evaluate one event beyond the booth fee

A craft fair can produce strong sales and still miss your financial goal once product cost, card fees, travel, staffing, equipment allocation, and time are considered. This calculator brings those assumptions into one event forecast.

It estimates event profit, break-even transactions, profit margin, and true hourly earnings. It does not predict attendance or guarantee that the sales forecast will occur.

How to use it

Turn your assumptions into a decision

Forecast customer transactions and average order value, then enter average product cost and the expected card-payment mix.
Include the fixed costs assigned to this event: booth, travel, lodging, food, staff, display or equipment, and other expenses.
Enter preparation, travel, setup, teardown, and selling time before comparing profit, break-even sales, and hourly earnings.

Behind the result

Contribution from each forecast sale covers fixed event costs

Projected sales are reduced by average product cost and the card-processing assumptions. The remaining contribution per transaction is used to solve how many whole transactions are needed to cover fixed event expenses.

Projected event profit subtracts product costs, processing fees, and fixed event expenses from gross sales. True hourly earnings divide that profit by all entered event hours, not only the hours spent at the booth.

Common questions

Questions this estimate can clarify

Which costs belong in the event estimate?: Use the implemented categories for booth, travel, lodging, food and miscellaneous, helper or staff, allocated display or equipment, and other event costs, plus average product cost.
Can the calculator tell me whether an event is worthwhile?: It can show the financial outcome of your forecast and optional goals. Whether that outcome is worthwhile depends on your priorities and confidence in the assumptions.
What if each sale loses contribution?: When average order value cannot cover product and processing costs, selling more cannot reach break-even under the same assumptions. The tool reports that state instead of displaying infinity.

Keep planning

Use another focused calculator when the business question changes.

Scope

A one-event planning estimate

Use one expected transaction count, one average order value, and the costs and hours you choose to allocate to this event. Forecasts are not attendance or sales guarantees.

Not included in this version

Sales, income, and self-employment taxes
Attendance forecasts or guarantees that projected sales will occur
Multiple events, days, product categories, or product-level margins
Unsold inventory, spoilage, damage, refunds, and chargebacks
Saved events, shared links, accounts, and historical comparisons