Definitive Business Plan, Second Edition, The

Breathe easily

Sales revenue is the air supply for your business. Without air, you suffocate. Put another way:

no sales = no revenue = no business.

The exception, of course, is if you are running a cost centre or non-profit organization that does not make sales in the conventional sense, such as the legal department of a large corporation or a charity providing relief work.

In the case of the charity, there will be some fund-raising or other revenue source which equates to sales revenue. For the legal cost centre, it is sensible to look for some proxy measure of activity (number of contracts reviewed or number of litigations in progress). Better still, cost these activities and charge the department being serviced. In these pages, sales and such ...