"Business is personal — it's the most personal thing in the globe."

These are famous words by Michael Scott from the Tv set show, The Office. And although this quote conflicts with the universal conventionalities that business organization isn't personal, Michael's point of view is perfect when learning well-nigh a business's fixed costs — or those costs that don't change as a visitor grows or shrinks. → Download Now: Free Business Plan Template

To identify and summate your concern's fixed costs, allow'southward start by looking at the ones you lot're already paying in your personal life. Then, nosotros'll explain how a business concern manages its own fixed costs and review some common fixed cost examples.

Fixed costs are distinguished from variable costs, which do change every bit the company sells more than or less of its product.

To improve understand how fixed and variable costs differ, allow's use personal finances as an example. As a unmarried adult, your expenses would normally include a monthly rent or mortgage, utility bill, auto payment, healthcare, commuting costs, and groceries. If you have children, this tin increase variable costs like groceries, gas expenses, and healthcare.

While your variable costs increment after starting a family, your mortgage payment, utility bill, commuting costs, and machine payment don't alter for as long as you're in the same domicile and car. These expenses are your stock-still costs because you pay the aforementioned amount no affair what changes yous brand to your personal routine.

In keeping with this concept, let's say a startup ecommerce business pays for warehouse space to manage its inventory, and x customer service employees to manage club inquiries. Information technology suddenly signs a client for a recurring guild that requires another 5 paid customer service reps. While the startup's payroll expenses go up, the stock-still cost of a warehouse stays the same.

To go the total motion picture of what costs are associated with running your business, it'south important to empathise the total fixed price and boilerplate fixed cost.

Full Fixed Cost

The total fixed cost is the sum of all fixed costs that are necessary for running your business during a given period of fourth dimension (such as monthly or annually).

How to calculate total fixed cost

Average Fixed Cost

Keep in heed you lot accept to keep rails of your business'south fixed costs differently than you would your own. This is where the boilerplate stock-still cost comes into play.

Average fixed costs are the total fixed costs paid by a visitor, divided by the number of units of product the company is currently making. This tells you your stock-still toll per unit of measurement, giving you a sense of how much the concern is guaranteed to pay each time it produces a unit of your product — earlier factoring in the variable costs to really produce it.

Average Fixed Cost formulaLet's revisit the ecommerce startup example from earlier. Presume this business pays $five,000 per month for the warehouse infinite needed to manage its inventory and leases two forklifts for $800 a month each. And last month, they developed 50 units of product.

The warehouse and forklift costs remain unchanged regardless of how many products they sell, giving them a total fixed cost (TFC) of $5,000 + ($800 x 2), or $vi,600. By dividing its TFC by 50 — the number of units the business produced last month — the company can see its average stock-still cost per unit of product. This would exist $vi,600 ÷ 50, or $132 per unit of measurement.

How to Calculate Fixed Price


To calculate fixed toll, follow these steps:

  1. Identify your building rent, website cost, and similar monthly bills.
  2. Consider hereafter repeat expenses you'll incur from equipment depreciation.
  3. Isolate all of these fixed costs to the business.
  4. Add upwardly each of these costs for a total stock-still cost (TFC).
  5. Identify the number of product units created in one calendar month.
  6. Divide your TFC by the number of units created per calendar month for an average fixed toll (AFC).

Fixed Cost Examples

So far, we've identified a handful of fixed cost examples since considering the costs nosotros already pay as individuals. A home mortgage is to a lease on warehouse space, as a machine payment is to a lease on a forklift.

But in that location are a number of stock-still costs your business might incur that you rarely pay in your personal life. In fact, some variable costs to individuals are fixed costs to businesses. Here's a master list of fixed costs for any developing visitor to go along in mind:

Examples of fixed costs needed to run a business

  • Lease on function space: If you rent office space to serve every bit headquarters or employee workspace, these costs tend to exist relatively stable.
  • Utility bills: The cost of utility bills in company offices may fluctuate as seasons modify, simply it is more often than not not affected by business operations.
  • Website hosting costs: When yous annals your website domain, you lot pay a small monthly cost that remains static despite the business you perform on that website.
  • Ecommerce hosting platforms: Ecommerce platforms integrate with your website so you can conduct transactions with customers. They typically charge a low fixed toll per calendar month.
  • Lease on warehouse space: Warehouses are paid for the aforementioned way yous'd pay rent on your office space. The cost is relatively stable but you may run across storage and capacity limits that tin impact toll.
  • Manufacturing equipment: The equipment yous demand to produce your product is yours once you buy it, but information technology will depreciate over its useful lifetime. Depreciation tin get a fixed cost if you know when y'all'll take to replace your equipment each yr.
  • Lease on trucks for shipment: If your company sells concrete products, transportation may be a regular cost. Truck leases work the same way as a car payment, and will not accuse differently depending on how many shipments yous make.
  • Small business loans: If y'all're financing a new business concern with a bank loan, your loan payments won't modify with your business concern's performance. They are fixed for as long as you accept a residual to pay on that loan.
  • Holding revenue enhancement: Your role space's building director might charge you property revenue enhancement, a fixed toll for as long equally your business organisation is on the property.
  • Health insurance: Health insurance costs might exist a variable toll to an individual if they add or remove dependents from their policy, but to a business concern, the recurring costs to an insurer are fixed.

Computing your fixed costs isn't e'er the most fun part of growing your business organization. But knowing what they are, and when you'll pay each i, gives you the peace of heed yous need to serve and delight your customers.

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Originally published Dec 31, 2021 7:00:00 AM, updated December 31 2021