Unit Economics Workbench
Contribution margin per job, fully loaded CAC, customer lifetime value and payback, in one view.
Example scenario—not a forecast or verified benchmark. Enable JavaScript to edit inputs, view charts, save locally and export your analysis.
Example inputs
- What is one unit?
- job
- Average price per unit
- 1,800
- Direct cost per unit (materials, labor, subs)
- 900
- Other variable costs as % of price
- 8
- Units per customer per year
- 1.5
- Customers who buy again the next year
- 60
- Annual marketing spend
- 240,000
- Annual sales cost (salaries, commissions on new deals)
- 160,000
- New customers won per year
- 600
- Target LTV:CAC ratio
- 3
- Target CAC payback
- 12
Example results
LTV of $2,835 vs. CAC of $667 gives 4.3:1 with a 7.1-month payback; you have $278 of headroom to spend more on growth.
- LTV:CAC
- 4.25x
- CAC payback
- 7.1 mo
- Contribution margin per job
- $756
- Contribution margin %
- 42%
- Fully loaded CAC
- $667
- Customer lifetime value (contribution)
- $2,835
- Max affordable CAC at target
- $945
- Expected customer lifetime
- 30 mo
- Break-even price per job
- $1,172
What stands out
Contribution margin: $756 per job (42%)
Each customer contributes $1,134 a year toward overhead and profit.
LTV:CAC of 4.3:1 vs. 3:1 target
You could spend up to $945 per customer ($278 more than today) and still hit target.
CAC payback: 7.1 months
It takes 0.9 jobs of contribution to recover acquisition cost; target is 12 months.
Next actions
- Scale acquisition: you can raise spend per customer by up to $278 and still meet your 3:1 target.
- Build a repeat-purchase program (maintenance plan, membership, follow-up schedule); each 10 points of retention adds roughly $945 of LTV.
- Use your margin headroom to fund faster acquisition rather than discounting.
Model assumptions & limitations
- LTV = contribution margin per unit × units per year × expected lifetime, where lifetime = 1 ÷ (1 − annual retention), capped at 10 years. Not discounted.
- CAC is fully loaded: all marketing and new-business sales cost ÷ new customers won in the same year.
- Rule of thumb: LTV:CAC of about 3:1 and payback under 12 months are commonly cited targets; your inputs (3:1, 12 months) are used.