Now for the juggling of figures: The hall cost is fixed, regardless of how many tickets you sell; this means that if you sell fewer tickets, your costs will be more per head. For example:
| $200 total hall costs can be paid by: | ||
| 200 people each paying $1 | (food etc. not included) | |
| 100 people each paying $2 | ||
| 50 people each paying $4 | ||
| etc. | ||
You need to figure out how many tickets you need to sell at the price you have chosen as reasonable, in order to reach your break-even point, the place where income is sufficient to match expenses. If necessary, you will need to adjust your menu, substituting cheaper dishes for more expensive ones, until your costs per head are sufficiently low that you can charge a reasonable price for a reasonable number of people and still break even. If you cannot get the menu costs low enough, you will have to find a cheaper hall, or do a potluck instead. There is no reason to run an event at a loss!
In setting up your basic cost analysis formula, it is essential to remember that if you sell 100 tickets and in addition have 20 free passes (for cooks, entertainers, etc.) the money from the 100 who buy tickets must pay for the 100 plus 20 people who eat - that is, 120 people eat the food and enjoy the hall that 100 people pay for.
Let's take the example of 200 people, 180 paying plus 20 free, and a pie that costs $3.00 and serves 10. 3.00/10 - 30¢ cost per pie portion. However, 180 people pay for the pie portions for 200 people. 200 people eating, at 10 people per pie, mean 20 pies are needed, at $3.00 each, -$60.00 total costs for the pies.
Each of the 180 paid tickets must contribute to the total pie cost: $3.00 x 20 pies for 200 eaters/180 paying OR you can say 30¢ X 200 pieces/180 paying = 60.00/180 = 33¢ per paying ticket.
Thus each paying person pays 30¢ for his own piece, plus 3¢ towards the pieces eaten by those with free passes. Thus 33¢ of each ticket price received, NOT 30¢ must be allocated to paying for the pie.
Remember, those who buy tickets have to pay for themselves plus for those who get free passes.
The basic cost-analysis formula, therefore, is:
THEREFORE
That is, cost per paid ticket = total cost of event divided by the number of paid tickets. If your ticket price is going to be $5.00 and your cost per paid ticket for the number of tickets you think you can sell turns out to be $5.30, you are going to lose money on that event.
A simplified example:
If a hall costs $95 and printing costs are $5, if food and kitchen costs are $3.00 per head; if 100 tickets are to be sold and 15 free passes given out:
| Total cost | = | (95 + 5) + [3.00 x (100 + 15)] |
| = | 100 + (3.00 x 115) | |
| = | 100 + 345 | |
| = | $445 |
At this event you could safely charge $5.00 per head IF you sell all 100 tickets.
Some sample figures for the 1980 An Tir Twelfth Night are given on the next page (Fig. 6):
Notebook: EFFECT OF NO. OF TICKETS ON COSTS - Adiantum 1980 Twelfth Night
| Food plus kitchen (including cooks' petty cash) Autocrat's miscellaneous expenses (ticket printing, etc.) and petty cash | $3.14 per head .25 per head ____________ $3.39 per head |
| Hall cost Misc. 25¢ X 100 tickets Food $3.14 x 120 who eat it Total cost of event = | $225.00 25.00 376.80 _______ $626.80 | 626.80 --------- 100 paid tickets | = | $6.27 ticket cost per paying person |
| Hall cost Misc. 25¢ X 115 tickets Food $3.14 x 135 who eat it Total cost of event = | 225.00 28.75 423.90 _______ $677.65 | 677.65 --------- 115 paid tickets | = | $5. 89 ticket cost per paying person |
| Hall cost Misc. 25¢ X 155 tickets Food $3.14 X 175 who eat it Total cost of event = | 225.00 38.75 549.50 _______ $813.25 | 813.25 --------- 155 paid tickets | = | $5.25 ticket cost per paying person |
| Hall cost Misc. 25¢ X 155 tickets Food $3.14 X 185 who eat it Total cost of event = | 225.00 38.75 580.90 _______ $844.65 | 844.65 --------- 155 paid tickets | = | $5.45 ticket cost per paying person |
| Hall cost Misc. 25¢ X 200 tickets Food $3.14 x 220 who eat it Total cost of event = | 225.00 50.00 690.80 _______ $965.80 | 965.80 --------- 200 paid tickets | = | $4.83 ticket cost per paying person |
| Hall cost Misc. 25¢ X 200 tickets Food $3.14 x 225 who eat it Total cost of event = | 225.00 50.00 706.50 _______ $981.50 | 981.50 --------- 200 paid tickets | = | $4.91 ticket cost per paying person |
| Hall cost Misc. 25¢ X 200 tickets Food $3.14 x 230 who eat it Total cost of event = | 225.00 50.00 722.20 _______ $997.20 | 997.20 --------- 200 paid tickets | = | $4.99 ticket cost per paying person |
As can be seen in Fig. 6, at the $6.00 we are charging for this event, if there are 20 free tickets given out, our break-even point would be just below 115 people, with almost no safety margin (Example B). If we allow 75¢ per paid ticket as a good minimum safety margin (this will get reduced a little later with the fine adjustments), we will be safe charging $6.00 for this event ($5.25 for costs plus 75¢ for the safety margin) if we sell 155 tickets (Example C). However, if we give away more than 20 free tickets the costs per paid ticket rise considerably (as can be seen by example D).
Our hall's maximum capacity is about 200 to 220. Example E shows that with only 20 free tickets we would have to sell for $5.65 at least (allowing a 75¢ safety margin), IF we sold all our tickets. As we may have a few more than 20 free passes, and also may not sell out, we figure we will be safe if we sell our tickets at $6.00. As this is only $1.00 higher than the Madrone Twelfth Night of two years ago (at which the 150 available feast tickets WERE sold out), and since in addition we have put on fairly good feasts over the past 5 or 6 years (selling over 200 $5.00 tickets at the An Tir Twelfth Night we put on 3 years ago), we are fairly sure that we will sell all of our tickets. Please note that this is a realistic prediction and not merely a hopeful one! (Editor's note: we sold out on January 2, 10 days before the event.)
The figures tell us that we will not have to juggle costs to enable us to charge lower ticket prices, for this particular event. (Sometimes a lot of adjusting may be necessary.)
If neither of these works, abandon the idea of a catered, paid-ticket feast, and put on a potluck or a partial potluck dinner instead.
At this point it becomes obvious why it is CRITICAL to have an accurate estimate of the number of tickets you can be expected to sell at your event, given the type of event, your location and reputation, and the ticket price you have in mind (see sections 3 and 4 above). If you overestimate the number of sales you think you will have, you may not reach your projected break even point and will lose money even if you HAVE done all the other cost analysis suggested above.
At this point, having decided finally on how many tickets you intend to sell and how many free passes you will be giving out, you need to do some fine adjustments to the costs of each recipe, as follows:
In addition, with these dishes where one whole item is served per table, you we ill want to make a couple of spare pies, or loaves, etc. (One might get dropped at the last minute, or burnt, or at the last minute an extra table has to be set up.).
All of these factors affect the final cost per paid ticket of that dish a little. The original menu cost table, made when you were not sure how many people you would be feeding, was worked out as cost per head based on cost of each single recipe (Fig. 5); this cost per head, added up for the entire menu, was then multiplied by various numbers being fed to get a figure for calculating ticket costs. Being based on cost per head, it made no allowance for extra pies or an extra 5/16 recipe, or for any extra people allowed for; a factor which varies with each recipe. Thus, to make sure that your cost per paid ticket is not changing significantly without your knowledge, at this point you adjust the costs item by item throughout the menu to reflect these individual situations, and arrive at a final adjusted cost figure based on total cost (including extra people, pies etc.) of each recipe, rather than on the menu cost per head multiplied by the exact number of people being seated.
A couple of examples illustrate this. Let us say that you have 200 people (180 paid plus 20 free passes), and 20 tables each seating 10 people. Among a number of other dishes, you are serving a pie and a salad.
(I) Your pie recipe (which makes one pie) feeds 10, and costs $3.00 to make. Each portion costs $3.00/10 = 30¢ However, 180 people pay for the pieces of pie (200 portions) that are going to be eaten by 200, so 30¢ x 200 eating/180 paying = 20 pies x $3.00 per pie/180 paying = 33¢ per paid ticket. You will want to make a couple of spare pies (for emergency use). This means, instead of making 20 pies, that you will make 22. However, the number of people buying tickets is still 180, and the cost of each of the 22 pies is still $3.00 per pie.
Cost per paying ticket now = 22 pies X $3.00 per pie/180 paying for them = 37¢ per paid ticket.
Thus the extra two pies are costing (37¢ - 33¢) = 4¢ more per paid ticket. This increase is not included in the initial cost table (Fig. 5) for reasons mentioned above.
(II) Salad: one recipe feeds 21, and costs $2.10. It thus costs $2.10/21 = 10¢ per paying ticket.
| 9 recipes feed 21 X | 9 | = 189 people. | |
| 10 recipes feed 21 X | 10 | = 210 people. | |
| 1/2 recipes feed 21 X | 9-1/2 | = 199-1/2 people. |
| 9-1/2 X $2.10 ------------------- = 11¢ per paying ticket. 180 paying |
||
| 10 X $2. 10 --------------- = 12¢ per paying ticket. 180 paying |
||
| 11 X $2.10 --------------- = 13¢ per paying ticket. 180 paying | ||
These 2¢ and 3¢ can add up on the total cost quite considerably, so at this point I draw up a table using the format of the one shown below (Fig. 7), showing recipe, number it feeds, cost of one recipe, the number of recipe multiples we will be making and the number of people that will feed, and the total cost of that number of multiples. On this new table (not shown in this article), the adjusted cost per paying ticket was now $5.35, considerably higher than the initial estimate we made of $4.91 per paying ticket for 200 tickets plus 25 free passes (the figure we finally agreed upon for the 1980 Twelfth Night.)
Note: the fine adjusting is not done earlier to the recipes, as it would have to be done in detail for each possible set of ticket and free pass numbers you are considering for your event; the approximate costs we used earlier are adequate to give a rough idea of where you will break even, with the 75¢ safety margin for the adjustments.
Firstly, in the pear recipe we found that we could reduce the amount of wine for simmering pear halves by 1/3 (the recipe called for red wine OR water, and we changed our initial plan of all red wine to 2/3 wine and 1/3 water). In addition we were able to reduce the amount of Muscatel wine needed for syrup from 1-1/2 cups to 1 cup per recipe. These changes saved us $20.42; 10¢ per paying ticket.
Secondly we used margarine instead of butter to make the Circletes cookies (we tested the cookies both ways, and no-one could tell the difference in this particular recipe), which saved an additional $7.68; 4¢ per paying ticket.
Thirdly we found we could reduce the meatballs in almond milk from 19 to 18 recipe multiples, saving $4.01 - 2¢ per paying person, and the lamb n'lentils from 13-1/2 to 13 multiples, saving $3.49, 2¢ per person.
| Revised Cost Table (Adiantum 1980 Twelfth Night) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recipe | No. people one recipe feeds | Cost of one recipe | TIMES No. of recipes we'll make | Feeds No. of people*** | Total Cost | |
| (1) | Renaissance salad | 24 | $6.11 | x 11 | 264 | $67.21 |
| (2) | A carrot salad | 7 | 1.15 | x 34 | 248 | 39.10 |
| (3) | Pickled cucumbers | 6 | 1.08 | x 40 | 240 | 43.20 |
| (4) | Honey-oatmeal bread | 25 * | 1.40 | x 11 | 275 | 15.40 |
| (5) | Manchets (bread rolls) | 16 | 0.44 | x 15 | 240 | 6.60 |
| (6) | Galantine Pie | 9 to 10* | 3.57 | x 27 | 256 | 96.39 |
| (7) | Meatballs in almond milk on rice | 14 | 5.72 | x 18 | 256 | 102.96 |
| (8) | Lamb n' Lentils (Mawmenye) | 19 | 6.94 | x 13 | 246 | 90.22 |
| (9) | Cheese n' vege pie | 9 to 10 * | 1.77 | x 27 | 255 | 46.44 |
| (10) | Pears in confection | 12 | 3.92 | x 21 | 250 | 82.32 |
| (11) | Circletes (cookies) | 16 | 3.00 | x 16 | 256 | 48.00 |
| (12) | Cheese, med. sharp cheddar | 36 | 2.29 | x 7-1/2 | 260 | 17.18 |
| (13) | Plum conserve | 45 to 50* | 3.45 | x 6 | 256 | 20.70 |
| (14) | Margarine | 19 | .69 | x 13-1/2 | 260 | 9.32 |
| (15) | Salt | 27 | .39 | x 6 | 250 | 2.34 |
| (16) | Water | 9 to 10* | .15 (jug) | x 27 | 256 | 4.05 |
| (17) | Misc. food-decorating items (not sure what yet) | -- | -- | -- | -- | 5.00 |
| (18) | Aluminum pie-plates, 5 per table | 9 to 10 * | .89 | x 27 | 256 | 24.03 |
| (19) | Misc. kitchen needs (soap, etc.) | -- | .10 | -- | -- | **20.00 |
| (20) | Cooks' petty cash | -- | .10 | -- | -- | **20.00 |
| TOTAL FOOD + KITCHEN | 760.46 | |||||
| (21) | Autocrat's misc. + petty cash | -- | .25 | -- | -- | **50.00 |
| (22) | Fixed costs:- Hall rental | -- | -- | -- | -- | 225.00 |
| GRAND TOTAL | 1,035.46 | |||||
| No. of paid tickets = 200 No. of free passes - approx. 25 No. of people per table - 9 or 10 No. of tables = 25 | 1,035.46 ------------------- = $5.17 cost per paid ticket. 200 paid tickets | |||||
| * These items are figured on a per table rather than on a per person basis. 9 or 10 sit at one table. ** These item' are figured by multiplying cost per head by number of paying tickets, NOT by number of people eating. It is probable that not all of these miscellaneous and petty cash amounts will be used. (For this event I estimate that half of each of these will be returned, = $45. $45/200 = 23¢ less cost per paying ticket. However, as we cannot COUNT on any of this money not being needed at this stage it is all included as part of the cost. *** Extra food: where items are figured per table and not per person, we allowed 2 extra tables' worth. Where they are figured on a per person basis, we allowed 15 to 30 extra people's worth. Extra pies etc. can always be auctioned off during or after the meal. | ||||||
All of which nickled and dimed our cost down to $5.17 per paid $6.00 ticket. (We believe in large safety margins.) Fig. 7 (above shows the final costs, after we had done all of the above adjusting.
Continue to Part 5.
© 1980 Janet Naylor
Return to Introduction, Part 2, Part 3
Last updated 12/19/97.
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