How many yearbooks must they sell before their business breaks even?

Question

mike and kim invest 17,000 in equipment to print yearbooks for school. Each yearbook cost $5 and sells for $25

Answer 1

The amount invested, $17,000 is the "break even point".  They have to receive that much (net profit) to "break even". 

 

If each yearbook sells for $25, and costs $5 to publish, the difference ($25 - $5 = $20) would be the net profit per unit (each yearbook).

 

If we divide the investment ($17,000) by the net profit per unit ($20), we will have the answer.

 

$17,000 / $20 = 17,000 / 20  [In this step, I have simply removed the units (dollars) from each side of the equation.]

 

                         17,000 / 20 = 1,700 / 2 [In this step, I divided each side by 10 (or moved the implied decimal point     one place to the left).]

                                              1,700 / 2 = 1,000/ 2 + 700 / 2 = 500 + 350 = 850 [I did the division in this way to make   it easier to do it in my head.]

 

So They will have to sell 850 yearbooks to break even.