For Start-Ups, you can run simple calculations to measure your profits will increase or decrease with a change in each one of the following metrics:
Customer Lifetime Value
LTV or lifetime value of a customer is the revenue that a customer can generate for your startup over the lifetime of their membership.
In a subscription product, you can calculate LTV by first determining the customer value by multiplying the average purchase value by the purchase frequency. Multiply the average customer value by the average period (in months or years) that the customer is retained.
If you know how much money you can make from a customer, you will have a much clearer idea of how much money you should invest in acquiring a new customer.
Customer Acquisition Cost
CAC or customer acquisition cost is the money that you spend on acquiring a customer.
When you launch your startup with a new product and unknown brand, your CAC may be high, but as you understand your ideal customer, find your best performing marketing channel, and gain referrals through your early adopters, your CAC can start declining.
CAC includes your expenditure on sales, marketing, and distribution activities.
Churn Rate
Churn rate indicates the percentage of your paying customers that canceled their purchase. This is a metric that you should aim to keep as low as possible.
Customer Retention
Customer retention is the opposite of churn rate. It indicates the percentage of your paying customers that you retained, who renewed their subscription to your product.
High retention means you are delivering the promised value to your customers and they are happy with your product.
Cash Flow
Cash flow measures your costs versus revenue as it captures money going in and out of your business.
Positive or free cash flow indicates liquidity with more money flowing into the business than out of it.
Return of Investment
ROI or return on investment is a metric for calculating the gains or losses derived from an investment.
To calculate your return on investment in a new venture, project or initiative, divide your profits or losses by your total investment and multiply the result by 100 to get the ROI in percent.
Burn Rate
Burn rate means the amount of capital that a startup is spending or “burning” to finance operation.
The burn rate of a startup can depend on the business model, funding and growth strategy.
Revenue
Revenue is the money that you generate through sales and is a measure of startup performance.
However, in many cases, revenue is not an accurate measure of your company’s financial health as it does not take into account business expenses.
Net Income
Your net income is the difference between your revenue and expenses. Paying close attention to your customer’s lifetime value, customer acquisition cost, churn rate, retention, cash flow, return on investment and burn rate will help you increase the difference between your revenue and expenses, thus run a profitable startup venture while understanding the key metrics that play a big role in boosting your company’s financial performance.