Profile

Gordon Whyte

Introduction:

I am an entrepreneurial senior operations executive with broad experience in General, Operational and Change Management of which more than 20 years at senior international level. I have managed multi-disciplined teams delivering complex projects worldwide in high technology based businesses, including multinational and start up businesses

Business experience includes:

• Hands on experience off managing six company start ups / SME’S with P&L responsibility

• Strategic business development, with hands on face to face customer experience

• Extensive senior operations experience, setting up new manufacturing operations, or developing outsourced manufacturing operations

• Developing business plans and financial modelling

• Leading fund raising both in Europe, North America and Middle East.

• Leading technology transfer and IP / Patent development

• Establishing and expanding businesses ensuring high profitability.

• Main business focus has been Semiconductor, Electronics, Photonics, Solar / Cleantech and Display technology

• Lean manufacturing implementation

Main achievements include:

• Led manufacturing division to be profitable after two years from start up ‘ and doubled revenue year on year prior to successful IPO in ’96 and subsequent sale to SDLI (USA)

• Introduced four new products to the market including the worlds first 10 GHz integrated driver modulator in 2001

• Launched world’s first optical ASIC platform for complex optical integrated circuits.

• Reduced customer returns by 40% and improved delivery performance by 50% with a cost reduction of 20% overall.

“Doing what is required to achieve the target”

To conclude: broad international experience, sound knowledge of value-added

mechanisms in different industries, understanding of all stakeholders

requirements, customised solution provider, profitability, sales and result orientated.

Email: gordonw63 at yahoo dot com



Working out the point at which your new business becomes sustainable

How to calculate your break-even point

Your break-even point is the point at which your business is producing enough revenue each month to cover all your fixed and variable costs. Once you reach this point, any additional income generated each month is profit.

Estimating as accurately as you can when you will reach this point is an expected part of your business plan. In other words, you need to work out exactly how much you will need to sell each month, and at what price, to break even.

Before you can work this out you need to determine your start-up costs and monthly running costs, taking into account any fixed costs, such as repayments on loans, salaries, etc, as well as variable costs (costs which will vary depending on how much you sell, such as manufacturing costs, freelance costs, etc). You then need to build in your projections of how many products you will sell, or how much demand you will have for your service, per month.

By comparing your projected monthly revenues against your total monthly costs, you should be able to come up with a point at which you start to move into profit, that is, your break-even point.

Calculating the break-even point will give you an excellent idea of the costs involved in your business and the level of sales you will need to generate to cover your costs, which in turn will affect your overall business strategy.

How much business you have to generate (either number of products or units of service) in a given time to break even can be calculated using the equation below. You will break even when:

Total revenue per month = Total costs per month

Unit sale price × Unit sales = Total monthly fixed costs + (Unit variable cost × Unit sales)

(Unit sale price × Unit sales) – (Unit variable cost × Unit sales) = Total fixed costs

(Unit sale price – Unit variable cost) × Unit sales = Total fixed costs

Unit sales per month = Total fixed costs/Unit sale price – Unit variable cost

Once you know how much you need to sell in one month to break even, you can work out from your sales projections how long it will take for your business to reach this point. You can also see in the table the elements of the equation that you need to change to reach the break-even point sooner.