Christmas is on a Thursday this year. The likelihood of much revenue generation on Friday, December 26, 2025 is slim. It’s a wasted day with no one really wanting to be at work. Customers don’t want to talk with you either – unless something is broken.
What if you could give everyone the day off with pay? How much revenue would you need to generate to cover the expense?
Here’s the formula:
- Take a day’s pay for everyone – field, office, sales, owners (you might need to take the weekly payroll and divide it by 5).
- Multiply that sum by 1.3. This represents the additional payroll tax, worker’s compensation, etc. benefits that are associated with each person’s payroll.
- Look at your year-to-date profit and loss statement to arrive at the year-to-date gross margin (year-to-date gross profit divided by sales).
- Divide the value in #2 by the gross margin.
This is the additional revenue the company must generate to break even on the additional day off with pay.
If you want to give them the day after Christmas and the day after New Year, double this number.
If you want a certain profit percentage rather than just breaking even, divide the value in #2 by GM-Profit percentage you want to earn.
Example:
A day’s pay for everyone is $3,000.
With benefits included: 3,000 X 1.3 = $3,900
Company gross margin is 30%
At break even, the additional revenues needed are 3,900/.3 = $13,000
If the company wants a 10% profit, additional revenues needed are 3,900/.2 = $19,500.
Then, have a contest to get to the revenues needed.
Add the budgeted revenues for October, November, and December. Then add the additional revenue required for a day off with pay (or two days off with pay).
Announce the contest to the company employees with the question, “How would you like the day after Christmas off with pay?”
I’d be surprised if people said no. Most people would like the extra vacation day to spend with their families.
Then reveal the contest with the revenues needed to achieve this goal.
Implement those suggestions. You might get some great ideas that you can use far beyond this fall. Let everyone know how the suggestion worked.
Put a thermometer on the wall to track progress – you might want to track progress every week. This is a constant reminder of the contest.
Then, when the goal is reached, everyone gets a great long weekend and you don’t have to worry about the expense – you’ve already generated the revenues to cover it.
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