Lesson 5. Margin and Unit Economics#
Goal: learn to calculate profit and understand how much you really earn.
What Is Margin#
Margin is the difference between revenue and expenses (your profit).
Formula:
Margin = Revenue - Expenses
Example:
- revenue: 120,000 ₽ (project price)
- expenses: 40,000 ₽ (your time × rate + tool costs)
- margin: 120,000 - 40,000 = 80,000 ₽
Margin percentage:
Margin % = (Margin / Revenue) × 100%
Example:
(80,000 / 120,000) × 100% = 66.7%
Good margin for services: 50–70% (i.e., 50–70 cents profit from every dollar of revenue).
Project Expenses#
Direct expenses:
- your time (hours worked × hourly rate)
- tools (subscriptions: OpenAI, n8n.cloud, Zapier, etc.)
- contractors (if you hire a designer, copywriter)
Indirect expenses (overhead):
- marketing (ads, content)
- taxes (sole proprietor: 4–6% of revenue)
- accounting (if applicable)
- website hosting, domains
Example calculation:
Project: lead qualification bot, price 120,000 ₽
Expenses:
- your time: 20 hours × 2,000 ₽/hour = 40,000 ₽
- OpenAI API: 2,000 ₽
- n8n.cloud: 1,500 ₽
- taxes (6%): 120,000 × 0.06 = 7,200 ₽
- Total expenses: 50,700 ₽
Margin:
120,000 - 50,700 = 69,300 ₽
Margin %:
(69,300 / 120,000) × 100% = 57.75%
Conclusion: from each project you earn ~58% (~69,000 ₽).
Unit Economics#
Unit economics is the profit calculation per client (over the entire relationship).
Formula:
LTV (Lifetime Value) = Average order × Number of purchases
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) = Marketing spend / Number of clients
Profit per client = LTV - CAC
Example (subscription model):
- client pays 30,000 ₽/month for support
- average client stays 12 months
- LTV = 30,000 × 12 = 360,000 ₽
- cost to acquire client (ads, sales time): 50,000 ₽
- profit per client: 360,000 - 50,000 = 310,000 ₽
Conclusion: each client brings 310,000 ₽ profit over 12 months.
Good LTV/CAC ratio: at least 3:1 (i.e., LTV is 3 times higher than CAC).