Step 2 of 6 · Keepable money
A revenue screenshot is not a salary.
A founder posts a monthly sales figure and readers treat it like a wage. It usually isn't. In this step you write down how much you need left each month after costs.
The one idea
Four terms get mixed up. Each one is a different amount of money:
| MRR | (monthly recurring revenue: what live subscriptions bring in each month) Not profit. |
| ARR | (annual recurring revenue: MRR times twelve, assuming nobody cancels) Not cash in the bank. |
| Gross margin | (sales left after the direct cost of delivering, like model fees and hosting) Not take-home pay. |
| Keepable money | (what is left for you after model fees, payment and marketplace cuts, refunds, ads and support) The only one that pays the rent. |
Funding is another thing entirely. Money raised is not customers paying.
Your target is yours. Enough for you, or a tiny team, is a far smaller number than the famous ones. This guide aims for roughly US$3,000–20,000 a month left over. That's a goal we chose, not a market statistic, and it says nothing about how many people reach it.
Your blank
After costs, I need ___ left per month.
Optional: test it against your own estimates
No sales yet? Leave this blank. Use your own guesses here; none of these numbers come from the research.
Your result
If you sell to other builders (courses, templates, "agency in a weekend"), your numbers can look fine while theirs don't. Step 5 asks whether they can show a paying customer of their own.