Glossary · 29 terms
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Solopreneur and small-business finance terms with worked examples. Every entry cross-links to the calculators that use it.
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Pricing & profitability calculators
Pressure-test price floors, margin targets, break-even volume, and channel economics before you touch packaging, discounting, or wholesale terms.
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Growth & marketing calculators
Check acquisition efficiency, customer value, retention drag, and experiment confidence before you scale spend or call a test a win.
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Operations & HR calculators
Model people cost, hiring structure, meeting drag, and business value before you lock in headcount, restructure work, or benchmark leverage.
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Cash flow & finance calculators
Track runway pressure, cash timing, project payback, and forecasted revenue before financing, hiring, or spending decisions tighten the window.
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Startup planning calculators
Build a first-pass startup model with break-even, runway, forecast, and unit-economics views so the plan survives contact with cash and acquisition reality.
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All terms
async-communication
Async communication refers to the exchange of information without the expectation of an immediate, real-time response, allowing individuals to contribute and receive messages at their own convenience.
average-order-value
Average Order Value (AOV) represents the average amount of money a customer spends per transaction in your online store or business.
break-even-point
The Break-Even Point is the level of sales (either in units or revenue) at which a business's total costs equal its total revenue, resulting in zero net profit or loss.
burn-rate
Burn Rate is the speed at which a company, typically a startup, spends its available cash before generating positive cash flow, indicating how quickly its capital reserves are being depleted.
cac
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) is the total cost a business incurs to acquire a new customer, encompassing all marketing and sales expenses over a specific period. It indicates the efficiency of customer acquisition efforts.
cart-abandonment-rate
Cart Abandonment Rate measures the percentage of online shoppers who add items to their shopping cart but fail to complete the purchase.
cash-flow
Cash flow represents the net amount of money moving into and out of a business over a specific period, indicating its liquidity and financial health.
churn-rate
Churn rate is the percentage of customers or subscribers who cancel their service or discontinue their relationship with a company over a specific period.
conversion-rate
Conversion rate measures the percentage of users who complete a desired action out of the total audience exposed to the opportunity for that action. It's a critical metric for evaluating marketing and sales funnel effectiveness.
days-sales-outstanding
Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) is a financial metric that calculates the average number of days it takes for a company to collect payment after making a sale on credit.
gross-margin
Gross Margin represents the revenue a company retains after subtracting the direct costs associated with producing and selling its goods or services. It indicates the profitability of a company's core operations before considering overheads.
inventory-turnover
Inventory Turnover is a financial ratio that measures how many times a company has sold and replaced its inventory over a specific period, typically a year.
ltv
LTV (Customer Lifetime Value) is a prediction of the total revenue a business can reasonably expect to earn from a single customer throughout their entire relationship with the company.
minimum-viable-experiment
A Minimum Viable Experiment (MVE) is the smallest possible test designed to validate a critical business hypothesis or assumption with the least amount of time, effort, and resources, enabling rapid learning and informed decision-making.
net-margin
Net Margin measures the percentage of revenue left after all expenses, including operating costs, interest, and taxes, have been deducted from sales.
net-revenue-retention
Net Revenue Retention (NRR) measures the percentage of recurring revenue retained from an existing customer cohort over a specified period, accounting for upgrades, downgrades, and churn.
operating-leverage
Operating leverage measures how a company's operating income (EBIT) changes in response to a percentage change in sales revenue, driven by its mix of fixed and variable costs.
payback-period
The Payback Period is a capital budgeting metric that calculates the time required for an investment's cumulative cash inflows to equal its initial cash outlay.
product-market-fit
Product-Market Fit (PMF) is the stage where a startup's product successfully addresses a significant market need, resulting in strong demand and organic growth.
profit-margin
Profit Margin is a key profitability ratio that measures the percentage of revenue a company retains as profit after all expenses, indicating how efficiently sales are converted into earnings.
roi
ROI (Return on Investment) is a performance metric used to evaluate the efficiency or profitability of an investment, measuring the gain or loss generated relative to the initial cost.
runway
Runway in startup finance is the amount of time, typically measured in months, a company can continue operating before exhausting its available cash reserves, assuming its current net burn rate.
sales-pipeline
A Sales Pipeline is a visual representation of the stages a prospect moves through in the sales process, from initial contact to a closed deal, enabling businesses to manage and track sales opportunities effectively.
scope-creep
Scope creep refers to the uncontrolled growth of a project's scope beyond what was initially agreed upon, without corresponding adjustments to time, budget, or resources, leading to project delays and financial losses.
statistical-significance
Statistical significance indicates the probability that an observed difference between two groups or treatments is not due to random chance, but rather a real effect.
time-zone-overlap
Time Zone Overlap refers to the specific period, measured in hours, during which two or more individuals or teams located in different geographical time zones are simultaneously working and available for real-time collaboration.
unit-economics
Unit economics analyzes the direct revenues and costs associated with a business's fundamental unit, typically comparing Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) to determine per-unit profitability.
unit-economics-ratio
The Unit Economics Ratio (LTV:CAC) is a critical metric that compares the total revenue a business expects to generate from a customer over their lifetime (LTV) against the cost of acquiring that customer (CAC). It indicates the profitability and sustainability of a company's customer acquisition strategy.
working-capital
Working Capital is the difference between a company's current assets and its current liabilities, indicating its short-term liquidity and operational efficiency.
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