Ken Penton

Ken Penton, a partner with Deloitte & Touche in Calgary, says a healthy gross profit margin is 50% for clothing merchants, 25% to 40% for manufacturers and 13% to 18% for truckers.If projected sales don't produce enough profit to cover fixed overheads, retailers can improve their gross profit margins by gaining early payment discounts from suppliers.Many manufacturers will give a 5% discount on invoices paid within 30 days.

Seven in 10 small businesses, Penton suspects, don't know their break-even point, in part because they don't generate monthly financial data."Thanks to computers, more and more small businesses are able to do so.But there are still an awful lot of people who run their businesses by bringing canceled cheques and bank statements to their accountant once a year."