Sales Growth Target Calculator

Retention and acquisition are substitutes here.

Written and maintained by Mohit PatelLast checked August 4, 2026How we build these

Currency

Current annual revenue

Target annual revenue

Years to get there

Current customers

Repeat purchase rate

Annual growth required

29.1%

2.2% monthly

Revenue multiple1.67×

Annual growth required29.1%

Extra revenue$800,000

Extra customers at current value8,000

Reaching the target needs 29.1% a year, or 8,000 additional customers at today's value per customer. Raising the repeat rate from 33% reduces that requirement proportionally: retention and acquisition are substitutes for this purpose.

How the Sales Growth Target Calculator works

Reaching a revenue target needs either more customers or more value per customer, and raising the repeat rate reduces the acquisition requirement proportionally. For this purpose the two are substitutes, and one of them is considerably cheaper.

Also known as: growth target calculator · required growth rate · what growth do I need to hit plan

Setting a rate that means something

A growth target chosen for ambition rather than derived from anything is a number people stop believing after the first quarter it is missed.

Targets that hold up are built from the drivers: a specific traffic plan, a specific conversion improvement, a specific new channel or product. Each contributes a quantified amount and the total is the target.

The test is whether the target can be explained as a sum of parts. If the answer to how the business will grow 40% is a general expectation that it will, the target is a wish. If it is 15% from a new marketplace, 12% from the existing base and 13% from two new products, it is a plan.

What growth costs

Growth consumes cash before it produces it, and the amount is calculable. Additional inventory to serve additional sales, additional acquisition spend, and additional capacity to fulfil.

A useful figure is cash required per pound of additional annual revenue. For a stock business with a 60 day inventory cycle at a 50% cost of goods, that is roughly 8p per pound of annual revenue, before any acquisition cost.

Multiplied by the growth target, that gives the funding requirement. A £400,000 business targeting 40% growth needs £160,000 of additional revenue, requiring perhaps £13,000 of additional working capital plus the acquisition spend. Growth plans that omit this are the ones that stall in the middle of a good year.

The self-funding rate

There is a maximum growth rate a business can fund from its own profits, and exceeding it requires external money whether or not anyone planned for it.

The calculation compares reinvestable profit per pound of revenue against working capital required per pound of additional revenue. If a business generates 7p of reinvestable profit and needs 9p of working capital per pound of growth, it cannot self-fund growth at all beyond what the existing profit covers.

Knowing that number turns growth planning into a financing conversation at the right time. Businesses that discover the constraint through a cash shortage have had the conversation too late, and the options available in a shortage are worse than the ones available in advance.

Growth against profitability

Faster growth usually costs margin, because the marginal customer is more expensive to acquire and the marginal sale is more likely to be discounted.

Which means a growth target and a profit target can conflict, and setting both without acknowledging the tension produces a plan that cannot be executed.

The honest version states the trade: this growth rate at this margin, or a lower growth rate at a higher one. Making that choice explicitly is better than discovering at year end that the growth target was met by spending the profit target.

Sustainable against bought

Growth from paid acquisition stops when the spending stops. Growth from organic search, repeat customers and word of mouth continues.

Both count as growth and they are worth different amounts, both to the business and to any eventual buyer. A business growing 30% on rising ad spend and one growing 30% on repeat purchase have very different futures.

The measure that distinguishes them is the share of revenue from returning customers, and its trend. Rising means the base is compounding. Flat or falling during growth means the growth is bought, and the cost of maintaining it will keep rising.

Where to go next

The Sales Growth Target question rarely arrives on its own. These are the ones that usually come with it:

Monthly Revenue Goal Calculator — The growth rate the goal actually requires.
Compound Monthly Growth Rate Calculator — Multiplying by twelve always understates.
Revenue Projection Calculator — Three inputs that multiply.
Etsy Fee Calculator — Every Etsy fee on one sale, itemised.

Not financial advice. Marketplace fees change, and they vary by country, plan and seller status. Every rate here is an editable default, not a quoted price, check the platform's current fee schedule before you price a product against it. This is not tax or business advice.