🧭 Goals & Financial Roadmap Calculator
Define your destination before you price a single thing. This is the first tab of Dee's How To Charge workbook: enter your 10-year total and the growth rate you believe in, and it reverse-engineers your Year 1 revenue target, builds the full 10-year trajectory, allocates it across your lines of business, breaks Year 1 into monthly milestones, and gut-checks the whole plan against overhead, payroll funding, your CEO salary, and your personal bank goal. Numbers here are planning illustrations, not promises; the honesty is in your inputs.
Section A · Your 10-year financial vision
Define your destination before you price a single thing. The calculator reverse-engineers your Year 1 target from your 10-year total and CAGR.
The TOTAL across all 10 years combined, not just Year 10.
At your target margin below, the results show whether your revenue goal produces this much profit.
Healthy staffing agencies target 15% to 25%. Use 20% if unsure.
20% is conservative and sustainable. 30-40% is ambitious but achievable for a focused niche agency.
Section B · Your lines of business (% of revenue)
Each line maps to one or more pricing calculators in this suite. The percentages should total 100%.
Maps to: Markup, Gross Margin, Burden Builder. Department: Staffing Operations.
Maps to: Direct Hire Fees. Department: Talent Acquisition.
Maps to: Executive Search (Enhanced). Department: Executive Solutions.
Maps to: Travel, Strike, Flight Nurse. Department: Specialty / Travel Division.
Maps to: Consulting, Training. Department: Advisory Services.
Maps to: AI Services, AI Embedded Value-Add. Department: Innovation / Technology.
Maps to: Digital Products, Round Table, Hot Seat. Department: Marketing / Digital.
Section C · Reverse-engineer Year 1
Build it with the Burden Builder calculator and its state dropdown.
Section D · Year 1 monthly milestones
The allocation percentages control how your revenue distributes across the year; they should total 100%. Adjust to match YOUR ramp-up.
| Month | % of Year 1 | Workers on billing | DH/Exec placements |
|---|---|---|---|
| M1 | % | ||
| M2 | % | ||
| M3 | % | ||
| M4 | % | ||
| M5 | % | ||
| M6 | % | ||
| M7 | % | ||
| M8 | % | ||
| M9 | % | ||
| M10 | % | ||
| M11 | % | ||
| M12 | % |
Section F · Gut check inputs
Use the Budget & Revenue Simulator for your real number.
You pay weekly. Clients pay net-30 to net-60.
If solo, enter 0.
Net-30 = 30, Net-45 = 45, Net-60 = 60.
Estimates for planning, not financial or legal advice. The numbers are illustrations built from your inputs; your market, your state, and your carrier decide the real ones.
Does this resonate?
The goal is set. Now build the business that hits it.
A free account turns this roadmap into a week-by-week launch plan: your niche, your checklist, and AI help from first entity filing to first placement.
Build my launch plan free →Good questions about this math
How does the Year 1 target get calculated from my 10-year goal?
It uses the growing-annuity formula: Year 1 = Goal x CAGR / ((1 + CAGR)^10 - 1). Years 2 through 10 each grow at your CAGR, and the ten years sum exactly to your goal. Type $50M at 34% growth and Year 1 comes out near $962K.
What is a realistic CAGR for a new staffing agency?
The workbook's guidance: under 20% is conservative and sustainable, 20% to 40% is aggressive but achievable with a strong niche and network, 40% to 60% needs multiple service lines, a team, and capital, and over 80% usually means your Year 1 is set too low for your Year 10 dream.
What is the payroll funding gap and why does the calculator warn me about it?
You pay workers every week, but clients pay in 30 to 60 days. The calculator multiplies your workers on billing by their loaded weekly payroll and your payment terms to show the cash you must front before the first client check arrives. It is the number one cash killer for new agencies; factoring, a line of credit, or reserves cover it.
How do the lines of business percentages work?
You allocate 100% of revenue across seven lines (contract staffing, direct hire, executive search, travel/strike/flight, consulting/training, AI services, digital products/events). The calculator turns each percentage into Year 1, 3, 5, and 10 dollar targets and a monthly number so every other pricing calculator in the suite has a purpose.
Do I get the Excel version?
Yes. The $27 one-time unlock includes the standalone Goals & Financial Roadmap workbook split from Dee's How To Charge master, with every formula live plus the START HERE guide tab.
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