Running a Creative Studio by the Numbers: Gear Depreciation, Buy vs Rent, Team Utilisation & Project Margins
Run the numbers of a fictional design and video studio: a gear register with depreciation and a replacement fund, buy-or-rent break-even, an internal kit fee, fully loaded cost rates, weekly team capacity, project and retainer profitability and a break-even dashboard, with every cell checked as you go.
One-time payment · lifetime access · lessons, labs, exam and certificate included · no subscription.
About this course
In this course you manage the numbers of a fictional five-person design and video studio. You depreciate a gear register with SLN and DATEDIF and plan a replacement fund, decide whether to buy or rent each item from its break-even days, and set an internal kit fee that recovers depreciation, insurance and repairs with a target margin. You build fully loaded cost rates from salaries, billable targets and overheads, turn a booking list into a weekly capacity grid with SUMIFS and flag overbooking, measure project margins and realised hourly rates from a timesheet, analyse a retainer with overage hours, and finish with break-even revenue and a margin-of-safety dashboard.
Lessons
- The Gear Register: Straight-Line Depreciation, Book Value and a Replacement Fund Pro
- Buy or Rent? Yearly Cost of Owning, Break-Even Days and the Decision Pro
- Charging for Your Own Kit: A Day Fee That Recovers Depreciation, Insurance and Repairs Pro
- The Fully Loaded Cost Rate: Billable Hours, Overhead per Hour and Charge-Out Rates Pro
- Team Capacity: Booked Hours per Week, Load % and Over-Capacity Flags Pro
- Project Profitability: Hours Logged, Cost at Loaded Rates, Margin and the Realised Hourly Rate Pro
- Retainer Clients: Included Hours, Overage Billing, the Effective Rate and the Margin Pro
- The Studio Dashboard: Gross Margin, Break-Even Revenue, Margin of Safety and a Trend Chart Pro