What does 35% profit margin mean?
Expressed as a percentage, it represents the portion of a company's sales revenue that it gets to keep as a profit, after subtracting all of its costs. For example, if a company reports that it achieved a 35% profit margin during the last quarter, it means that it netted $0.35 from each dollar of sales generated.
Ideally, direct expenses should not exceed 40%, leaving you with a minimum gross profit margin of 60%. Remaining overheads should not exceed 35%, which leaves a genuine net profit margin of 25%. This should be your aim.
- Total product revenue: $50.
- Total production costs: $15.
- Gross profit: 50-15 = $35.
- Gross profit margin: 35/50 x 100 = 70.
Remember, gross profit is a company's revenue less the cost of goods sold. For example, if a company retains $0.35 from each dollar of revenue generated, this means its gross margin is 35%
Overall, though, a 5% margin is low, a 10% margin is average, and a 20% margin is good or high. So try to target a net profit margin between 15% and 20% in your business.
In most industries, 30% is a very high net profit margin. Companies with a profit margin of 20% generally show strong financial health. If this metric drops to around 5% or lower, most businesses will need to make changes to remain sustainable.
As a rule of thumb, 5% is a low margin, 10% is a healthy margin, and 20% is a high margin.
You may be asking yourself, “what is a good profit margin?” A good margin will vary considerably by industry, but as a general rule of thumb, a 10% net profit margin is considered average, a 20% margin is considered high (or “good”), and a 5% margin is low.
The profit margin for small businesses depend on the size and nature of the business. But in general, a healthy profit margin for a small business tends to range anywhere between 7% to 10%. Keep in mind, though, that certain businesses may see lower margins, such as retail or food-related companies.
For instance, a 30% profit margin means there is $30 of net income for every $100 of revenue.
How to calculate profit margin?
Generally speaking, a good profit margin is 10 percent but can vary across industries. To determine gross profit margin, divide the gross profit by the total revenue for the year and then multiply by 100. To determine net profit margin, divide the net income by the total revenue for the year and then multiply by 100.
Gross profit is the monetary value that results from subtracting cost-of-goods-sold from net sales. Gross margin is the gross profit expressed as a percentage. It divides the gross profit by net sales and multiplies the result by 100.

Suppose your cost is $100 and you want your profit to be 30% of your cost. Since 30% of your cost is 0.30 × $100 = $30 you would charge your customer $100 + $30 = $130.
As reported by the Corporate Finance Institute, the average net profit for small businesses is about 10 percent. Here are some examples reported by New York University—note the wide range of actual profit margins reported in the study: Banks: 31.31% to 32.61% Financial Services: 8.87% to 32.33%
50% of margin profit is good mainly for developing companies. It's very important to understand if that's net or gross. Gross profit margin is based on cost of goods sold. Net is based on all costs considered.
In most micro-enterprises the “owners income” is the net profit margin. The majority of businesses are owned and run by one person. The most common structure is either a DBA sole proprietorship, or if they get talked into it by a lawyer, a simple LLP structure.
The higher the price and the lower the cost, the higher the Profit Margin. In any case, your Profit Margin can never exceed 100 percent, which only happens if you're able to sell something that cost you nothing.
An 80% margin means that 80% of the selling price represents profit, while only 20% of the selling price covers the cost of the goods or services sold.
What net profit % should I be aiming for? Your net profit percentage goals should be a minimum of 15-20%. Obviously the higher the better - and if you can get your net profit to 30-40% you'll have on your hands a truly enduring business. There's an old saying - sales is vanity, profit is sanity.
But the retail, financial and healthcare industries are some of the most profitable businesses you can start. For example, the retail industry was forecasted to reach nearly $5 trillion in 2023, according to the National Retail Federation.
Is 85% gross profit margin good?
Gross profit margin is a very important metric financial buyers and PE investors look at when evaluating a business. Based on our experience, a good benchmark gross profit margin for a SaaS company is over 75%. Typically, most privately held SaaS businesses we work with have GPM's in the range of 70% to 85%.
Industry. As mentioned, industry is a major contributing factor in what's considered a good profit margin for a small business. In some industries, the average small business profit margin hovers around 2%, while other industries have quarters that exceed even 34%.
Expressed as a percentage, it represents the portion of a company's sales revenue that it gets to keep as a profit, after subtracting all of its costs. For example, if a company reports that it achieved a 35% profit margin during the last quarter, it means that it netted $0.35 from each dollar of sales generated.
The main difference between the two is that profit margin refers to sales minus the cost of goods sold while markup to the amount by which the cost of a good is increased in order to get to the final selling price. An appropriate understanding of these two terms can help ensure that price setting is done appropriately.
To calculate a 30% profit margin: Turn 30% into a decimal by dividing 30 by 100, which is 0.3. Minus 0.3 from 1 to get 0.7. Divide the price the good cost you by 0.7.