Interactive Profit Calculator

RyMac Profit Calculator

Build the calculator that makes the prospect argue with their own math instead of your claims. The sales law behind it: never tell them anything you can get them to say themselves. They will not believe what you say; they will believe everything they say. Two live reference patterns are described inline below (a speed-to-lead loss calculator and a SaaS-rent/growth-tax calculator, both running on RyMac's own pages).

Start here: is there a research file?

If a niche-research-<slug>.md exists for this niche, read its HANDOFF CONTRACT block first and build from it. It already carries the calculator type, the leak variable, the inputs with painful defaults, the constants with sources, the formula, the bad-news and good-news lines in the niche's own words, the ask, and the CTA. Do not re-interview the user for anything that block already answers, and do not re-research the niche. If a contract field says UNKNOWN, that field is the only thing worth asking about.

No research file? Build from scratch with the method below, and say up front that running rymac-niche-research first would have supplied the constants.

What this actually is

The calculator is the P.A.S. sales letter's logical twin. Same three beats, different fuel:

	rymac-direct-sales-copy (the letter)	this skill (the calculator)
Problem	questions that make them self-identify: "sound like you?"	input fields that make them ADMIT their own numbers
Agitate	emotional, cinematic, the villain, the Groundhog Day feeling	arithmetic. Their number, annualized, sitting there in red
Solution	the mechanism revealed as the way out	the same number shown recovered, one CTA under it

Emotion gets people to buy; logic lets them justify what they already decided. The letter does the first job, this does the second, and a strong page often runs both. So the calculator's persuasion comes entirely from arithmetic they cannot argue with, because they typed the inputs. The moment it editorializes, it stops being logic and becomes just another claim, and it loses the only advantage it had over the letter.

The mechanism, once: get them to admit their numbers, let the math agitate the pain, make the solution the obvious conclusion of their own arithmetic.

Pick the type before you build

Type	Monetizes	The question it answers
LOSS-DRIVEN	revenue they never captured	"what did last month cost you?"
COST-DRIVEN	money they already spend	"what is renting this costing you?"
CAPACITY-DRIVEN	headroom they cannot reach	"what would one more crew be worth?"

The type sets the register. Loss-driven says you are bleeding and did not know it. Cost-driven says you are being farmed and did not know it. Never mix two leaks in one widget; it halves the punch of both.

The design law

The output is THEIR math, not our claim. The calculator takes the prospect's own numbers, applies honest constants with named sources, and shows the cost of their current leak. Never inflate: one dishonest constant next to their real numbers poisons the whole page.

Construction method

1. Name the leak variable. The one mechanism bleeding them: response speed decay, rent plus compounding price hikes, missed after-hours calls, an unworked database, etc. If you ran rymac-niche-research, the handoff file (niche-research-<slug>.md) names it.
2. Pick honest constants and cite them. For any LOSS-DRIVEN calculator built on speed to lead or follow-up, the constants ship with this pack in rymac-niche-research/references/the-3-laws.md: the 0.60 winnable factor, the loss-rate table (under 5 min = 0.04, 30 min = 0.28, 1 hr = 0.42, same/next day = 0.60), and the MIT / Harvard stats that justify them. Use those exact values so the calculator and the research report quote the same number. That file also marks which figures are attributable to the studies and which are one operator's calibration; keep that distinction in the on-page disclaimer. The rent reference uses a 9%/yr SaaS price-hike rate and a 10-year horizon, all restated in an on-page disclaimer.
3. Two to four inputs maximum, clamped to sane ranges, with defaults chosen so the DEFAULT result is already painful (reference defaults: $2,500 job value, 30 leads/mo, same-day answering).
4. The formula shape: monthly loss = (winnable volume) x (leak factor) x (unit value). Then annualize x12, and show a recovery projection that is conservative (the reference multiplies annual by 1.3 for the upside case, not a 10x fantasy).
5. Output as bad news then good news. "The Bad News:" lost units and dollars last month, then the 12-month cost "if it stays broken." Then "The Good News:" the same number recovered. Same number both ways: the loss IS the opportunity.
6. One CTA after the result. The next step in the funnel, nothing else ("Book Your Free Fix-It Call →" / "Apply To Qualify →"). Fire the pixel event on click.

Optional patterns (use when they fit)

• Shareable permalink: recompute from query string on a results page (/r?c=...&p=...) so cold email can prefill ?company= and the result URL can be forwarded.
• Gated supportive asset below the ungated number: the big number is NEVER gated; a bonus asset below it may be email-gated. Gate submission dual-writes (raw lead log + CRM form submit with attribution), both best-effort, and the unlock never blocks on capture failure.
• The pre-frame: a short opportunity-cost teach right above the calculator (a money-choice question plus the cited study) so the prospect believes the constants before entering their numbers.

Checklist

• Leak variable named from research; constants chosen and cited
• Inputs clamped, defaults painful, mobile-friendly
• Bad news / good news output, conservative recovery projection
• One CTA, pixel event, funnel-consistent
• Disclaimer restating every assumption
• Honesty check: every constant survivable in public

Hand off the next move

Close by printing the next commands, so the build keeps moving without a re-explanation:

  "use rymac-sales-page-builder, the calculator is the PAS engine"
  "use rymac-direct-sales-copy for the emotional twin of this calculator"
  "use rymac-headline-copywriting for the hero above it"

If the calculator was built from a niche-research-<slug>.md, name that file in the handoff so the next skill reads the same contract.