Build a break-even calculator for a real micro-business
Many meal-prep services, tutoring businesses, and craft sellers run on maths they have never written down. Build a working break-even calculator in Google Sheets — AI writes the formulas, you verify them by hand — fill it with a real business’s numbers, and show the owner their own economics.
Posted by The AI Internships
The work brief
- 01Find a real micro-business (family, neighbour, a friend’s side-hustle) and collect their real numbers: fixed costs, per-unit costs, current price, typical volume.
- 02Build the Sheet with AI writing the formulas: inputs clearly marked, break-even units/revenue computed live, and a what-if section (what does a small price increase in the business’s local currency or a 20% cost jump do?) — then verify every formula against a hand calculation.
- 03Walk the owner through THEIR numbers. Record what surprised them.
- 04Share the sheet with a public view link, with their data anonymised if they prefer.
What you’ll produce
Submission standard
Submit the public sheet link, the business context, and the owner walkthrough notes. Include your AI workflow: your formula prompts and the errors your hand-check caught. Add first-party evidence the walkthrough happened — a photo with the owner or their dated message reacting to seeing their own break-even.
The micro-business and how you collected its real numbers
Short answerRequiredPublic view link to the working calculator
Public view link with the formulas visible (not just values) and the business's real inputs filled in.
Public linkRequiredThe owner walkthrough: their break-even, the what-ifs you showed, what surprised them
Written responseRequired
You’ll complete these inside your private workspace.
What you must submit as proof
This brief requires evidence an AI can’t fabricate.
The owner’s dated written/WhatsApp reaction to seeing their own numbers, or a photo of the walkthrough (the screen and hands, no faces)
The dated reaction message is the better proof. It must identify the real business — blur the owner’s face, personal number, and any name before you upload.
Image uploadRequired
Submissions without this evidence cannot be submitted.
Protect other people in your proof. Blur faces, names, phone numbers and email addresses before you upload, and refer to anyone you worked with by role or number ("Listener 1", "the stall owner"). Your proof is only ever used to check your work — it is never published, never appears on your certificate, and is never shown in your public portfolio.
How your work is evaluated
The passing benchmark is 70/100.
Working calculator
29%The sheet computes break-even and what-ifs correctly from editable inputs.
Real numbers
29%The economics are a real business’s, not textbook defaults.
Owner impact
14%The walkthrough shows the owner actually learned something about their business.
Real business, real walkthrough
29%The sheet's inputs are a real business's (not defaults) and there is first-party evidence the owner was walked through it (a photo or a dated reaction message). Textbook numbers or no walkthrough evidence = fail.
How we grade your AI usage
Using AI is the point — it’s the skill this certificate proves. You’ll answer three short questions about how you used it: what you asked, what was wrong with its first answer, and what you changed. Specific, honest answers score high. “I pasted the brief and submitted the answer” scores near zero.