how do you find percentage profit

Re: how do you find percentage profit

Well....that depends on what we're taking a percentage of.  Generally, we're interested in finding either:

1) Percentage of profit with repect to cost (usually called the "mark-up")    .....  OR  ......

2) Percentage of profit with respect to sales (usually called the "margin")

Let me give you a simple example to demonstrate the difference. Suppose we bought something for $8 (our cost) and sold it for $10 (our sales price).  Then, we made a profit of $2.

The percentage of profit with respect to cost = (profit)/((cost) = (2)/(8) = (1)/(4) = 25%

The percentage of profit with respect to sales = (profit)/((sales price) = (2)/(10) = (1)/(5) = 20%

(Of course, most businesses usually prefer the former measure. It makes them seem more "profitable.")

CPhill is right but normally percent profit is worked out on cost price.

So if cost price is $20  and sale price is $25 then profit is $5

Percent profit is usually considered to be profit/cost price * 100% 

5/20*100% = 25%