Question

After graduating, you might decide to start a small business. As discussed in this chapter, owners of any business need to know how to calculate the cost of their products. In fact, many small businesses fail because they don't accurately calculate their product costs, so they don't know if they are making a profit or losing money—until it's too late.Suppose that you decide to start a landscape business. You use an old pickup truck that you've fully paid for. You store the truck and other equipment in your parents' barn, and you store trees and shrubs on their land. Your parents will not charge you for the use of these facilities for the first two years, but beginning in the third year they will charge a reasonable rent. Your mother helps you by answering phone calls and providing customers with information. She doesn't charge you for this service, but she plans on doing it for only your first two years in business.In pricing your services, should you include charges for the truck, the barn, the land, and your mother's services when calculating your product cost?InstructionsWrite a response indicating your position regarding this situation. Provide support for your view.

Answer 1

Answer:

When the value of the service ends, it will be necessary to include the charges for the truck, the granary and the land. It is not necessary to include your mother's service charges, as she is not charging for the service.

Explanation:

Setting up your own business can be quite a big challenge and you need a lot of control and planning so you don't have to lose money. One of the biggest challenges of becoming an entrepreneur is to price the service performed. As was said in the question above, many people do not know how to place a value on the service produced, mainly because they are unable to identify the expense for service production.

In summary, the expense to produce the service must take into account all charges related to any element necessary to perform the service. Thus, we can consider that in the case shown in the question above, it will be necessary for you to include expenses with the truck (gasoline, repairs, exchange of parts, etc.), with the rent of the granary, with the rent of the land and with the gratification of any employee. Since your mother is not charging for her services, this charge should not be included, however, your mother will only be in this service for two years. If the person replacing your mother charges for the service, this should be added to the cost.