Question

John decided to leave his job and open a bookshop in the city center. He was working as an engineer before and getting an annual salary of $35000. For the bookshop he paid $20000 for his worker, $15000 for rent, $10000 for utilities. He used his savings that was equivalent to $60000 at an interest rate of 7%. He bought all the books that he planned to sell by his savings. If he opens his bookshop in mall rather than city center his profit was predicted to be $25000. At the end of the first year his revenue from sales was identical to $210000. For John a) Calculate the implicit costs. b) Calculate the explicit costs. c) Calculate the total cost. d) Calculate his profit/loss. e) Should he continue to the business or go back to his job?

Answer 1

a) Calculate the implicit costs

Implicit costs are the opportunity costs, the earnings that John forgone for running his business. These are:

His $35,000 annual salary as an engineer.

His $60,000 savings earning a 7% interest rate, for a total annual return of $64,200,

So his total implicit costs are 35,000 + 64,200 = $99,200

b) Calculate the explicit costs.

The explicit costs are the things John has to actually pay money for while running his business: 20,000 for his worker + 15,000 for rent, and 10,000 for utilities = 45,000 in total.

c) Calculate the total cost.

Total costs = implicit costs + explicit costs

Total costs = 99,200 + 45,000

Total costs = 144,200

d) Calculate his profit/loss.

His accounting profit is the revenue he obtains from his business minus his explicit costs:

accounting profit = 210,000 - 45,000 = 165,000 profit

His economic profit is the revenue minus his total costs

economic profit = 210,000 - 144,200 = 65,800 profit

e) Should he continue to the business or go back to his job?

He should continue running his business because he is earning both an economic profit and an accounting profit compared with what he was earning as an engineer + his savings.