For this chapter’s online journal, think about a business you want to start some day for yourself. It can be either be an online business or an online service provider or a physical shop. Some examples that come to mind are: an online personal shopper business for elders and people who can’t leave the house during the pandemic. Or it can be a bakery who sells and delivers baked-goods or a reseller of masks imported from overseas or custom car shop. Be creative. It can be any legal business you want to start.

1. Create a flexible budget for your business with these figures:

Sales (price x quantity)

– Cost of Goods Sold/ Variable Costs

– Fixed Costs

= Income from Operations

Create 3 levels of sales/production for this budget. See the Flexible Budget on page 995 Exhibit 23.3.

You can create this budget in Excel /Google Spreadsheet and copy and paste it into the text box by hitting “reply” for submission.

2. List the assumptions you used for the “Sales” figures and the “Cost figures”. Where would you go to get realistic numbers for your flexible budget? What are the sources of these figures?

3. What would determine the different levels of sales/production?

4. What would you do if you had favorable or unfavorable revenue variances?

5. What would you do if you had favorable or unfavorable cost variances?

To better understand what a favorable/unfavorable revenue and cost variance is, you can read your book obviously, and you can watch this YouTube Video.