SUPPLY AND DEMAND
Module 1 - SLP
For the SLP this session, come up with an idea for a business you would
like to start someday. This should be a business in an industry that you
are familiar with and can find a lot of information about. This could be a
type of business that you are currently working for or have worked for in
the past, or a type of business that you are a frequent customer of. Finally
– since you will have to make estimates about costs of starting up the
business or what type of price you can charge, it is best to keep your
business idea relatively simple.
For this first SLP, discuss your business idea and do some initial research
on what prices your potential competitors in your home town are charging.
More specifically, write a three-page paper discussing the following issues:
1. What business do you want to start, and why? Explain your personal
connection to this type of business and discuss sources of information
about this business that you plan to use for your SLP.
2. What prices are these businesses in your chosen industry charging?
Try to get at least ten examples of businesses and the prices they are
charging, and create a table that lists the prices and any other relevant
information, such as whether the product they sell is high-end quality or
lower-end quality.
3. Do you notice a large range of prices that businesses are charging for
the service or product? If so, what factors do you think explain the
range of prices? Is it the quality of the product or service, location of the
business, amount of advertising done by each business, other?
Based on your answers to Questions 1 and 2 above, do you think your
product or service will have elastic or inelastic demand? You don’t have to
do any calculations since you probably won’t have access to sales data on
the businesses you are looking at – but based on the range of prices, you
should be able to get an idea about how sensitive consumers of your
product or service will be to changes in price. In addition to your own
research about prices in your home town, cite some of the required
background reading on elasticity to justify your answer.
Listen
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SLP Assignment Expectations
Answer the assignment questions directly.
• Stay focused on the precise assignment questions. Do not go off on
tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background
materials.
• Make sure to use reliable and credible sources as your references.
Articles published in established newspapers or business
journals/magazines are preferred. If you find articles on the Internet,
make sure they are from a credible source.
• Reference your sources of information with both a bibliography and intext
citations. See the Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality
Academic Paper, including pages 11- 14 on in-text citations. Another
resource is the “Writing Style Guide,” which is found under “My
Resources” in the TLC Portal.
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