Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with profit

How does Baskin-Robbins stay in business?

crazycanuck — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 07:50:19 -0800

How does Baskin-Robbins stay in business? Baskin-Robbins has over 5000 franchise locations. They're open year round, even in the damp Pacific northwest. They cannot get a ton of foot traffic in some of these locations, especially since some that I know of are not in pedestrian friendly spots. Are ice cream cakes and a couple of hours a day of ice cream cones really high margin enough to sustain a retail location? How is ice cream a profitable business? I am surprised that they are able to sustain so many stores. Thanks

How should i split iphone development profit?

Merik — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 04:35:37 -0800

I've made the plunge into iphone development. Ive started working on ideas with a friend who is a talented graphic designer. My question is: how should I split profits from the applications with him? I need some advice.

My background: I'm a good programmer and I've bought a mac mini, an iphone, and I'm learning objective-c and xcode.
Graphic Designers background: Good designer, a friend, has owned an iphone since first gen, knows the culture.

We both have alot of good ideas.

He was thinking a 50/50 split but as I'm beginning to see that the applications will require alot of development time compared to design work. I don't think that is fair,especially since im investing alot of time learning the new platform/language. I dont want to ruin the energy we have going, but i also don't want to be taken advantage of.

Can anyone give some suggestions on how we should divide the profit/earnings from the applications?

Any suggestions, advice, or help is appreciated.

Am I alone here?

holdenjordahl — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 20:28:58 -0800

Anyone know of a way to quantify (by region, nationally; individually, collectively; percentages, ballparks numbers, quotes, et cetera) how non-profit theatres are faring, say, from the past year year or two to now, in the pursuit of foundation money? Assiduous though my efforts have been, I need to put my to-date dismal efforts into perspective for myself and soon, methinks, for others. Thanks.

How do you deal with professional threats?

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:51:24 -0800

My boss swings from one conspiracy theory to another about our work and her/our future. What are some ways to force her to stop? I work in a small fundraising office for a big multiple services non-profit. By small, I mean there is my boss, her deputy (me), and an assistant.

We have a central office that turns out our marketing and paraphernalia and does major events.

My boss started there and then was farmed out to run the office where I now work. For the lack of interest from the people this organization serves, we have been remarkably successful even in these economic conditions. I am very enthusiastic about the organizational mission and have activated many of this group's employees to think about advocating for funding.

Because our marketing is handled outside of our office, there are always several layers of discussion between our idea and their end-product. This means that I spend a lot of time rewriting marketing copy and defining our mission.

I don't enjoy rewriting, but my boss sees it as a personal affront to her intelligence and her dignity and reacts extremely harshly and in the most demoralizing tone. I have worked hard to build meaningful working relationships and I am beginning to worry these alliances are being sabotaged because my boss thinks that outsiders are attempting to usurp her power and control. In reality, she has many friends among the organizational leadership, but we are a small office and so, "Small Fry".

When she feels like someone is trying to change aspects of a project she is leading, she will call me, demand I drop whatever I am doing and then I must spend an hour or more in her office to learn how she will soon be tendering her resignation. I have been keeping a tally of these meetings and since I started in the summer, it amounts of over 30 occasions - often twice in one week.

I was advised at first to attempt to turn these tirades into teaching moments. But, I realize she feels like she needs to win my loyalty to her cause. This is ridiculous, she is the person I work with daily. My job is fully invested in her success and she is aware of this. My loyalty to her should not be an issue.

I am not qualified to take up her position if she does follow through on her threat to resign. I am also only really in the beginning of developing a cohort of good donors. I was recommended for the position because of my ability to grow small ideas and turn them into opportunities to activate large groups of like-minded people. I am young and successful in motivating people to give their time and support to causes and people I love and respect. I want to protect my position and support my boss but I can't keep going to these meetings and nodding blankly. I feel like I should threaten to quit. Advice would be helpful.

Not just profit but organic profit

rongorongo — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 03:20:57 -0800

What is meant by the term "Organic Profit"?

In This current monitary climate, why don't manufacturers sell their goods at a cheaper price??

maxmix — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 14:05:39 -0800

In This current monitary climate, why don't manufacturers sell their goods at a cheaper price?? Wouldn't it be better for companies to sell their goods at a lower price, making less profit,but selling more, rather than at a higher price, selling less??

Profiting from the Feed Icon ?

querty — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 21:58:54 -0800

Profiting from the Feed Icon ? graphics.design.legal.filter.dot.dot.dot...

If I wanted to do a design that includes the Feed Icon as the main focus (but not as the main subject) and the icon is only seen in less than ~25% of the design as a small element or if the Feed Icon is broken up in half or in a few pieces, would that be "okay" with Mozilla's Feed Icon Guidelines? The design would then be sold for profit of course.

If you read the last 3 answers/paragraphs on their guidelines, it is really loosely written. So what is stopping people from making Feed Icon designs and selling them as t-shirts and mouse pads on CafePress?

If you check iStockphoto, there are people who sell the actual icon file with little to no accompanied designs/artwork: http://www.istockphoto.com/file_search.php?action=file&text=rss+feed+icon

Need your Help

avenue71 — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:42:44 -0800

I am working towards starting a non profit/NGO in Kenya to address issues of education, poverty,disease ie HIV AIDS, and leadership with a view of using a totally different theoretical framework in going about the issues. I am currently studying sustainable development in New Zealand and have a small pilot project going on there. I am looking for any partnership from individuals,organisations or companies or any interested parties who could be having similar passion from all over the world. Please provide me with any links, resources or even ideas and am sure this will make a landmark in a country thats really burdened..will be glad to get any kind of advice from you..cheers

1. Rare photo 2. ??? 3. Profit!

kimdog — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 06:55:33 -0800

Found a rare photo in an out-of-print edition of a book. How can we make the most of it? We've found a reprint of a daguerreotype of a famous incident in an out of print book. The image is long out of copyright and the original photo is thought to be lost. However, accepted knowledge of this subject (including scholars on the topic) state that there is only one know photo of the incident (and it's different than the one we've found). So basically, through some fluke, this second photo has been forgotten. How can we make some money off this situation? Once the photo is publicized, it's likely that other copies of the book will be found, and the photo will be reproduced by other people. We've considered setting up a website with ad revenue (because we think it could get a lot of hits in the short term), but what would be the easiest way to do this? Or is there something better we haven't thought of?

What do you think I should do?

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:17:32 -0800

Messy housing situation, tenant is manipulating landlord's poor English skills and profiting. Landlord has poor English-language comprehension. Tenant wrote one-page contract (with a LOT of grey area) he and landlord signed. Tenant is now stuffing the two-bedroom one-bathroom house with four subtenants, each of whom is paying an exorbitant sum for their room. Tenant actively seeks these subtenants from Craigslist and collects the difference.

I am one of the subtenants. I have cancelled my first rent + deposit check. He still has my $200 cash downpayment (which I don't think I'll ever see again). Tenant visits about once a week and does not know I cancelled yet. Spoke with landlord, she is eager to evict but speaks poor English and does not know how to go about it. She has offered me a room temporarily in her own house while I find a new place.

I signed a lease with tenant, but I am unsure as to its legality. He referred to himself as the owner of the house when I signed it, but orally, not in writing (as I now examine the contract more closely). He is authorized to rent out the rooms of the lease, but the problem here is that he is authorized to do so by the contract with the landlord that he himself wrote.

I want some sort of middle ground between getting the hell out and getting involved too deep. Advice would be appreciated.

I'm 22 by the way. Email exegesisofsqualor@gmail.com if you'd like a reply.

In summary:

-What can I do (if I should do anything?)
-Who can I contact about this?
-What makes a tenancy agreement legally binding?
-Is there some Spanish-language information resource I could refer my landlord to about eviction procedures in the state of California?

(No rent control involved in this situation)

Web Accessibility: Numbers?

Ky — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:37:14 -0800

Are there any documented cases or studies that actually measure how web accessible design impacts the "bottom line" for a company? One argument I see all the time is that there are N disabled web users in the world, and if an average consumer spends $ at a site, having an inaccessible site design reduces potential profit by N($). Or something like that.

So besides the legal necessity and argument for rights (which are good), have there been any solid economic markers for the effects of accessibility?

I've heard of the NFB v. Target thing, but I think that's still ongoing and haven't seen numbers for that.

Please explain the economics of energy and oil.

F.Jasmine Addams — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 05:23:51 -0800

How do gas companies get away with raising prices so much when they are reporting such high profits? I just heard on the radio that Shell reported a 14% rise in profits over the last year, the largest increase in history for a US company. British gas here in the UK are raising prices by 35% (!), but they are reporting billions of pounds of profit - so much profit that the government are considering a windfall tax for British Gas, but is that something that is going to reduce that 35% increase? How do massive profits + massive price increases NOT equal profiteering?
I am obviously mostly ignorant about economics, but I would like to learn more, so any books/articles that will help me understand this would be appreciated in addition to your explanations

Ad-based Economies

Non Prosequitur — Sun, 11 May 2008 11:04:57 -0800

Are there industries that are as dependent on advertising revenue as The Media and (Free) Web Apps? I can't shake a prejudice I've acquired recently of thinking of ad-based revenue as "fake revenue".

It was precipitated by looking at the Adsense reports for a firm and realizing that they were basically running on nothing. If they'd spent as much time writing random blogs as they had making technology they'd probably have higher revenues (if their plan is just to slap on AdSense.)

(I realize that a lot of these firms roll out speculative sites/applications rather than safely profitable ventures just to see what catches on, and that doing custom ad sales can be better than using automated ad networks.)

But I still feel that unless you're pulling in 'customer money' or real affiliate money somewhere in the flow you're heavily dependent on something that's pretty shaky (advertising budgets: whimsical because of how they flow in and out of particular media, and ebb according to the macroeconomic context.)

Is pulling money from showing banner ads just as 'solid' as pulling money from customer pockets in terms of what firms outside of the internet sector do? (Or, Do you know of any resources I could read to explore the idea of Ad/Sponsorship-based Economics?)

Need X income, therefore business must by Y profitable?

garfy3 — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 14:42:08 -0800

Simple set of calculations/spreadsheet formulas for thinking about the true cost of starting a business or going freelance? I'd like to do a spreadsheet that "reverse calculates" what I would need to charge per-widget in order to make a living wage. Something like input-current-cost-of-living, then see how many widgets you can make in a day, and see how productive you'd have to be. (Asking because I noted a colleague of mine had "gone independent" and was charging $17 per digital image to clients...thought this was rediculously expensive, then figured taxes/health insurance, etc, might even make this way unprofitable?).

I've seen cortex's question which covers some of the considerations on starting/not-starting a business. One of these is "if you have to pay self-employment tax then reduce your profit calculations by 40%." Got it. So I'm thinking the equation should show loss to taxes, loss to health insurance, loss to business registration fees, loss to capital expenditures, etc? What else do I need to add to this equation?

(Oh, and I'm in the US).

It was here just last week...

edjusted — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 17:48:17 -0800

One of our local malls, South Coast Plaza in Orange County, *constantly* moves stores around and the stores *constantly* remodel. Why, and is it mandatory? I mean, I'm sure someone(s) smarter than me has decided that it's worth all the money they spend to move/remodel stores. Is that all there is to my question? Why don't other malls seem to do this? Is South Coast Plaza different because it's more of an upscale/luxury mall? Is it unique to certain malls? Does the mall force the stores to move? Or is this something the stores ask to do?

How do I apply a new technology to old products when I have access to neither, and make money doing it?

UnclePlayground — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 06:10:59 -0800

How do I apply a new technology to old products when I have access to neither, and make money doing it? Let's say there's this new, great technology just announced. Really brand new. The people who have come up with it really don't even know what to do with it. They have a few applications, but nothing extraordinary. And then I see a niche in the marketplace that this technology can be applied to. Consumers will pay lots of money if this new technology is applied to products already available. There's a lot of doubt that these products currently work properly. With the new technology applied, chances are that the product will be fool-proof and everyone will want one.

Now, I have access to neither the new technology, or the products. Just the idea to combine the two. How do I get a percentage of the profits from presenting my idea to the right people? Is this a patent lawyer thing? How do I get the best deal for myself from my idea?

MR=MC - Why?

champthom — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 09:07:30 -0800

EconomicsFilter: why does profit maximize when marginal revenue = marginal cost? To get this out of the way: no, this is not for any sort of assignment, research paper, etc.

As a student of economics, I've always been told that in perfect competition, MR=MC. But one thing I've been struggling with lately is - why?

I understand why MC > MR would be bad, since it would cost more to produce an additional unit than that same unit would generate in revenue. But what I don't understand why MR > MC would continue until MR = MC. Wouldn't one want its marginal revenue to be greater than its marginal costs? I mean, if profit is maximized when there is the greatest difference between total revenue and total cost, why is the same not the case here? Let's say if MC = $10 and MR = $20, why wouldn't a producer just call it a day and be happy with a $10 marginal profit (please correct me if this example is flawed).

I've looked at some textbooks for their explanation but it really didn't answer my question. Furthermore, I haven't had too much luck online, and Wikipedia's or Wikibooks' explanation isn't too satisfactory either. Perhaps the Hive Mind has a good explanation...

How to make a small profit with currency if you have regular access to the Euro and Slovak Crown?

freddymetz — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 13:24:47 -0800

How to make a small profit with currency if you have regular access to the Euro and Slovak Crown? I'm not really sure how to phrase this question, but i am regularly in germany and slovakia and the euro has much more value than the slovak koruna (1 euro is 34.44 koruna). How do i make a small profit when using these two currencies?
and also how can i follow the exchange rate to make profit?

Feeding the starving artists.

sarahsynonymous — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 21:08:45 -0800

What are the most effective ways to monetarily support my favorite artists? These days, I very rarely purchase CDs. However, when I get interested in a smaller/indie artist, I do my best to buy CDs or other merchandise by them, because I know that monetary support can mean an awful lot to a struggling artist. However, I want to make sure that as much money as possible actually reaches the artist in question.

My preferred course of action is always to buy from the merch table at a performance; there, most, if not all of the profit goes directly to the artist. (Right?) If attending a concert isn't feasible, I see what's available straight from the artist online, if anything; if they're signed to a small record label, I'll try to go directly through the label.

Beyond this, I'm at a loss. I guess my basic question is, is there a way to know which retailers give the largest profit percentage back to the artist? For example, when big box stores (Target, Wal-Mart, etc.) mark down prices, whose profits are consequently decreased? I also know that the larger the record label, the larger cut they take of the earnings, so I'm also wondering if there are any general numbers about some of the bigger labels.

If you have any insights regarding monetary support of other kinds of artists (authors, filmmakers, photographers and so on), I would love to hear them as well. If I'm going to give in to the capitalist system, I figure I might as well do it as effectively as possible. Thanks!

Does anyone have any information regarding Westwood College in Chicago, a FOR PROFIT university?

bash — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 07:58:31 -0800

Does anyone have any information regarding Westwood College in Chicago, a FOR PROFIT university? Basically, just that. My friend has an interview for a position there, and we want to get some idea of what it is like to work there.

Checklist/survey to determine whether we need to build additional web sites?

potsmokinghippieoverlord — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 22:30:44 -0800

Does every non-profit campaign or project need a web site? How can I determine or prioritize the need for a web site? Background: I work for a non-profit organization. We have several satellite offices. My department has become very well-funded, so our satellite offices have approached my department with lists of "special projects" -- initiatives or projects that they wish would have more publicity, or a place to serve as a clearinghouse of information for coalitions.

While we have more funding than usual, we do have limits -- especially the availability of our web team to build and maintain these sites. In the past, we've had these spin-off sites maintained outside of the control of the web team by other staff members, and without fail, these sites are not maintained.

We tried outsourcing some web sites to outside vendors, with very mixed results. It always takes more of our time and resources to deal with the vendors and audit their work than we anticipate.

I'm cognizant that the money we'll be spending isn't really "our" money, but given to us by our donors and supporters. I want to do right by them. Maybe some of this money is better spent on paid media, or hiring grassroots organizers.

So -- I'm looking for a list of questions (maybe a checklist?) that we could use to determine whether these special projects are best served with an entirely new and separate web site for each, or if they should be part of our main site.

I don't rule the zoo here -- I'm a cog in the machine. But I want to be a smart, useful cog. Help?

Getting permission to use a likeness in merchandise?

keswick — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 10:56:57 -0800

I have a great idea for a meme with assorted merchandise involving a deceased musician and his likeness. How do I pitch this to the appropiate person so that I might profit legitimately and what are the typical terms of such an arrangement?

How to start a business from a hobby

Leud — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 06:46:31 -0800

Help a bunch of idiots start a business maybe - advice required on how to go about it. We (a motley crue of 12 adults) have been running LAN parties monthly for 18 months. We averaged 25 attendees but are now ramping up due to a surge in interest to 60-80 people. We are concered about legal implications as these are not free events, we charge a small fee to cover costs and supply networking equipment - We're sourcing a new venue and gaining sponsership from local businesses. Do we need to register as a company? Non Profit org (We funnel all profits *so far* into new equipment for the lan) or something? What about legal implications/insurance if someone gets hurt etc? How do we do whatever it is we need to do? This is in the UK for legal issues.

Adsense ebook worth the money?

o2b — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 09:18:11 -0800

Google Adsense Secrets: Is this ebook worth buying? (I really want to know, I'm not shilling for it.) I have a site that could be performing better, I'm sure. But I'm naturally skeptical of the hard sell. Anybody have experience with this? Or have a better idea?

We need insurance for our non-profit organization.

F Mackenzie — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 20:26:19 -0800

Does anyone have experience with non-profit liability insurance policies? We're looking at a general liability policy for our small non-profit, plus liability coverage for individual board members.