Running head: HUMAN SERVICES ON HOMELESSNESS 1 HUMAN SERVICES ON HOMELESSNESS 10 Human Services on Homelessness Name Institution Date Human Services on Homelessness United States government's has an important organization for securing the strength of all Americans and supporting the conveyance of key human administrations, particularly for the individuals who are minimum ready to help them. In that capacity, the conveyance of treatment and administrations to persons encountering vagrancy is incorporated in the exercises of the Department (Woodside & McClam, 2014). The coordination of these administrations, both inside of the Department, and in addition with our Federal accomplices who give lodging and integral administration projects, is a discriminating segment of accomplishing the objective of counteracting and ending homelessness. However the issue of homelessness is a critical life situation that requires proper ethical skills among the social workers involved. Interpersonal Skills of Dealing with Homelessness Communication It is crucial for Social Workers working with the homelessness to have the capacity to compose for an assortment of gatherings of people. You should have the capacity to express your skill to supervisors, directors, court frameworks and customers to give some examples. Generally speaking, when composing archives to which customers will have admittance, I make a point to use as meager the language as could reasonably be expected. Where language is required, I guarantee that this is clarified as basically as could be expected under the circumstances so we keep correspondence open and legitimate (Burt & Wilkins, 2012). It is essential in composed correspondence, particularly formal reports and those for the court, to spell legitimately and be linguistically right. Listening Listening in any Social Work setting refers to how we assemble data. It is not just essential to listen and hear what the individual is stating yet you need to reveal to you are effectively occupied with discussion with the goal it should be substantive. Individuals like to see that you are locked in with them (Woodside & McClam, 2014). Gesturing, making positive sounds, looking, requesting illumination, sitting at a separate separation, confronting a man while they are talking are all approaches to demonstrate that you are effectively tuning in. It may be ideal to apportion time for you to take notes taking after a meeting or session with a customer. Critical thinking There are numerous events when we become acquainted with our customers or clients in times of an emergency. It is vital that we recognize what the emergency is and address it. In the event that we are working in a long haul group we will need to get this tended to so we can begin on the arrangement for the gang (Burt & Wilkins, 201.

1. Running head: HUMAN SERVICES ON HOMELESSNESS
1
HUMAN SERVICES ON HOMELESSNESS
10
Human Services on Homelessness
Name
Institution
Date
Human Services on Homelessness
United States government's has an important organization for
securing the strength of all Americans and supporting the
conveyance of key human administrations, particularly for the
individuals who are minimum ready to help them. In that

2. capacity, the conveyance of treatment and administrations to
persons encountering vagrancy is incorporated in the exercises
of the Department (Woodside & McClam, 2014). The
coordination of these administrations, both inside of the
Department, and in addition with our Federal accomplices who
give lodging and integral administration projects, is a
discriminating segment of accomplishing the objective of
counteracting and ending homelessness. However the issue of
homelessness is a critical life situation that requires proper
ethical skills among the social workers involved.
Interpersonal Skills of Dealing with Homelessness
Communication
It is crucial for Social Workers working with the homelessness
to have the capacity to compose for an assortment of gatherings
of people. You should have the capacity to express your skill to
supervisors, directors, court frameworks and customers to give
some examples. Generally speaking, when composing archives
to which customers will have admittance, I make a point to use
as meager the language as could reasonably be expected. Where
language is required, I guarantee that this is clarified as
basically as could be expected under the circumstances so we
keep correspondence open and legitimate (Burt & Wilkins,
2012). It is essential in composed correspondence, particularly
formal reports and those for the court, to spell legitimately and
be linguistically right.
Listening
Listening in any Social Work setting refers to how we assemble
data. It is not just essential to listen and hear what the
individual is stating yet you need to reveal to you are
effectively occupied with discussion with the goal it should be
substantive. Individuals like to see that you are locked in with
them (Woodside & McClam, 2014). Gesturing, making positive
sounds, looking, requesting illumination, sitting at a separate
separation, confronting a man while they are talking are all

3. approaches to demonstrate that you are effectively tuning in. It
may be ideal to apportion time for you to take notes taking after
a meeting or session with a customer.
Critical thinking
There are numerous events when we become acquainted with
our customers or clients in times of an emergency. It is vital
that we recognize what the emergency is and address it. In the
event that we are working in a long haul group we will need to
get this tended to so we can begin on the arrangement for the
gang (Burt & Wilkins, 2012). Critical thinking is much like
consideration arranging just in the short term. It is about
recognizing the issue, separating it into littler assignments and
allotting these, then returning to the table to verify that
everybody has finished their individual undertakings so the
issue is tended to. In situations when the issue is something
greater, similar to a lodging issue and so forth it might be that
this should be added to the consideration arrange as a more
drawn out term errand so it is not overlooked.
Choice Making
Decision making is about utilizing the data you need to concoct
an arrangement to get up and go. This is a major piece of
administration. As a chief you go on the data gave to you by
Social Workers to give case oversight and course (Durham,
2014). For this to work and work appropriately, the data should
be as exhaustive as could be expected under the circumstances
and it should be exact. Settling on choices on odds and ends of
data without having a perspective of the master plan is risky and
professionally unsound.
Assertiveness
Being a self-assured social worker means being clear about your
part as a Social Worker, what you are and are not equipped for
doing, what is and isn't inside of your dispatch, what the
outcomes are for not captivating and the succession of
occasions that may trigger the following level of intercession
(Martin, 2013). It's about sharing the work around not feeling
just as we have to do it all. Experts and customers alike are

4. truly cheerful to let us know when we are violating our limits or
attempting to amplify ourselves past our transmit, so I think it
is pivotal that we are generally as clear with them in terms of
the work. It is likewise about being clear about our power. It is
conceivable to do this without depicting ourselves as an entirely
reformatory body.
Personal and Professional Qualities in Provision of Human
Services
Life skills are the aptitudes that numerous individuals
underestimate, such as overseeing cash, shopping, cooking,
running a home and keeping up interpersonal organizations
(Martin, 2013). They are crucial for living freely. Some
vagrants don't have these abilities, either on the grounds that
they never obtained them or because they lost them through
developed times of vagrancy. Helping vagrants get life abilities
can help them proceed onward from vagrancy and resettle into
the group.
Observation
A social work professional starts as a connected social
researcher. Notwithstanding numerous MSW graduates' dull
recollections of their obligatory research course, social work
hone regularly begins with an essential exploration technique
perception (Burt & Wilkins, 2012). Review your latest
psychosocial evaluation. Some time recently, amid, and after
you asked a solitary inquiry, you utilized your faculties to
watch and record the customer's verbal reactions as well as his
or her nonverbal communication.
Self-awareness
A social worker’s viability relies on her or his level of
mindfulness. As a social specialist, my dependence on
utilization of self inside of the setting of the remedial
relationship obliges me to create and refine consciousness of my
inspirations, suspicions, desires, and inclinations. Skill in
watching, investigating, and articulating how my musings and
emotions affect my conduct and how my conduct sways others
is an essential for the cognizant improvement and course of a

5. helping relationship to encourage change (Martin, 2013). A high
level of mindfulness encourages a social laborer's capacity to
distinguish transference and counter-transference issues and use
this data to evaluate nature of treatment intercessions.
Critical Thinking
How a social worker perceives information acquired not just
through perception, meetings, and case record/report survey
additionally clinical supervision, exploration, and discussion
impacts the customer's evaluation, conclusion, treatment,
assessment, and end. Discriminating intuition requests that the
social laborer consider how his inspirations, suspicions, desires,
and predispositions (mindfulness) shape the lens through which
he dissects and reaches inferences from the accessible
information (Woodside & McClam, 2014). Despite the fact that
I've distinguished perception, mindfulness, and discriminating
thinking independently in this post, every one of the three of
these abilities meet and collaborate with one another to impact a
social specialist's introduction and practice.
Effective Communication
Powerful communication includes effectively listening to
comprehend and addressing be seen by your crowd (Durham,
2014). Therefore, a social specialist may adjust her
correspondence style different times amid a solitary workday to
augment her adequacy with customers, partners, bosses, or
group individuals. Social specialists depend on the quality of
their verbal relational abilities in settings as assorted as
supporting for a customer in an open advantages office, giving
instructive presentations in a congregation's association
corridor, serving as a specialist witness in a court, or affirming
before officials.
Perception on Dealing with the Homelessness
The homelessness should be treated in a special way than the
ordinary citizens. The team that is providing the humanity
services to the population should try to make the homelessness
feel to be part of the society. Encouragement helps the
population to feel the recognition the society (Durham, 2014).

6. Therefore the social workers dealing with this group should
have the proper ethical skills as discussed above.
Strategies o f Improving Professional Skills
The provision of humanity services is a group’s responsibility.
Individuals therefore can learn from one another. Some of the
strategies of improving professional skills and competencies
include,
Taking Initiative
Most supervisors will allot their representatives work that the
workers is being skilled at. Hence, don't hold up to tackle more
obligations. Go well beyond at your present position (Durham,
2014). A decent approach to add to your aptitudes is to tackle
additional tasks outside of your set of working responsibilities.
Keep in mind, the more work you do, the more you are learning.
Adapting more and tackling more obligations can help move
you into an initiative part in your work environment.
Be Forecasted
To be employed for a prominent employment, you should be a
basic scholar. Great learners have the capacity to predict
potential issues before they happen. They can then create
approaches to keep the issues from happening. Great pioneers
are additionally mindful of potential open doors and exploit
them to advantage the organization and other employees.
Discipline
Discipline is needed so as to execute the objective. Regardless
of the fact that you have a dream or a smart thought, it’s futile
without control. On the off chance that you need to execute
successfully, you need control (Leopold, 2014). For instance,
you and your group needed to make a strategy for success to
draw in speculators. You had loads of thoughts for the
marketable strategy, yet there was no control set up to guarantee
the presentation was practiced. When it came time to present the
proposition, you were not ready to legitimately impart your
target to the financial specialists. This brought about the
speculators declining your proposition.
Handling Conflicts

7. Professionals need to know how to handle troublesome
individuals and purpose clashes. In the event that a worker
doesn't work to the best of his or her capacity and conveys an
antagonistic disposition to work, pioneers need to venture up
and converse with that individual in private. Social workers
must be fair and straight to the point. This obliges a
considerable measure of boldness (Martin, 2013). It is not
simple to bring up an issue or flame somebody. Continuously
listen to the other employees’ side of the story before you
achieve a conclusion.
Challenges in Provision of Human Services to Homelessness
Social workers help individuals who have various issues in the
society (Leopold, 2014). Since helping the homelessness in the
society is a social work, professionals or the social workers may
experience the following challenges,
Workload/Limited Resources
Social specialists in all states have seen their workloads
increment after some time (Leopold, 2014). This is for the most
part because of greater caseloads, yet different elements, for
example, more prominent printed material and divulgence
necessities, and needing to pursuit longer and harder to discover
administrations for customers on account of cuts in government
financing for some social projects, have likewise prompted
essentially expanded workloads for social workers.
Stress/Compassion Fatigue
Social professionals may develop job relates compassion,
anxiety or stress. This anxiety is surely identified with high
workloads and testing customers, yet empathy weakness
additionally assumes a part for some social specialists (Leopold,
2014). Compassion fatigue is otherwise called optional
traumatic anxiety issue, and shows as a progressive decreasing
of and once in the past solid sympathy for the affliction of
others.

8. References
Burt, M. R., & Wilkins, C. (2012). Health, housing, and service
supports for three groups of people experiencing chronic
homelessness. Washington DC: Office of the Assistant
Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Department of Health
and Human Services. http://aspe. hhs.
gov/daltcp/reports/2012/ChrHomls1. shtml.
Durham, C. (2014). Innovations in NYC Health and Human
Services Policy: Homelessness Prevention, Intake, and Shelter
for Single Adults and Families.
Leopold, J. (2014). Innovations in NYC Health and Human
Services Policy: Street Homelessness and Supportive Housing.
Martin, M. E. (2013). Introduction to human services: Through
the eyes of practice settings. Pearson Higher Ed.
Woodside, M., & McClam, T. (2014). An introduction to the
human services. Cengage Learning.

9. Thomas Money Service Inc. Scenario
ECO/561 Version 9
1
Thomas Money Service Inc. Scenario
Thomas Money Service Inc. has been in business since 1940. It
started out as a consumer finance company granting small loans
for household needs. Over the following 5 years, the company
expanded its services by issuing business loans, business
acquisition financing, and commercial real estate loans.
In 1946, the decision was made to branch out into equipment
financing. A subsidiary named Future Growth Inc. (FGI) was
established. This decision turned out to be very lucrative.
Because of the end of World War II, society had a huge demand
for construction and forestry equipment. Because of increasing
demand for this type of equipment, FGI decided to make a very
daring move in 1951 and purchased an equipment manufacturing
company. Now they could build, sell, and finance their own
brand of building and forestry equipment. FGI discontinued
financing other brands of equipment.
For 67 years, FGI had been able to truthfully state that they
have continuously increased profits year after year, even during
economic downturns, and have never laid off workers. This
track record has allowed their stock to grow from $5.00 to
$85.60 with six stock splits from 1975 to 1998. FGI has never
issued bonds, and the present stock value is $35
The current global downturn has caused the American economy
to suffer. Oregon, Washington, and several other forestry states
have encountered flooding, massive fires, and protest from
animal activists. For the first time in FGI history, profits
declined—down 30% from last year—and they had to lay off

10. one-third of their workforce.
The falling economy has also caused a drop in new-home sales:
sales dropped 30% from the prior year and additional declines
are expected. This has caused a domino effect throughout the
entire construction industry. Not all sectors, however, are being
hit equally by the economy. Hospitals and nursing homes still
have a demand for new buildings.
Data
· There are currently many domestic and international
companies manufacturing construction and forestry equipment.
Each company’s equipment offers slightly different features and
functions, which allows the market to supply many substitutes.
· FGI has repossessed over 500 pieces of equipment during the
past year. They have bundled the pieces together and
determined an average price for each piece. The present selling
price is $1,732. Below are the demand figures for each price.
Demand data in millions in the past years
Price
Demand
1,990.1
123
1,732.0
182
1,634.3
350
1,252.0

11. 380
732.1
400
622.3
456
· In recent years, FGI had decreased its advertisement revenue,
selecting to have a commercial during the Super Bowl and a few
other sporting events.
FGI has cut down on manufacturing because of lack of demand.
Below is the combined production cost for construction and
forestry equipment. What level of demand generates the greatest
net income?
OUTPUT
PRICE
MARGINAL REVENUE
TOTAL REVENUE
TOTAL COST
FIXED COST
VARIABLE COST
MARGINAL COST
AVERAGE
FIXED COST
AVERAGE
VARIABLE COST
AVERAGE
TOTAL COST
0

12. $990.0
1
$2,600.0
$2,600.0
$2,600.0
$1,050.0
$990.0
$60.0
$60.0
$990.0
$60.0
$1,050.0
2
$2,500.0
$2,400.0
$5,000.0
$1,100.0
$990.0
$110.0
$50.0
$495.0
$55.0
$550.0
3
$2,400.0
$2,200.0
$7,200.0

13. $1,145.0
$990.0
$155.0
$45.0
$330.0
$51.7
$381.7
4
$2,300.0
$2,000.0
$9,200.0
$1,200.0
$990.0
$210.0
$55.0
$247.5
$52.5
$300.0
5
$2,200.0
$1,800.0
$11,000.0
$1,262.0
$990.0
$272.0
$62.0
$198.0
$54.4
$252.4
6
$2,100.0
$1,600.0
$12,600.0
$1,335.0
$990.0
$345.0

14. $73.0
$165.0
$57.5
$222.5
7
$2,000.0
$1,400.0
$14,000.0
$1,423.0
$990.0
$433.0
$88.0
$141.4
$61.9
$203.3
8
$1,900.0
$1,200.0
$15,200.0
$1,517.0
$990.0
$527.0
$94.0
$123.8
$65.9
$189.6
9
$1,800.0
$1,000.0
$16,200.0
$1,637.0
$990.0
$647.0
$120.0
$110.0
$71.9

15. $181.9
10
$1,700.0
$800.0
$17,000.0
$1,772.0
$990.0
$782.0
$135.0
$99.0
$78.2
$177.2
11
$1,600.0
$600.0
$17,600.0
$1,917.0
$990.0
$927.0
$145.0
$90.0
$84.3
$174.3
12
$1,500.0
$400.0
$18,000.0
$2,091.0
$990.0
$1,101.0
$174.0
$82.5
$91.8
$174.3

16. Will Bury’s Price Elasticity Scenario
ECO/561 Version 9
1
Will Bury’s Price Elasticity Scenario
Will Bury, an enterprising inventor, is convinced that soon
everyone will be reading or listening to everything digitally,
including books that have been mostly available in hard copy.
He knows that there are books on CD, but these are relatively
expensive and have been recorded using human readers. He also
knows that there is technology that can transform the printed
word into audio, but the sound is somewhat inhuman. Will plans
on speeding up the transformation with a proprietary technology
he has developed and patented. This technology takes the
printed word for text materials and creates a file with the option
of reading it digitally or listening to it with a realistic synthetic
voice. Will knows that he has free access to books no longer
under copyright protection, and he figures he can pay a royalty
fee of $5 per title for copyrighted books that will greatly expand
his catalog. So far, he has limited himself to English-language
books but is working on a language translation option as well.
To date, Will’s technical skills outpace his business acumen. He
is struggling with some basic decisions. He has been working on
his invention as a garage operation for the last few years and
has missed many of his daughter’s soccer games while working
at High Tech Digital Industries to keep his family comfortable
on his $200,000 annual salary and benefits package. Will may
eventually have to decide whether to devote most of his time to
his invention. Moreover, he is not sure how to determine all the
applications for his technology, who would want it, how it
would be delivered to customers, how many books would be
bought at what price, and so forth. Even after he has secured the
rights to copyrighted material, he needs some help acquiring the
books he wants to digitally transform and scanning them into
his digitizer. It is not difficult to train others to do this, but the
process takes about an hour per 500 pages to complete. To make

17. sure the process works well, Will has been doing this himself,
but he realizes this is neither a good use of his time nor will it
get many books digitized. Fortunately, the digitizer Will uses is
inexpensive to reproduce for others to use, and Will is certain
that the security he has encoded into it will prevent others from
unauthorized replication of the device. Where are the people
Will can hire to do the work, and how much should he pay
them? If it is easy to train workers in the United States to do
this, could Will pay $10 an hour for someone with the skills of
a high school graduate? If this is the skill level, could he pay a
worker overseas $2 an hour for the same service?
To address some of these issues, Will has been doing some
research. First, he checked online to discover that a 500-page
book on CD costs approximately $20. This is a good substitute
for his audio files, and further research suggests that he could
apply his digitizing process to more recent copyright-protected
books for a royalty fee of $5 per book. He would still incur the
labor charge of scanning the book. Will continues to wonder
whether people want to read digitally or listen to audio books,
or whether they still prefer a physical book to read. Will found
an article from a reputable source that suggests customers of
digital and audio books are relatively affluent, their household
incomes are above average, and acceptance of digital reading
for pleasure is lagging behind acceptance of digital reading for
business. The article found that digital listening is attracting the
same audience who download music to digital devices.
Further research has suggested that price is an important feature
driving the appeal of digital book files. Will is trying to apply
some earlier experiences in movie distribution to his digital
book project. When movies were first released for general
consumer distribution as videotapes, they were expensive—
about $80 per title. When the price was lowered to $20 per title,
evidence suggests that volume sales typically went up 600%. Of
course, not everything stayed the same. In recent years, movie
titles have been released more quickly following their showing

18. in theaters, there have been more extra features on the DVDs
because of greater storage capacity, and the format changed
from videotape to disk. Some have hinted that although there
are fewer blockbuster hits now, there are more titles appealing
to a broader audience. Will is trying to find more evidence of
the effect of price on volume demand, but this is all he has
discovered so far.
Nevertheless, Will must determine a launch price for when he
first introduces his digital titles to the market. He set up a
website offering his small catalog of books. He set the price at
$10 for a title on which copyright has lapsed and $15 for a title
that includes a royalty fee. He is a little disappointed in his
sales in the first 6 months of operation, having sold only 1,000
of the older books with a lapsed copyright and 2,000 of the
newer books. Moreover, he is confused as to why he sold twice
as many of the more expensive books. He wonders whether he
should lower or raise prices to increase his revenues. What
might he expect to happen to his volume sales if he does change
prices? If he decides to increase or decrease prices, is it better
to make a small change and observe the effects on quantity, or
will customers more likely react to a change in price of at least
$1 per title? If he changes his prices, will this have any effect
on the prices charged by big-volume sellers for conventional
hard-copy books?
While Will is pondering his pricing strategy, he visits a friend,
Elsa Budley, who has had experience selling online. Elsa started
an online business selling her artwork. Although her initial
sales were a bit disappointing, she offered some shocking
advice. She discovered that she sold more artwork when she
raised her prices at the same time that she expanded her online
advertising budget. Elsa thinks Will’s key to success is to raise
prices and sell more books!
Will senses that he is on the brink of great success with a

19. proprietary technology that transforms the way people access
books and other materials currently offered only in print. He is
also on the verge of making some fundamental business
mistakes, however, that could rob him of his success. He may be
more successful if he observes some basic concepts included in
the early part of this course.
Running head: ECO561 WEEK 4 BUSINESS PROPOSAL
1
ECO561 WEEK 4 BUSINESS PROPOSAL
2
ECO561 Week 4 Business Proposal
Business name and Type of Business:
The vision for The Family Joint is to meet the needs of busy
families for high quality family meals full of flavor and
nutrition. Rather than establishing a traditional “sit-down”
restaurant with high fixed overhead costs, The Family Joint will
operate as a fusion between a meal plan and a food cooperative.
Introduction:
The time constraints placed on modern family life:
People today are much more concerned with the value of time
than in the past. The economic need of maintaining a double-
income family structure has led to increased work hours for
mothers (the traditional food preparers) and unpredictability of
meal times for families. In particular, domestic cooking has
become a tedious, laborious, time-consuming chore that drains
time away from other aspects of daily living. (Daniels,
Glorieux, Minnen, & van Tienoven, 2012). In addition, the
increased obesity rate, especially in children, places increased

20. social guilt and shaming on mothers for decreasing these
activities. (Bowen, Elliot, and Brenton, 2014).
There is a large body of research supporting the importance of
family mealtime, which establishes good eating habits in
children and guides their diet choices into adulthood. Preparing
and serving home cooked meals is linked with increased
nutritional value and improved health for the children and
families. In particular, Skafida’s (2013) research concluded
that children who ate the same foods as their parents and ate
dinner at a regular time everyday had better nutritional
outcomes than those who did not.
The restaurant industry is ripe with food choices and restaurant
types. However, there is a drive among the millennial
generation for increased nutritional choices in prepared food
options that offer convenience along with freshly prepared,
organic, natural and nutritious foods. This gap between current
restaurant offerings and millennials’ expectations has not been
fully met. Therefore, a convenient non-traditional food service
that maximizes family time without the frustrations of cooking
and cleaning up could be just what this generation needs.
Description of the Business Goal:
The Family Joint could clearly bridge the gap between the need
for convenience and bringing nutritious meals to busy families.
The target population is Millennials who demand fresh, organic,
natural, and nutritious food options with a fusion flare.
The vision is to develop a meal plan of delicious “home-
cooked” food that families can pickup and enjoy 2-5 times per
week. This type of service is common within ethnic
communities such as Hispanics and Indians that are too busy to
cook at home or otherwise desire home-cooked food without
having to spend the time cooking. The goal of The Family Joint
is to provide nutritional foods prepared withorganic and natural

21. ingredients, withreduced fat and sodium, at a reasonable price
that middle-class families can afford.
The success of The Family Joint depends on establishing regular
customers committed to eating healthy family meals at least two
times a week. Since the business is centered around dinner
only, the location is of utmost importance. Furthermore, due to
this food service being pick up only, it needs to have either a
drive through facility or a free parking lot to facilitate customer
pick up.
Market/Competition:
(1) Customers
The targeted base of customers for Mama’s kitchen are
workingmothers that do not want to spend time cooking or
cleaning after a meal and appreciate the value of “quality
bonding time” spent with family. In addition, Millennials are
the ultimate targets of this business since they are the largest
American generation in history and have an approximated $1.3
trillion in spending power (McGrath, 2014, Apr 18). The
outlook is optimistic for food service providers that offer
convenience and healthy diet options to this generation because
even during economic downturns, Millennials continue to invest
in organic and natural food products.
(2) Competitors
Since the 1950s the restaurant and prepared foods industry is
one of the fastest growing industries in the U.S. generating
brisk competition (Madanoglu, Erdem, & Gursoy, 2008). The
market structure of this industry is that of a monopolistic
competition. This means that there are large number of sellers
producing differentiated products and where entry to and exit
out of the industry is relatively easy. Moreover, this market

22. structure dictates a substantial level of price elasticity of
demand. The major competitors for The Family Joint are casual
dining establishments that offer convenience, freshly prepared
foods, and increased organic and healthy diet options.
(3) Potential market share
The market share of these casual dining restaurants was
approximately 15% in 2002 with rapid growth observed
(Madanoglu, Erdem, & Gursoy, 2008). Total sales in this sector
were $65 billion in 2002 with a forecasted $92 billion in sales
by 2007 (Madanoglu, Erdem, & Gursoy, 2008). The average
costs per meal at these restaurants is currently between $8-$15
(Team, 2014, Jun 23). Therefore, in order for The Family Joint
to successfully enter this market, a complete four-person family
meal should be priced between $30-$58 depending on
carbohydrate, fresh fruit/vegetables, and protein offered with
additional charges for family-style desserts.
Financial Analysis:
In the short run, The Family Joint needs to minimize its loss and
begin to build a profit maximization strategy. In particular,
during the first year of business the firm must concentrate on
breaking even by ensuring that marginal costs are equal to
marginal revenue (MC = MR). The approximated break-even
point, based on hypothetical calculations of potential fixed
costs (such as a cost of certifications and farmer’s market
marketing costs) and approximated variable costs (such as
commercial kitchen hourly rental), is $60,240 for the first year
of operations. This break-even point is where the total costs
equal the total revenues for the business, including payment of
opportunity cost for entrepreneurial talent as well as
hypothetical interest and taxes.
The elasticity of demand for the product would depend on

23. percent change in quantity sold over the percent change in
price. The Family Joint would need to charge an average of
$46.34 for a four-person family meal and maintain 5 family
meals 5 days of the week for 52 weeks (1,300 meals delivered)
in order to break even. This price is slightly above the average
of the price range outlined previously. However, if the
company finds it difficult to muster enough demand at the
beginning it could attempt a few pricing strategies to
successfully break into the industry. Let’s say management was
unsuccessful marketing the company to target customers and
they had only convinced two families to buy their most
inexpensive meal plan two times a week, the annual revenue at
this rate would be $6,240 – a business catastrophe! Since goods
in this market structure are relatively elastic, management could
choose to run a promotion where they lower prices to increase
demand. Let’s say that instead of charging $44 for their mid-
level meal plan, they only charged $30 (the price of their basic
meal plan) to attract more families to purchase their delicious
food at least two times a week. As a result of this promotion,
they managed to “lock-in” 8 new customers to purchase their
family meals 2 times a week for a year. This would result in
annual revenues of $24,960. This revenue is still way below the
target break-even point calculated for 5 days, but very close to
breaking even for commercial kitchen rental 2 days a week.
The Price elasticity of demand during this promotion is: Ed = |-
0.44/0.43| ~ 1.02. The price is still in the elastic range, but
priced well such that demand could reasonably be expected to
grow.
On the other hand, if The Family Joint experienced huge
demand (10 family meals 5 days a week) in the first year at an
average cost per family meal of $46.34, management might
think of raising overall prices. The new average cost per mid-
level meal plan could be $58, the maximum price in the
previous indicated range. The elasticity of demand with this
price increase is: Ed = |0.67/0.22| ~ 3. The price elasticity of

24. Mama’s meal plans is further in the elastic range indicating that
if families lose interest after the initial boom in demand,
management would need to decrease prices to increase demand
once more. Overall, The Family Joint should seek to maximize
convenience for customer base, maintain prices to stay
competitive in this market sector, and lower variable costs such
as hours of commercial space rental if the business experiences
difficulty.
Economic Analysis:
The economy in New Jersey is still recovering from the latest
recession, which officially lasted from December 2007- June
2009 (24/7 Wall St., 2013, Jan 13). As was reported by 24/7
Wall St. in 2013, New Jersey was one of the states that saw
unemployment levels rise above 9% during The Great Recession
and in 2012 continued to experience rising unemployment rates
as the national unemployment rate was falling. Therefore,
although New Jersey is in a recovery business cycle, its
employment rate is still higher (6.4%) than the national
employment rate (5.8%) (Department of Labor and Workforce
Development, 2014). This rate of unemployment could present
a challenge for The Family Joint’s entrance into the market as
many families may be unwilling to spend money on convenience
until the local economy gains more stability. Some boost in
spending by households may be observed from the drop in oil
prices since mid 2014. However, falling oil prices also mean
falling commodity prices, so food may become cheaper
(Arnsdorf, 2014, Dec 9). Therefore, prices for The Family Joint
may need to be adjusted in order to be competitive.
According to Goldman Sachs (2014, Nov 24) outlooks on
corporate credit markets are positive. This outlook gives The
Family Joint’s management confidence that although
unemployment remains high in New Jersey, corporate
employment may start to pick up more steadily as corporations

25. begin to invest more and gain traction in the economy. The
wildcard factor, again, is the effect of falling oil prices on these
investments. Since energy spending and investment is so
widespread, the credit markets might feel a negative impact
from this drop. Eventually, these effects may spillover into
“Main Street” and cause the fragile recovery to falter.
Appendix 1, Exhibit A: The Family Joint Expense Budget
The Family Joint
Expenses Budget
With $12,000 year Salary for Entrepreneur
First Year
Raw Food
$18,480.00
(Based on $14/meal for 5 family meals for 22 days/month for 1
year)
Opportunity Cost for Entrepreneurial Talent
12,000.00
Marketing/Promotion
3,500.00
Depreciation
-
Leased Equipment (Based on $50/month)
600.00
Accounting/Payroll Processing
-
Business Licenses and Permits
500.00
Credit Card Expense
-
Bank Fees
-

26. Training/ Employee Retention Program
-
Repairs & Maintenance
-
Utility Services
-
Telephone/Communication Expense
960.00
Insurance (Fire/Theft/Liability)
1,000.00
Commercial Kitchen Rental
20,800.00
(Based on $20 per hour working 4 hours per day for 22 days of
the month in a year)
R&D Meals (Based on $100 per month)
1,200.00
EBIT
$59,040.00
Interest and Taxes
1,200.00
Total Operating Expenses
$60,240.00
Appendix 2, Graph 1: New Jersey Employment Changes by
Industry
Appendix 3, Graph 2: Unemployment Rates, New Jersey vs.
United States: November 2013-November 2014

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