In this case, you will create budgets for a single product for each of the months in an upcoming quarter.  Select a product that you could purchase in large quantities (e.g. at a warehouse sale or bulk store) and repackage into smaller quantities to offer for sale at a sidewalk café, event, flea market, or other similar venue.  Choose a selling price for the smaller (repackaged) items.  Make reasonable assumptions about how many of the smaller units you can sell in each of the next four months (you will need the fourth month’s sales in units for the operating budgets).

Steps:

1.Describe your product.  What is your cost of this product?  What size (quantity) will you purchase?  At what price will you sell your repackaged product?  Make projections of your sales in units in each of the upcoming three months.

2.Estimate how many hours you will spend in each of the upcoming three months doing the purchasing, repackaging, and selling.  Select a reasonable wage rate for yourself.  What will your total labour costs be in each of the upcoming three months?  What (if any) charge will there be for your sales venue (e.g. table cost for a flea market, commission to the café owner)?

3.Prepare a sales budget for each of the upcoming three months.

4.Prepare the direct material budgets for the upcoming three months, assuming that you need to keep 10% of the direct materials needed for next month’s sales on hand at the end of each month (this requirement is why you needed to estimate unit sales for four months).

5.Prepare a direct labour budget (for your labour) for each of the upcoming three months.

6.Think about any other expenses you are likely to have (i.e. booth rental fees, or a vendor license).  Prepare the operating expenses budget for each of the upcoming three months.

7.Prepare a pro forma (budgeted) income statement that reflects the budgets you prepared, including the sales budget, direct materials, direct labour budget, and operating budget.  Have one column for each of the three months, and a total column that shows total income and expenses for the entire quarter.

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