Fall Product Sale- The reality

So we just turned in the forms for the fall product sale.  Seasan (aka Mom & Jon) sold 40 items...of which 15 Grandma and Grandpa bought :)   I had to laugh when you add up the cost for all the items and then look at the little stuffed animal she is so excited to be getting.  Kinda cracked me up a little.

Needless to say, I have been pushing fundraising this year as the troop has taken on an individual award system for fundraising.  What that means is that whatever each member sells and brings in for profit is kept in an account for that member to use for troop activities and camps.  As a semi-single mother (yes..Jon gets a lot of credit for all he does even though we are dating and not married) this is a great opportunity to offset some of the cost of all the things that she wants to participate in. 

So the curiosity part of me wanted to see how much this equates out to in real money..so I did some research and here is the breakdown for our council:

Avg Selling Price                       $5.84
Avg Cost                                 -$2.40
Avg Gross Profit                        $3.44

Troop Incentive (ie Seasan)       $0.76
SU Incentive                             $0.02
Girl Patches                              $0.09
Council Income                        $2.57

Compared to cookies.. (keep in mind my Council did not have cookie profits up..so this info is from another council for the 2011 year)

Box of Cookies                      $3.50
Sale Expenses (cookies)        -$0.90
Gross Profit                           $2.60

Council and Admin                $1.70
Troop                                    $0.55            
Incentives                              $0.35

So putting all this to use...I think we will push the cookies over peanuts.  Consider this:

Sell $350 of cookies for 100 units and you get $55                                Profit Margin      15.7%
Sell $350 units of nuts at approx 60 units and you get $45.60                 Profit Margin      13.02%

You have a much better chance of selling cookies as nuts are much harder to sell.  And, on top of the profit, girls earn cookie dough for camps and council merchandise.  Cookies are the no brainier.

I know I am probably going to get crucified by those who say "well it is all about the lessons they learn by selling, who cares which is more profitable?"  In return, I ask this.. what lessons are we teaching if we don't also teach them the accounting portion of the sales too?  If my daughter wants to learn the business aspect of sales in order to be successful later in life, this is the perfect opportunity to teach her about economics and supply and demand.  By showing her the breakdown of sales and return of profit on sales she can understand these economic principles in a very useful manner.