Day 4 Stocking the Shelves Now that you have your list of items available to you to buy, how many of each will you buy? Keep these things in mind as you decide on your inventory:
- You don't have to have all of them.
- You do not want to miss a sale by not having the item in stock.
- You will need to have money to pay your bills.
- You will be able to buy more items at regular intervals as you go along.
Day 5 Determining the Costs Once you have decided how many of each item you want, multiply the costs you determined on Day One by the quantity you determined on Day Three. Add all of these up and subtract it from your start-up money (10,000 gold pieces.) You must have some left over, remember, for your expenses.
Day 6 Determining Prices Decide on your selling prices. Most stores mark up the prices between 100 and 150 percent of the price they bought the items for. Determine both 100 and 150 percent of the cost to you for each item, and that will determine the range of your selling price. Remember in the Middle Ages, people were much more likely to haggle prices than we are today, so you need to have a range for the prices. You want to offer the item for the highest price first, but then you may be haggled down to your lowest price before you can actually sell the item! Write down the range of prices next to each item.
Day 7 Preparing for Tithing You need to pay the church a percentage of your earnings so you have to make sure you will have this amount leftover at the end. You must pass this on to your customers. Ask your parent whether the church will be expecting a 5, 6 or 10% tithe and add this to each of your prices. (Mom- use the percentage that you want your student to work on or is in keeping with his skill level.)
Day 8 Bookkeeping You need to keep track of all the items in your store, what you have sold and what you need to order. Fill out a bookkeeping sheet as you go along.
Day 9 Debt and Credit You will also need to keep track of all your transactions, your money out (debt) and your money in (credits) and keep track of the balance of gold pieces you have left.
Day 10 Fill Orders Now your friends and family can give you orders for you to fill. Have them pretend that they are people in the Middle Ages and have them pick from your inventory.
Example:
Mr. Baker wants 2 sets of leather boots, 1 steel shield, 2 short bows and 1 long bow.
Mr Carter wants 1 steel breastplate, 1 pair of steel boots, 1 Great sword, 1 long sword and 1 wooden shield.
Figure out how much each of your customers owes you.
Day 11 Pay Rent The Lord is collecting his quarterly rent. You must pay him 200 gold pieces ,40 silver pieces and 6 copper pieces (or $240.60).
Day 12 Additional In-store Sales Ask your parents to give you additional sales. (Mom -This is where you get to include some of the math problems from their texts or that you would otherwise assign them. If your student picked the smallest sign on day 2, give them one in store sale, the next size up will attract two in-store sales, the third size will incur four in-store sales and the largest sign will award your student five in-store sales.
Day 13 Fortune Life has its ups and downs. You will need to make these up (or for more surprise, you can get a parent to make these.)
Day 14 Pay your tithes Add together all the tithes you have collected and pay them to your bishop.
Day 15 Order Inventory Now it is time to replace the items you sold this month. Write down the quantities, multiply them times the cost, add all the extended costs to get your total. Write your new amounts on your inventory sheet.