Profit

[ajlelectronics]

You’re misunderstanding what you were taught. There is a percentage of something you have which can’t be greater than 100% (cut a Apple in half you have two pieces that are 50% each) but if you add to that (2 apples for example) then obviously it is now greater than than the starting point and therefore greater than 100%. If you buy something for £1 and sell for £2 that’s 100% profit. If you sold it for £10 then you’re saying that still can be only 100%?

The total might be a multiple of the original, but it is still 100%.

 

[Burdekin]

The total might be a multiple of the original, but it is still 100%.

That makes no sense. So once you get to 100% profit any more profit is still only 100%. So you’re effectively saying 2 is 100% larger than 1 and 1000000000000 is still only 100% larger than 1?

 

[hotponyshoes]

I think time has a value rather than a cost.

I'm self-employed.
The day job pays well and I generally have an outstanding list of people waiting for work.

Let's say I wanted to make something from old horseshoes and sell it..
The horseshoes cost me nothing as I already have them at my house.
But, they have a 'value' ie. Either the current scrap price (less my time and vehicle running costs to take them to the scrap yard) or the price (less costs) that I could sell them to someone else for) or the value of goodwill, ie. Give them away to a member of the forum as members of the forum also help me out with stuff/advice/ect.

Let's say I have an excess of old shoes but not enough to be worth a scrap run.

From a financial point of view, unless somebody with a massive budget wants to commission a sculpture or custom fence panel/gate or something, or I can come up with something spectacular, I'm limited to making stuff that doesn't have a massive sale value.
Let's say I make a plant pot holder and sell it for £50.
Cost of shoes £5, cost of welding rods/grinding discs/electricity £5.
So £40 profit.
If it takes an hour and a half in total to get the welder out, Sort shoes by size, weld up, brush off, put tools away, put it in a box, book the carrier then I'm making £27 an hour.
Doesn't make financial sense if I have customers waiting for me to put shoes on the horse as I can make more per hour doing that.

But, if I account for the driving out to a horse, the time taken with all the admin/paperwork etc the numbers might be different.

Again, if I could spend an hour setting up, stand in the workshop all day, get into a rhythm, set up a jig, and knock out one plant pot holder every 10 mins I should be able to do £1500 a day which would be far better than going to work.
Providing I can sell that many!

As to the value of time,
If it's lashing down with rain and blowing a gale I'd be happier in the workshop on £15 an hour than bending over under a wet horse that's jumping around on £50 an hour.

Plus how much money do you actually need?
If I had outstanding debt or wanted to buy a new welder or go on a fancy holiday then I'd be out shoeing horses 7 days a week.
If I've done mon-fri and paid all my bills off I might just fancy playing around in the workshop on Saturday to try my new welding mask out or something.
If I make a plant pot holder I'm not too bothered if my sister spots it, likes it, takes it away for free. Or someone I don't like very much asks how much it is and I sell it for £75.

In financial terms, time is only worth what someone will pay you for it. That obviously depends on what you are capable of but pretty much anybody can pick up bar work at £10/hr so I'd base my starting rate on that!

If you have already retired with a comfortable pension or have a well paid job you might want to find other 'value' in making something to justify the financial 'loss'.

I generally enjoy my day job but sometimes (bad weather especially) I'm happy to earn less in exchange for nicer working conditions.
I'm also often happy just 'faffing about' making stuff and if I sell it I see that as a bonus that reduces the cost of my hobby rather than a low income!!

 

[Robotstar5]

You’re misunderstanding what you were taught. There is a percentage of something you have which can’t be greater than 100% (cut a Apple in half you have two pieces that are 50% each) but if you add to that (2 apples for example) then obviously it is now greater than than the starting point and therefore greater than 100%. If you buy something for £1 and sell for £2 that’s 100% profit. If you sold it for £10 then you’re saying that still can be only 100%?

The way I understood it was you can make more than 100% profit, you just can't use the % term as it is inherently capped at 100.

 

[Burdekin]

The way I understood it was you can make more than 100% profit, you just can't use the % term as it is inherently capped at 100.

This is an example from the net:

What about percentages more than 100%? Well, sometimes percentages like these don't make sense. For example, you can't spend more than 100% of your time playing basketball, no matter how much you love the sport; 100% is all the time you have, and there ain't no more.

But a lot of times, percentages larger than 100% are perfectly reasonable. For example, suppose you own a hot dog wagon and sell the following:

10 hot dogs in the morning

30 hot dogs in the afternoon

The number of hot dogs you sell in the afternoon is 300% of the number you sold in the morning. It's three times as many.

Here's another way of looking at this: You sell 20 more hot dogs in the afternoon than in the morning, so this is a 200% increase in the afternoon — 20 is twice as many as 10.

Spend a little time thinking about this example until it makes sense.

 

[Robotstar5]

I didn't do very well in maths but assumed the teacher knew what he was talking about.

 

[hotponyshoes]

Ignoring any costs/selling fees/time/etc..

If you buy something for £1,
Sell it for £2 that's 100% profit.
Sell it for £3 that's 200% profit
Sell it for £3.50 that's 250% profit.

If you get given something for £0
Sell it for £1 then all of that £1 is profit.
Keep all that £1 and you could say that the £1 is 100% profit.
But you didn't make 100% profit just 100% of the income from the sale was profit.
Or go half with the guy who gave you the thing and keep 50p and say you kept 50% of the profit.

It's more of a grammar question than a maths question I think!

 

[ajlelectronics]

Here's another way of looking at this: You sell 20 more hot dogs in the afternoon than in the morning, so this is a 200% increase in the afternoon — 20 is twice as many as 10.

You may have sold twice as many, but you can't translate that to a percentage over 100. 100% is full, maximum, total.

Spend a little time thinking about this example until it makes sense.

It might to a yank perhaps?

 

[ajlelectronics]

It's more of a grammar question than a maths question I think!

I think it is more that terms have been yankmangled over the years and adopted as "normal" here. 200% is no more correct than "train station".

 

[Burdekin]

You may have sold twice as many, but you can't translate that to a percentage over 100. 100% is full, maximum, total.


It might to a yank perhaps?

You’re wrong so looks like the yanks know better than you.

 

[daleyd]

Steam powered ships had a rated horsepower which they could safely use - for example 50,000 HP. This was their “100%” figure.

They could, if needed in times of emergency, exceed this for short periods, and it was usually stated as 110% or some such figure - so in this example would be 55,000 HP. That’s just the first thing that came to the top of my head, but there’s loads of others in day to day use, like overload currents and curves in circuit breakers etc, which are usually expressed as 100 *and something* percent

 

[My Old Landy]

Steam powered ships had a rated horsepower which they could safely use - for example 50,000 HP. This was their “100%” figure.

They could, if needed in times of emergency, exceed this for short periods, and it was usually stated as 110% or some such figure - so in this example would be 55,000 HP. That’s just the first thing that came to the top of my head, but there’s loads of others in day to day use, like overload currents and curves in circuit breakers etc, which are usually expressed as 100 *and something* percent

Even modern cnc machines have a 150% option on the traverse. It eats into the headroom of capability so not really 100% but is still labelled that way.

 

[Jaeger_S2k]

Profit Shmofit.
Many are taking about Markup
There's Gross Profit
Nett Profit
Profit on Return (POR) **** The important one ***
Then
Cash flow
Then
Turnover.

Cash Flow - Is KING
Turnover - Is VANITY
POR - is Sanity
A - If you buy for £1 and sell for £2, your Markup is 100%, Your POR is 50%.
B - If you buy for 0 and sell for £2, ignore markup as it's a silly number, but your POR is 100%

In example A your Gross Profit is 50%, your Nett Profit is what's left after you've paid for electicery, gas, welding wire, rates, rent, fuel, you, your men etc. (your overheads)

 

[skotl]

Profit Shmofit.
Many are taking about Markup
There's Gross Profit
Nett Profit
Profit on Return (POR) **** The important one ***
Then
Cash flow
Then
Turnover.

Cash Flow - Is KING
Turnover - Is VANITY
POR - is Sanity
A - If you buy for £1 and sell for £2, your Markup is 100%, Your POR is 50%.
B - If you buy for 0 and sell for £2, ignore markup as it's a silly number, but your POR is 100%

In example A your Gross Profit is 50%, your Nett Profit is what's left after you've paid for electicery, gas, welding wire, rates, rent, fuel, you, your men etc. (your overheads)

Exactly that - we're mistaking markup for profit in a lot of the above discussions.

As AJL says, profit can't be more than 100% but markup could be infinity.

 

[ajlelectronics]

Profit Shmofit.
Many are taking about Markup
There's Gross Profit
Nett Profit
Profit on Return (POR) **** The important one ***


In example A your Gross Profit is 50%, your Nett Profit is what's left after you've paid for electicery, gas, welding wire, rates, rent, fuel, you, your men etc. (your overheads)

Absolutely correct.

 

[julianf]

He would be correct. 100% is the largest amount possible because, well it is 100%!

If you have a tenner, and I give you a fiver, what is your monetary holding, as a percentage of your original holding?

If you hold down control and wheel the mouse in chrome, it goes down to 90%, 80%, 70% etc.

But then what when you wheel it the other way?

Does it go 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 100, 100, 100 even though the zoom continues?


200% is a valid way to describe some things.

Just not talent show voting.

 

[Jaeger_S2k]

If you have a tenner, and I give you a fiver, what is your monetary holding, as a percentage of your original holding?

150%

 

[Red'n'Black]

He would be correct. 100% is the largest amount possible because, well it is 100%!

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2024129454477849&id=1528068857417247

 

[MetalMonkey]

I think there is some confusion going on.
Percentages are simply a way of saying how many out of 100. A fraction.

While you can't have more than a complete "thing" you can have multiples of a "thing". Mathematically there is no reason why you can't have more than 100% and of course we routinely do. In the same way we have fractions greater than 1 i.e. Improper fractions.

 

[redlig]

But you would be using that time for something else, even sitting there contemplating your navel, so it HAS to have a cost.

I can see where you are all coming from but I was only referring to a single item. It doesn't matter anyway as I've run out of horse shoes .