Practicing Excel Skills, Profitability Decision-Making Context A friend is retiring from a lawn-mowing business and is asking if you would like to take over his business. He is not trying to make money on the sale of the business. Instead, he is concerned with (1) taking care of his existing customers and (2) having someone take over existing contracts on equipment he has purchased. He currently mows 50 lawns each week and charges $50/lawn. He mows lawns himself and has two people working for him. He supplies all equipment: Truck: He has one truck that he purchased. The amount he still owes on the truck is $20,000, and the payment is $300/month. Mowers: He has three new riding mowers. He owes $3,000 on each and he pays $100/month for each one. Other Equipment: All other equipment is paid for and in good working order, and he is willing to sell all of it to you for $2,000 (and you think it will last 20 mowing months). He estimates it will cost $100/month for maintenance of the truck, mowers, and other equipment. You have a degree in landscape architecture and design, and you have been the groundskeeper at a golf course for the last five years. You believe with your knowledge and entrepreneurial ideas you could improve greatly on his business model. In summary, your costs are Truck payment: $300/month Mowers: $300/month Other equipment: $2,000 to purchase now (will last approximately 20 months) Chief mower makes $15/hour; staff worker makes $10/hour. Each staff worker can mow 1 lawn/hour. (Average $13/lawn in Scenario 1 or average $25 per lawn in Scenario 2.) Page 33 Maintenance: $100/month Insurance: $300/month Fuel: $3/gallon; 1 gallon is sufficient to mow one lawn. Supplies (trimmer line, etc.): $1.50/lawn Advertising: $50/month, but if you do $300/month advertising, you can potentially triple your volume of contracts. Owner (you) will spend time doing quality control, marketing, and planning for the future. Required To run this business, you'd have to leave your day job, where you earn $4,000/month. Assess whether this mowing business will be profitable if you mow 200 lawns per month. Show a visualization of the change in monthly margin based on a range of labor costs per lawn. Alternative Problem Assessing Profitability of a Mowing Business Apply the same steps in Lab 1.1 to the Lab 1.1 Data.xls data set with two modifications. The same scenarios exist as before, with labor costing either $13/lawn or $25/lawn. Assume that your mowing business will mow 350 lawns per month rather than 200 lawns per month. Also assume that the cost for advertising increases from $50 to $300 per month. Label these two new scenarios Scenario 3 (with labor costing $13/lawn) and Scenario 4 (with labor costing $25/lawn). Page 38 Specify the Question What is the profit on each lawn if the mowing business mows 350 lawns per month? What is the business's total profit per month? Answer the following questions based on the details computed. Describe how Excel interprets dates numerically. Why is it meaningful to attach a serial number to dates?

1. Given the data that is provided in this dataset (Customer, Invoice Amount, and Due Date), list two questions that would be interesting to answer regarding the accounts receivable data in this dataset.