economics class

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Clear Spring School juniors and seniors are studying economics, so as an interesting wood shop exercise, we are attempting to bring a product to market. The process involves business planning, product design, cost analysis, marketing, and many of the same considerations that any small business would face. Today, after exploring many of the ideas of things that the kids wanted to make, we settled on one of their suggestions, incense burners. Each one they are making is unique, and next week after they are finished with graphite shellac to make them look like hammered steel, the students will take them to shops for feedback from merchants as to whether they are salable merchandise, and what the selling price might be. We quickly realized that to make minimum wage, we would need to be able to produce at least 10 per hour, and that is without including overhead and cost of tools and materials. Business can be tough.