I enjoy going into the city to buy new cards. I don't see why I should charge my customers for this trip. When I asked him whether he would go into Chicago as frequently if he didn't have a baseball card business, he said no. When I asked him whether he subtracted any of his travel expenses when calculating his net profit, he said no. This young entrepreneur's problem was simply that he did not consider all of his true expenses when figuring out the cost of each of his cards.
Many young entrepreneurs make the same mistake.
They forget that small expenses add up to big numbers and therefore should be included in the cost of their products of services. Some young entrepreneurs are also not aware that they should include the cost of their equipment in making their products or offering their services. Take a typical teenage business such as lawn mowing, for example. Many kids who start lawn mowing businesses use their family's lawn mower. As with all other mechanical equipment, the more a lawn mower is used, the more likely it is to require servicing.