Understanding the financial health of your business is critical to its success over the short and long term as you have seen in the simulation play. In your simulation game play you have been tracking many different financial metric and using the standard financial statements to make decisions on growth. This week, you will be completing a non-graded learning activity through the Small Business Association website to gain a good foundation in understanding basic financial statements. In your simulation for this week you will be reviewing the Microsimulation called Profitability Analysis-Using Profitability Analysis to Increase the Bottom Line. The ability of successfully complete a profitability analysis will depend on your understanding of the basic accounting reports and your knowledge of your own simulation company. For this unit Discussion you will be using this week’s Reading, Learning Activity, Profitability Analysis from the Marketplace simulation. This Profitability Analysis will be available to you when you log into the simulation in this unit and personal experience (if applicable). Answer the following questions:

Main Response

1. How successful were you and your team in using the financial information provided in the Marketplace Simulation and what would you do differently to increase your success based on the game play you have completed so far? Provide specific examples of what went well and what you would change if given the opportunity.
2. What is the relationship between the financial statements provided by the Marketplace Simulation and the concept of profitability analysis? How will/can you use this tool to increase the success of your decision making?
3. Conduct research using the Kaplan Library, the web or other sources that you uncover and post at least 3 additional resources on how to use these tools to increase the foundation of knowledge for all. Please also provide a small synopsis of each article and the points you found particularly valuable.
4. Identify a company that you are interested in learning more about (your current company is fine to use) and investigate their best practices on achieving profitability.