Estimate the point at which start-up costs would be covered.  The target audience of the report is our client.  Total length of the report, exclusive of appendices, must be no more than five pages of text.  Appendices are to be used for charts, figures, tables, or calculations that would spoil the flow of the written report, but which are necessary to support or substantiate statements that are made in the report.  Do not include an appendix unless it is specifically referenced in the report; appendices that are not referenced will not be read. 

This report must use the following basic outline:

  I. Problem Statement

 II. Situation Analysis

III. Analysis of Alternatives
     A) breakeven using client-supplied information and assumptions
     B) breakeven using some reasonable set of assumptions
     C) however, breakeven using a better set of assumptions
     D) perhaps one more even better set of assumptions

 IV. Recommendation

  The client has supplied the following information sheets:

• Overview
• Projected Start-up Costs
• Projected Employee Payroll
• Projected Revenues

This is a real world assignment.  The written report will be scored in large part on the professor's perception of the usefulness and acceptability of the report to the real client.  A common problem is that students tend to include irrelevant and inappropriate material in a report to show evidence that some particular concept has been learned in the course.  Note that a minimal requirement is that reports be relatively free of problems of grammar, spelling, typing, and such.  Do not fabricate material for the sake of creating a report.  Again, remember that this is not a creative writing assignment but is a technical writing assignment.