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Ever found yourself looking back with hindsight and wondering why you progressed with one opportunity instead of another? There is a good chance that at the time of making your decision, the Opportunity Cost of the seemingly less attractive opportunity was not fully assessed. When we don’t fully know the value of what we’re giving up in order to progress a particular course of action, we can’t make a truly informed choice. Understanding the principles of Opportunity Cost is essential for making smart business decisions. What is Opportunity Cost?Opportunity Cost is a macroeconomic term that relates to scarcity of resources. Scarcity of resources – be that time or money – means that we have to make decisions about how we use what we have. Because we have to choose, we can only have the benefits of one option, and have to forego the benefits of the other. The benefits of the foregone option are the Opportunity Cost. Or as Bizfinance.com says:“Opportunity cost is the cost of a foregone alternative. If you chose one alternative over another, then the cost of choosing that alternative is an opportunity cost. Opportunity cost is the benefits you lose by choosing one alternative over another one.” Sushi or sandwich for lunch? Sushi. So, the sandwich becomes the Opportunity Cost. Opportunity Cost in BusinessWe make plenty of choices in a business day that all have an associated Opportunity Cost. On a small scale, it might be how you choose to use the next two hours – to do a proposal for a client, or get the invoices out? One or the other. The benefits of getting the proposal to the client, or the benefits of getting the invoices out? Each time we weigh up the resources available and what to do with them, there is an Opportunity Cost of not pursuing one option.Where the principle of Opportunity Cost is of greatest value for a business is in deciding which business opportunities to pursue. For these decisions, auto-pilot absolutely has to be switched-off. It is all too easy and common to unwittingly make decisions based on preconceptions. One option seems better from the outset, and this preconception then leads to an inaccurate assessment of the alternatives.How to assess Opportunity CostWhen assessing Opportunity Cost, it’s important to keep these three things in mind: (1) to make an informed economic decision, the value of an opportunity needs to be assessed based on both the benefits and the costs associated; (2) broader benefits should be assessed as well as the monetary benefits; and (3) each option needs to be assessed based on the same criteria (i.e. don’t just assess the preferred option in isolation).For example, a construction business has two opportunities on the table. Building Contract 1 has a job value of $200,000, which would require 2000 resource hours.
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