As an undergrad, I studied business because I wanted to help my dad with his business considering he never received a college education. I thought if I got an education in business I could excel his company to newer heights. After a couple of years in college I realized I wasn’t doing it for me but rather my dad. Halfway through school, I wanted to change my major to something more specific that would give me a niche in the workforce. I then switched to a degree in information systems with a minor in business. I wasn’t exactly sure that’s what I wanted to do but I figured that’s where the world is going and it wouldn’t hurt to get a degree in that field. Oddly enough I fell in love with it and I now have my degree in information Systems with a minor in business. After that I knew I didn’t want to stop there, so I decided to go for my masters here at NMSU. In order to meet the prerequisites for the MBA program, I needed to take calculus and I’m glad I did because I wouldn’t have otherwise.
Everything I learned in calculus challenged me to think critically and in another sense that I hadn’t known before. Being able to apply calculus to optimize a business’s performance, whether it be through current performance or future expectations is huge for any business. (Saiz, 2001) Since I can remember I’ve always felt like I am supposed to help my dad’s business despite it not really being my passion. I have found it to be difficult to work in that kind of environment. My dad’s business has done really well but it’s not something I love doing and honestly I don’t want anything given to me because of my dad’s successes, I want to do it on my own. The knowledge I have learned through college and the amount I have grown to be independent has made me realize that I can do anything. I have since decided to start my own in business in something I am extremely passionate about. Using calculus to determine rates to charge potential customer for optimal profits can really help my business get started. I think many people that start businesses jump into it without having structure and often times fail. I have found many tools and resources such as calculus to be very beneficial to the success of a business.
Calculus will help my business predict maximum sales for a given service and help determine minimum costs giving my company the best opportunity to succeed. The business will primarily involve IT support such as maintenance to computer hardware and software to managing networks within other businesses. In addition I would have support for a variety of electronics such as phones, tablets, iPads, etc. Specifically using calculus to calculate rates for a given service, I can have a function for a specific service and take the derivative of that function to find the critical points giving me the absolute minimum and absolute maximum. Having more customers doesn’t always mean more profits, there are other variables to consider such as cost of maintaining the services, amount of time needed and competitors pricing. (When Do We Use Calculus in the Real World?, 2003)
Not only can I use calculus for pricing but I can also use it for loans that I may need to pull out to get started. I may have an option between certain loans that have different fixed values and interest rates, not to mention how often they may be compounded. One formula I can use to help determine which loan is best for me would be the simple interest equation (P=C(1+R)^t) among the compound interest equation (P=C(1+R/N)^NT) and continuous compound equation (P=Ce^RT). (Interest and Exponential Growth, 2000) These would help me calculate which loan would be best for me given my certain circumstance. Not only in these ways would I be able to use calculus in m business but also further into the business I would be able to calculate marginal costs and a really big one that I feel will be exceptionally helpful would be finding the consumers surplus. I could go on and on, how calculus could help but I really found the formula to find the consumer’s surplus to be really helpful. This will provide me with the information that the consumer is willing to pay and the amount they actually pay using the demand curve to find the market price. (Riley, 2014)
With all this said I can definitely say calculus will play a really good role in helping develop a successful business. I will surely be using the information I have learned this summer and use it in my business to optimize performance. I am very grateful I have taken this class and really understood the material and challenged myself to do well in the class. It will play a major role in my business and that is just the beginning, I am sure as I get more familiar with the practices, I will use it even more down the road. It already has made my job easier in determining startup cost and what to expect more or less. It has also helped me calculate service rates to get the most out of the resources I have. I can foresee that it will be helpful in the future making my job a lot easier and giving it a better chance at succeeding.

References

Interest and Exponential Growth. (2000). Retrieved from Math.com: http://www.math.com/tables/general/interest.htm
Riley, G. (2014, December 20). Consumer Surplus. Retrieved from Economics: http://beta.tutor2u.net/economics/reference/consumer-surplus
Saiz, M. (2001). Math in Business. In M. Saiz, Business. Chicago.
When Do We Use Calculus in the Real World? (2003). Retrieved from Teachnology.