154 | HOW TO WRITE A BUSINESS PLAN
Antoinette’s Dress Shop:
Job Description for Sales ClerkJob Title: Sales Clerk
Job Duties: Sell clothing, interact with
customers, and present a good image of my
shop.
Skills and Personality: Th e clerk must
have basic retail and cash handling skills
and must demonstrate good math skills
before hiring. She must be friendly and well-
dressed. She must know current fashions
and proper accessorizing as well as basics
about alterations. She must be adept at
working with the occasional irate customer.
Education: She must be at least a high
school graduate.
Supervisor: Since she will be supervised
by both my assistant manager and by me,
she must be comfortable in situations with
more than one person able to give orders.
Pay Rate and Monthly Wages: Th e clerk will
work about 40 hours per week for a total
of approximately 170 hours per month. I
think I can hire a suitable clerk for about $8
per hour plus payroll taxes. Th at brings her
monthly total to $1,376 ($8 × 40 hours × 4.3
weeks).Once you complete a job description
for each employee, add together all the
monthly total wages/salary amounts
you’ll pay each employee. Verify your
calculations against the numbers you used
on line 4a of the Profi t and Loss Forecast
(Chapter 6).exAmple:
Antoinette learns that sales clerks often
make minimum wage, even with one or
more years’ experience, and that there
are lots of qualifi ed people looking for
clerk positions. Assistant managers with
several years’ experience make about
$11 per hour. In each case, Antoinette
plans to pay above the low end of
the wage range to assure she’ll fi nd
competent people and to minimize
problems with turnover.
Accordingly, Antoinette plans to pay
her sales clerks $8 per hour. Although
she could probably hire an assistant
manager for $10 per hour, she decides to
pay $11 because she knows an excellent
person whom she really likes and trusts.
If each of her two sales clerks and her
manager work 40 hours per week, her
weekly wage cost will be $1,020 ($8 +
$8 + $11 = $27, which she multiplies by
40). Multiplying these weekly fi gures
by 4.3 weeks to get an average month
results in an average monthly wage cost
of $4,644. Extra costs for mandatory
employers’ contributions to Social
Security, unemployment insurance, and