Total Revenue = Price x Number of Units Sold
If the hot dogs are sold at $4.00 each, the total revenue would equal $40 (10 x $40). An accounting profit equals total revenues less total expenses. To maximize profits, businesses strive to maximize the difference between their total revenues and total costs. Understanding the subtleties of the relationship between revenues and costs distinguishes the best business managers. Increasing production leads to an increase in sales and total revenue, but there is a cost to increasing production. Marketing focuses on increasing a company's total revenue, but there is a cost to market a good or service. Will adding additional salespeople or investing in advertising generate a sufficient increase in revenue to warrant the investment? Pricing decisions also affect total revenue. Managers know that they can increase the number of items they sell by lowering their prices. Total revenues would increase if the demand for the good or service is elastic. But the production costs of producing the additional goods may be prohibitive. They also know that fewer items will be sold if they increase their price. However, if the good or service has an inelastic demand curve, revenues would actually increase.