DISCUSSION PROMPT: SKEWERED BY NUMBERS Create your initial post answering the following question: If you were a business person and you found that your monthly gross sales over the past two years produced a negative skew, why would that be better than a distribution of monthly sales that produced a positive skew?  

DISCUSSION PROMPT: SKEWERED BY NUMBERS

For a business person, distribution of monthly sales with a negative skewness is more desirable because it shows that the business carries less risk, is more stable, and can generate good returns with time. In a negatively skewed distribution curve, more values are concentrated to the right, and the distribution curve slopes towards the left (Gupta & Kapoor, 2020). If the skewness of the sales distribution is negative, it means that most sales are concentrated on the right side of the curve, while only fewer sales are concentrated to the left. A negatively skewed sales curve means that the mode and median sales are higher than the mean sales made within a specific period. If the sales produce a negative skewness, it means that the company is in a financially stable position because most clients make purchases that are higher than the average mean purchases made during a specific time.  Negative skewness also indicates that the business is making moderately but positive gains but with minimal or no losses because most of the clients have the capability to purchase large volumes of goods consistently.

Conversely, if the distribution of monthly sales has a positive skewness, it means that most sales are concentrated to the left of the curve. In such a curve, the mode and median are less than the mean which means that the sales are concentrated on the lower side of the distribution curve (Gupta & Kapoor, 2020). A positively skewed distribution curve of the sales is undesirable because it shows that the business cannot generate profits consistently for a longer time. In a positively skewed distribution, most of the purchases are made by only a few people, while the rest of the clients makes purchases that are far below the mean wages. This distribution poses a risk to any business because it shows that the business depends on a few clients for survival because most of the clients make purchases that are below the mean sales.