Busi Forum 4

BUSI 561 Forum 4

I would definitely advise her to accept financial contributions from her husband. Although the scenario does not explicitly say he is a Christian, being that Betty is a mature Christian, I would assume this is the case. Also being that they are husband/wife, I would assume their finances are somewhat joint, even if they are maintained in separate accounts. The only risk to accepting a contribution from her husband would be, even though he initially says he doesn’t want to participate in the operation/management of the shop, it will probably be hard for him to keep out of it entirely being that Betty, his wife, would be owner/operator of the shop and he contributed financially to the start-up of the business and probably future operation costs of it.

Betty needs to understand, however, there are many more steps to starting a business than just an idea and some money. The first thing she should do is meet with her pastor and go over her thoughts with respect to the “Christian centered” shop. Obviously she needs to have her family on board, although it appears her husband is. I would recommend finding others in the area who own/operate small businesses, especially coffee shops and similar businesses, to get an idea of customer base, startup cost, their franchise, if applicable, other work load, health code, and possible local requirements so she is fully informed and confident she can run and maintain the coffee shop, especially if she decides to franchise.

She has a couple viable options in starting her business. The first is sole proprietorship. This option is the simplest and usually has the lowest startup cost. It is also the most flexible and has the most independence. The down side is, since you are the sole owner/operator, you are solely liable for any business debts and operating costs. (Harper, 2008) Betty may be able to start the coffee shop under this business entity type, however, provided the business persists, she...