Should Bud consider purchasing the printing and stationery business, and if so, what do you see as his goal for the business, especially how could he expand production and sales given the limited opportunities that the location offers?

Bud Collier grew up “smack in the middle of a 100 milelong hay field,” as he puts it, near central Kansas. That part of the country features a lot of land, a lot of cattle, very large farms, agricultural processing centers, and relatively few people. The region has a number of very small farm towns, with populations of less than 1,000 located as much as 30 to 50 miles apart, and a much smaller number of small cities, with populations of 10,000 to 30,000 widely scattered throughout the state. There is an ongoing effort by state and federal agencies to support the development of commerce in those regions. Outside of farming and the few small retail shops that serve those small towns, there is not much happening in the way of new employment opportunities.
The farm base continues to shrink, and natives of the area continue to move to other parts of the country after high school, college, or a hitch in the military.