Cassie's popular style Cassie has just completed her first year of university (most of her classes were related to business administration) and is now making a significant career decision. Since her life savings have been depleted on tuition and housing costs, she has decided to take some time off from her studies to work back home in Coquitlam, BC, in 2022. Cassie's current plan is to work full-time (six hours per day with Sundays off) as a server at a local restaurant called Tim's. Cassie worked at Tim's in high school, so she has a good idea of what she can expect to earn. With tips, a $25 per hour average rate is reasonable for Monday through Thursday. On Friday and Saturday, higher tipping typically increases the hourly rate by 10%. While she won't have to pay full rent while living with her parents, Cassie still expects her monthly living costs to total $1,200. To save up faster for three more years of college, Cassie also plans to grow her part-time online retail business. In 2022, she started painting cartoon portraits of students on the college campus, earning $50 per painting. The business concept started slowly, during a drunk Friday night with her friends in a dorm room of an art student. After a few others approached her, offering to pay for paintings of themselves, Cassie decided to put some flyers up around campus. She believes she sold 50 paintings at an average price of $80 each (she hasn't kept track of the exact numbers). Without young people/potential customers, Cassie plans to market her services online under a catchy name, Cassie's popular style. She plans on having friends and family follow, perhaps even share, photos of her work on social media which would hopefully help attract new customers. Being a day away from the new year, 2023, Cassie has put together projections for next year. Because of shipping costs, she plans to increase her price to $100 per portrait. Each portrait will cost, on average, $30 to package and ship (and take an hour of Cassie's time). Additionally, Cassie estimates that the supplies for creating 50 paintings in 2022totaled $1,500. She expects this trend to continue. Cassie expects to sell 160 pictures in 2023, and a 20% annual growth rate is realistic until December 31, 2025. Cassie is open to advice on this business, especially the online elements. Cassie is also wondering about the importance of maintaining accurate records. Her aunt Trina, a successful businesswoman, has warned her not to neglect to save and organize paperwork. Cassie also wants to ensure she understands how to perform essential calculations to analyze profitability over the long term, what analytical tools are most helpful, and how these tools can improve her business. While Cassie typically despises nagging from her aunt, she got a potential career opportunity yesterday. Cenk, the current owner of the local Spritzy Gas Station, is retiring. Hal, a friend of his, has agreed to buy a 50% share for $300,000, and Cassie's aunt is willing to buy the other 50% share for $310,000. However, she will only close the deal if Cassie agrees to work at the station for two years. Cassie's aunt is willing to pay her half of the profits she is entitled to, 25% of the gas station's annual profit if Cassie works 30 hours a week (paid as a bi-weekly salary). Cassie is wondering how her hourly rate may compare to her other options. Since he is managing the inventory and fuel supplies, Hal has insisted that Cassie should manage the bookkeeping. Cassie knows the accounting basics but isn't sure about some intermediate concepts, such as depreciating the fuel terminals. Since the terminals are used regularly, but business is heaviest in the summer months and December due to the holiday season, Cassie is wondering what an appropriate depreciation policy might be. Also, she isn't sure what a depreciation journal entry looks like and how it ties into financial statements. Trina expects to see the 2022 numbers before completing the deal and says the gas station expects annual revenues of $430,000. With the business owners working full-time, the expenses are at 40% of revenues. In 2021, the revenues totaled $420,000, and costs were $193,000. By 2023, the expected income will be $460,000 because of the end of Covid 19, and the expected expense ratio will be as same as the year 2021. Hal and Trina have discussed possibly hiring a part-time employee, allowing Cassie and Hal to work fewer hours. However, this would push expenses up to about 54% of revenues, so they give up the hiring. With 30 working hours at the gas station (no part-time employee) and bookkeeping tasks to complete at home, Cassie would not continue her art business. Cassie believes she can invest her savings in a mutual fund and earn a 6.5% annual return. Since it is significantly more than making 3.75% annually by entering an agreement to deposit $500 monthly into guaranteed savings account for at least 18 months, Cassie is leaning towards the mutual fund option. She wants advice on the risks and benefits of each investment strategy and a recommendation on which direction to proceed in. Cassie's parents have advised her to stay in school and take student loans to finance her studies since she doesn't have to pay interest until graduating. Cassie agrees that the interest rate is low at 3% (0.50% below the current market lending rate), but she is still hesitant to borrow an estimated $25,000 per year to study for three more years. She is especially concerned that she isn't sure about her career direction after graduation. While getting steady employment seems appealing in some respects, it is still difficult for Cassie to imagine herself being committed to a career for a prolonged time, even if the expected starting salary is $50,000 with a 4% average annual growth for ten years afterward. Cassie wants a detailed analysis of how her career options. She wants advice on ethics, business strategies, tax implications, and other relevant matters. Cassie welcomes any recommendations and any questions to her, which will help you better analyze her options. Please prepare a business memo to Cassie addressed all issues raised in this case.