Comment upon the following scenario:

November 10th dawned grey, spitting mist, with the lake as still as a played card. Jean stood at the dock's edge, squinting out at the hazed horizon, creating a slate-colored, formless illusion, like the lead frames in Disney's "Fantasia". Slowly, she would allow her eyes to open until the line between lake and sky became clear and she could make out, distantly, a fishing boat wiping across the bay, dragline set and hopeful. Over and over she would repeat this fade-out, promising herself that by the time the boat disappeared around Pikes Point she would have made her decision. Frosted seconds passed into minutes before she heard the distant joy of the triumphant fisherman and watched the boat slip from view. A moment to collect, to reel in her own catch. She slapped her molded jeans as she walked the painted boards back to the house, preparing her pronouncement of change.

Jean and Jim had married young, both with the blush of innocence and inexperience. Jim had just inherited one thousand acres which held the promise of future harvests and Jean had harvest his promise of the future. They worked side by side, sometimes hand-in-hand, for the first five years; content with the random favors of nature. It was during their sixth year that the drought came and their faithful friendship parched as quickly as the crops in the field. The long day hang-dog blistering sun evaporated their modest savings and their immodest behavior. Both looked for reasons among the unreasonable and, finding none, found blame. Jim, by nature an emotive, joyous boy, became a wizened, distrustful man. Jean, whose sense of direction was never self-determined, became disoriented. During one of her early morning walks to escape the breakfast conversation, she stumbled upon a new resolve and a new idea that she was convinced would save her marriage and preserve her security. For her, security was the most important. Little did she realize that her discovery would change the order of things forever.

Now, it was mid-August and the crops had already been plowed under. Jim had taken to long drives and sleepless nights and it had been several weeks since they had shared so much as a kind word. In her attempt to maintain an even keel, Jean kept up her chores. Walking to the barn, she followed the yowl of one of her scrawny barn cats. It had wedged itself between the barn and the storage shed in search of shade and its whimper drew her to a place she hadn't been since stacking cord-wood for the winter.

There, in the afternoon blaze, stood seven stalks of volunteer corn, as lush and green and full as a field-test plot with ears as large as loaves of bread. From them, not a hundred feet, she could see the stubble of the defeated corn-warriors in the field. She was standing on that ridge between success and failure and knew no reason for the difference.

It was simply found. As she plied her hands between the thickened grass at the base of the towering corn, she discovered decaying trash. . .old corrugated molding cardboard draped by one of her old plastic mesh shopping bags. It had been twelve weeks since the last rain fell and yet the mold was as fresh as a forest floor and the cardboard as damp as dewfall. A slight pressure from her fingertips and tiny droplets of rare water fell to the soggy soil at her feet. She wasn't a genius, but she knew that her discovery was momentous. Random nature had deprived them of rain and a livelihood for a year. It had also assembled mulch more effective than any previously known to her and one which, apparently, would be easy to recreate.

This was a discovery that would change the course of their lives but she needed some time to reflect and plan. She ran to the house, grabbed the keys to the rusted panel truck from the kitchen pegboard and drove to the lake. She always did her best thinking there and today she needed to do her best thinking. It was there, standing frozen on the dock, watching the fishing boat slip from view, that she developed her plan.

The mulch she discovered could be produced for them under the name "NatureKist" using some initial funding from their remaining savings and a loan from their good neighbor Karl Hackberry. It was Karl who first recommended that they seek your advice about the costs and benefits associated with the variety of business forms available to them. Jim and Jean have roughed together a draft business plan which estimates that in year one, sales of their new product will reach $50,000 and they will employ six people. By year five, sales will have grown to $500,000 and the employment to 12. In year 10, they project sales to increase to $5.5 million with a support staff of 25.

For the purpose of this paper, address the following regarding the scenario:

1. First, discuss with them a proposal for their business organization that will be flexible enough to carry them through this development period.
2. Explain all of your recommendations fully.
3. Use your understanding of the benefits and costs of the varied business forms to recommend an evolutionary plan.
4. Remember, you may choose one or several different business forms as the needs and demands of the business change