Kindly guide me on how best to approach this case study.

Thanks

Karen has just completed her first year of university (most of her classes were related to business administration) and is now in the midst of making a major career decision. Since her life savings have been depleted on tuition and housing costs, she has decided to take some time off from studies to work back home in Mission, BC.

Karen's current plan is to work full-time (8 hours per day with Sundays off) as a server at a local restaurant called Gideons. Karen worked at Midtown in high school, so she has a good idea of what she can expect to earn. With tips, a $15 per hour average rate is reasonable for Monday through Thursday. On the weekends, higher tipping typically increases the hourly rate by 12%.

While she wont have to pay full rent while living with her parents, Karen still expects her living costs to total $800 a month. To try to save up faster for three more years of college, Karen is planning on also growing her part-time online retail business. In the last year, she started painting cartoon portraits of students at the college campus, earning $20 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 other people approached her offering to pay for paintings of themselves, Karen decided to put some flyers up around campus. She believes she ended up selling 150 paintings at an average price of $30 each (she hasnt kept track of the exact numbers).

Karens plan, in the absence of young people/potential customers all around, is to market her services online under a catchy name, Natures Own. 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, Karen has put together some projections for next year.

Because of shipping costs, she is planning to increase her price to $50 per portrait. Each portrait will cost, on average, $15 to package and ship (and take an hour of Karens time). Additionally, Karen estimates that the supplies for creating 100 paintings last year totaled $1,000. She expects this trend to continue. Karens expectation is that she will sell 250 paintings in 2023 and a 7%-9% annual growth rate is realistic until December 31, 2025.

Karen is open to advice on this business, especially the online elements. she is also wondering about the importance about maintaining accurate records. Her aunt Sarah, a successful businesswoman, has warned her to not neglect saving and organizing paperwork. Karen also wants to make sure she has a solid understanding about how to perform important calculations to analyze profitability over the long-term, what analytical tools are most helpful, and how these tools can improve her business.

While Karen typically despises nagging from her aunt, she did get a potential career opportunity from her yesterday. George, the current owner of the local Gas Station, is retiring. Penny, a friend of his, has agreed to buy a 50% share for $200,000 and Kerens aunt is willing to buy the other 50% share for $250,000. However, she will only close the deal if Karen agrees to work at the station for a minimum of two years. Karens aunt is willing to pay her half of the profits she is entitled to, or 25% of the gas stations annual profit, if Karen works 30+ hours a week (paid to Karen as bi-weekly salary).

Karen is wondering how her hourly rate may compare to her other options. Penny has insisted that, since he is managing the inventory and fuel supplies, Karen should manage the bookkeeping. Karen knows the accounting basics but isnt sure about some of the intermediate concepts, such as depreciating the fuel terminals. Considering that the terminals are used regularly but business is heaviest in the summer months and December due to the holiday season, Karen is wondering what an appropriate depreciation policy might be. Also, she isnt sure what a depreciation journal entry looks like and how it ties into financial statements.

expects to see the 2022 numbers before completing the deal and says the gas station expects to tally up annual revenues of $500,000. The expenses, with the business owners working full-time, are ballparked at 30% of revenues. In 2021, the revenues totaled $425,400 and expenses were $150,000. For 2023, Penny and Sarah have discussed possibly hiring a part-time employee which would allow Karen and Penny to work fewer hours. However, this would push expenses up to about 54% of revenues. Karen is wondering if she should urge her aunt to hire the part-time help, as it would allow her to continue her painting business.

With full working hours at the gas station (no part-time employee) and bookkeeping tasks to complete at home, Karen would not continue her art business. She believes she can invest her savings in a mutual fund and earn a 6.5% annual return. Since it is significantly more than earning 3.75% annually by entering an agreement to deposit $500 monthly into a guaranteed savings account for at least 18 months, Karen 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.

Karens parents have advised her to stay in school and take student loans to finance her studies since she doesnt have to pay interest until after graduating. she agrees that the interest rate is low at 3.15% (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 isnt sure about her career direction at this point. While getting a steady employment offer seems appealing in some respects, it is still difficult for Karen to imagine herself being committed to a career for a prolonged amount of time, even if the expected starting salary is $40,000 with 4% average annual growth for ten years afterwards. Karen wants a detailed analysis of how her career options. She wants advice on ethics, business strategies, tax implications, and other relevant matters.

Karen welcomes any recommendations, as well as any questions to her which will help you better analyze her options. Please prepare a business memo to Karen, addressing all issues raised in this case.