Snazzy Simi's Swirls

Simi 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.

Simi's current plan is to work full-time (six hours per day with Sundays off) as a server at a local restaurant called Paulie's. Simi worked at Paulie's in high school, so she has a good idea of what she can expect to earn. With tips, a $19 per hour average rate is reasonable for Monday through Thursday. On the weekends, higher tipping typically increases the hourly rate by 10%.

While she won't have to pay full rent while living with her parents, Simi still expects her living costs to total $1,000 a month. To try to save up faster for three more years of college, Simi is planning on also growing her part-time online retail business. In the last year, 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 other people approached her offering to pay for paintings of themselves, Simi decided to put some flyers up around campus. She believes she ended up selling 100 paintings at an average price of $50 each (she hasn't kept track of the exact numbers).

Simi's plan, in the absence of young people/potential customers all around, is to market her services online under a catchy name, Snazzy Simi's Swirls. 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, Simi has put together some projections for next year. Because of shipping costs, she is planning to increase her price to $75 per portrait. Each portrait will cost, on average, $15 to package and ship (and take an hour of Simi's time). Additionally, Simi estimates that the supplies for creating 100 paintings last year totaled $1,200. She expects this trend to continue. Simi's expectation is that she will sell 250 paintings in 2023 and an 8%-10% annual growth rate is realistic until December 31, 2025. Simi is open to advise on this business, especially the online elements.

Simi is also wondering about the importance of maintaining accurate records. Her aunt Trina, a successful businesswoman, has warned her to not neglect to save and organize paperwork. Simi also wants to make sure she has a solid understanding of 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 Simi typically despises nagging from her aunt, she did get a potential career opportunity from her 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 Simi's aunt is willing to buy the other 50% share for $310,000. However, she will only close the deal if Simi agrees to work at the station for a minimum of two years. Simi's aunt is willing to pay her half of the profits she is entitled to or 25% of the gas station's annual profit if Simi works 30+ hours a week (paid to Simi as a bi-weekly salary). Simi is wondering how her hourly rate may compare to her other options.

Hal has insisted that, since he is managing the inventory and fuel supplies, Simi should manage the bookkeeping. Simi knows the accounting basics but isn't 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, Simi 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 totally up annual revenues of $424,000. The expenses, with the business owners working full-time, are ballparked at 42% of revenues. In 2021, the revenues totaled $425,400 and expenses were $179,100. For 2023, Hal and Trina have discussed possibly hiring a part-time employee which would allow Simi and Hal to work fewer hours. However, this would push expenses up to about 54% of revenues. Simi is wondering if she should urge her aunt to hire 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, Simi would not continue her art business.

Simi 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 guaranteed savings account for at least 18 months, Simi 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.

Simi'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. Simi 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 isn't sure about her career direction at this point. While getting a steady employment offer seems appealing in some respects, it is still difficult for Simi 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 afterward.

Simi wants a detailed analysis of how her career options. She wants advice on ethics, business strategies, tax implications, and other relevant matters. Simi welcomes any recommendations, as well as any questions that will help you better analyze her options.

Required

Please prepare a business memo to Simi, addressing all issues raised in this case.