Directions: Read the following case study and answer the questions at the end.
Teasha Pratt will graduate from high school next month and cannot decide what she wants to do. She had originally planned to go to college and major in marketing and accounting, but now she is thinking about opening her own business. Teasha has worked in a gift store for the last two years and gained a lot of experience and knowledge by working with inventory, pricing, customers, and accounting. However, her real interest is in crafts. After conducting some marketing research, Teasha determines that there is a very small market for a craft store (there are currently two craft stores in town), but there is a larger market for a gift store. Teasha decides to open a small gift store in the mall with a loan from the local bank. After much hard work, she locates two suppliers, Gifts Plus Wholesalers and Hearts Manufacturing Corporation, hires employees, buys display equipment, accounting equipment, a cash register, supplies, etc. Three months later, she is ready to open her store.
1. What are the capital resources Teasha needed to open her business (What did she have to buy)?
2. What are the human resources Teasha needed to open her business (Who did she need)?
3. Are either of her suppliers also producers (another word for producer is manufacturer)? Which one(s)?
4. How does scarcity (not enough of something) affect Teasha's business?
5. What are some economic choices that Teasha had to make?
6. What were the trade-offs and opportunity costs of one of Teasha's economic decisions (what did she give up on)?
7. Based on the information given, do you think Teasha made the right economic choice in opening her own business? Explain.
8. Would any of the following information affect your answers to the seventh question? If so, what action should Teasha have taken? Provide answers for each of a, b, c, and d.
a. Three other gift stores will be opening soon—all three are part of a national chain.
b. Economists are currently forecasting a downturn in the economy because of recent layoffs in the auto industry.
c. Two gift stores have recently closed due to lack of sales.
d. The local bank refuses to lend money to a person with no managerial experience.