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Each reply reply has to be at least 450 words

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Each reply reply has to be at least 450 words.

1. Advise Shania on which of the interested persons she should include in her business, why, and in what role(s). If she chooses not to take in a particular party, what reasons should she give each person, if any? Your analysis must include biblical perspectives, such as biblical considerations of marriage and of business relationships with non-believers.

Reply Prompt:

In preparing your replies, consider only the employee issues in question 4. Reply to the threads of 2 classmates who reached a different conclusion than you did. Identify the points of difference in your analyses and explain how your application of the relevant law to the facts of this situation led you to a different conclusion.

Then, assume that Shania opened her coffeehouse and became so successful that she has 20 employees and needs to promote 1 of them to be the night shift supervisor. The employee base is quite diverse; in fact, Shania believes she should promote a racial or ethnic minority employee to demonstrate how inclusive her business has become. Explore the legal, ethical, and biblical issues if Shania makes her promotion decision entirely on that basis. What are her options?

Each reply must be supported by 3 scholarly sources other than the textbook/course materials. Each reply must be properly cited in current APA format.

Submit your thread by 11:59 p.m. (ET) on Friday of Module/Week 7, and submit your 2 replies by 11:59 p.m. (ET) on Friday of Module/Week 8.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discussion 1 

Alicia F.

 

One of the most exciting things a person can accomplish in their life is to open their own business. When opening a business one has the opportunity to create the name of the company, what the business will consist of, the theme of the business, the target market, the atmosphere of the company, the products being released and sold, and the employees who work there. However, there is a lot of decisions that need to be made when it comes to opening a business. In this paper, we will go over an example of a woman named Shania, who has aspirations to open a Christian-based coffee shop. We will go over the different ways we can approach this opportunity for Shania from not only a business perspective but also a biblical perspective as well.

Shania has 2 decisions to make regarding which business forms she can take. She can partner up with a franchise but is required to name her company after this franchise, as well as, use their trade dress. The second option that she is being offered to Shania is to partner up with a franchise that requires her to move into a turn-key facility, where she would have to buy a certain number of products each month for the next 10 years. Both franchises are willing to provide training to Shania and her newly hired employees. However, it comes down to if she is willing to give up the creativity she has planned for the coffee shop she wants to open, or if she wants to have a bit more freedom within her business when it comes to design. I would recommend Shania to go through the turn-key facility franchise because she would have more of an opportunity to embrace her ideas for her company, instead of another franchise’s ideas. She will also still be able to get the products she wants for her company as long as she continues to buy the quantity of products that is agreed upon in the contract, I feel like this would be a better outcome for the success of her business. Choosing this form of business would allow her to name her business, come out with her own products, and have more freedom to make it her own.

Another thing for Shania to consider is whether she wants to partner up with a franchise or if she wants to open her shop as an “independent” shop. The difference between the two are pretty simple. If Shania went with a franchise, she would be able to get the training needed to make her business successful but also, there would be requirements needing to be made between Shania and the franchise. If Shania decided to open the coffee shop as an independent coffee shop, she would be able to design everything as her own, but she wouldn’t have the extra provided training. So there are pros and cons to going with both. According to an article I found there was a study done to explore independent small business owners’ perceptions of franchisees relationships with their franchisors, their fellow franchisees within the chain, their employees, and their customers. Findings showed that small independent business owners perceive that franchisees have a dependency-based relationship with their franchisors; a competition-based relationship with their fellow franchisees; a rather complicated relationship with their employees; and a superficial relationship with their customer (Perrigot, 2015). Therefore, this study shows there is a more negative relationship between the business owner and franchisors, rather than a positive one. Negative relationships create a higher chance of the business failing all together.

Shania wants to name her coffee shop, “The Gathering Place.” This term is available in the state of Colorado and used for a non-profit organization. The term is also registered as a trademark. However, it is probably a good idea for Shania to choose “The Gathering Place” as a name of the company because a lot of the companies that had the same name have either changed their name or have expired. These companies who have changed their name, are already known to their customers by their new name. The companies whose names have already expired are more likely the companies who have gone out of business. Therefore, Shania would steal be creating her own uniqueness to her company.

A very important decision to make and probably “the” most important decision to make is hiring people who are willing to strive to make the business successful, just like Shania is. When it comes to the hiring process, it is important to provide equal opportunities for all potential employees.  Legally, no employer can base a hiring decision or turn away an applicate based on gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, etc. Shania has a couple of options when it comes hiring people for her small business, she can hire her sister who is a new believer in Christianity and/or, she can hire Carlos who is a non-believer but thinks it would be a good time investment. She should hire Kelsey as an assistant manager/team leader because she is a newly devoted Christian and seems eager to get out of the house. The position would be perfect for Kelsey because she seems eager to be involved within the company, and is also a Christian. However, Kelsey’s husband does not want her to be a part of the business and demands her to continue stay at home with the kids. I think the reason for why he is so against her being a part of the company is because he is a non-Christian and doesn’t support any part of the religion. With Kelsey saying she wants to have an excuse to leave the house, comes across as there being a reason as to why she does not want to be home. Religion can take a major toll on marriage because of the expectation the man and wife each have regarding religion. Christianity may be more important to one than the other. However, the bible teaches that women are “confined to the household.” The reason being is because according to the Old Testament, “The Levitical purity rules concerning bodily fluids and bodies that were not intact placed a heavier burden on the women than men. The threat of sanctuary of pollution arising from menstruation and childbirth functioned to exclude women from leadership in the cult” (Barton 2016). Also in Proverbs 31, the good woman is the skilled household manager. In lumen’s terms, women were known to be temptresses. This could be the reason as to why Kelsey husband does not want her working with her sister within this company. He could be worried that she will be tempted to leave him for another man who is Christian. This has been a common worry in society for many generations and it is something that may never let up. Should Kelly respect her husband’s wishes according to the bible? Yes. However, should she respect his wishes even though he is a non-believer? It is hard to say.

Shania has the second option of hiring Carlos as well to go along with her business plan. Carlos is a non-believer, however, I would still hire him to be a worker. At the beginning of the paragraph, I expressed how important it is to not base a hiring decision based on certain characteristics about a person. If Shania decided not to hire Carlos to be an employee, simply because he is not Christian, that wouldn’t be right. I understand how people would say, “well if he is employed at a Christian based company than he should be a Christian. However, we cannot control how people view religion. We can do our best to tell them about the bible, and testimonies, but at the end of the day, they are going to want to believe. Based on an article I read about a study done on atheists, they are actually known to be more untrustworthy because they are threatened in-group values (Cook, 2015). However, one study cannot determine that every atheist is like that. The study goes on to explain how this studied focused on a specific society instead of other society. Basically going on to say, that every society is going to be different. Based on this study, I could see Shania not hiring Carlos because of the findings. However, in today’s society, people are tempted to look upon Shania for not hiring Carlos for the only reason being he is a non-believer. This could drive away her customers as well as give herself and business a bad reputation.

References

Barton, S. C. (2016). Marriage, family, the bible and the gospel. Theology, 119(3), 163-171. doi:10.1177/0040571X15623690

Cook, C. L., Cohen, F., & Solomon, S. (2015). What if They’re right about the afterlife? evidence of the role of existential threat on anti-atheist prejudice. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 6(7), 840-846. doi:10.1177/1948550615584200

Perrigot, R., Hussain, D., & Windsperger, J. (2015). An investigation into independent small business owners’ perception of franchisee relationships. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 43(8), 693-711. doi:10.1108/IJRDM-01-2014-0010

 

 

Discussion 2

 

Passha Burns

BUSI 561-D07

Liberty University

Starting and Naming a Business

Shania is interested in opening a coffeehouse and she has considered doing so as a joint venture, sole proprietor, corporation, or an LLC.  There are some advantages and disadvantages to all ways of organizing her business.  It is not clear what level of experience Shania has in starting and maintaining a business so I would advise her to choose the one that would separate her personal assets from the business and give her the most authority over management in her company which is that of the Limited Liability Company (LLC).  There are several reasons for this advice, the first reason being is that this type of organization may have one or more members, with no limits as to the number or character of the owners and it may also be terminated at any time (Petravick & Troutman, 2007).   This means that Shania can be sole proprietor under this type of company or she can have a partnership if she chooses.  The decision is completely up to her.  The second reason for advising Shania to operate under an LLC is because the IRS treats it like it’s a partnership or sole proprietorship by letting members report their share of profits or losses of the LLC on their personal tax returns (Kubaseck et al., 2016).  The third and final reason for this advice to Shania is that an LLC allows for protection against personal liability for obligations of the business (Petravick & Troutman, 2007).

Shania has done her research and came across a few franchise opportunities.  These opportunities may be helpful in that they offer to help her with learning the business, staff training, site selection, marketing support, quality programs and vendor certification and in return Shania (the franchisee) would pay an upfront fee and a continuing sales royalty, and agrees to follow the franchisor’s standard operating procedures as specified in the written contract and operations manual (Mendez et al., 2014).  Opening as a franchise will limit Shania’s ability to have total creative control.  My recommendation is that Shania’s company open as an independent coffeehouse because that option will afford her the oprtunity to make decisions with regard to her company that she otherwise would not be able to make in a franchise business.  She should go to her local small business office and seek information to help her form a business plan.  Doing this will ensure that she starts and grows a business that is exactly what she wants instead of working for someone else which is what she will be doing if she goes the franchise route.  In a study done by Perrigot, Hussain, & Windsperger (2015) independent business owners view franchisees as being dependent on their franchisors and are unable to make any type of strategic decisions.  According to some independent small business owners, training in a franchised store can be considered effective because  franchising may be a “good training school” for young people and beginners but because they are limited to low resources they prefer to hire already skilled workers (Perrigot et al., 2015).  Even though franchising may look good as far as the low cost of upfront training I think they are a bad idea for those that truly want to be independent business owners because of the possible long term contracts they entail.  I would also highly recommend that since Shania will be newly starting out in her business that she draw from the pool of employee candidates that have worked in a franchise that operates similarly to what she is trying to run. 

After performing a name search for “The Gathering Place”  at the Colorado Secretary of State website I found that the name is not available for use as an entity.  If Shania is adamant about using the name and is willing to file as an LLC the name “The Gathering Place LLC” is available for use.  There were however thirty six businesses that have already been filed in the the state of Colorado under names that are very similar to what she is hoping to use.  Many of those businesses have statuses that are not in good standing, are delinquent, expired, name changed, voluntarily dissolved, or are noncompliant. There is a trademark for the name that has also already been filed and is being used since 1993 for what appears to be a nonprofit organization.  I would advise Shania to not use the previously selected name but instead encourage her to do more research and to look for names other than “The Gathering Place” that will be representative of her company mission statement or find something that has some meaning to her. 

If Shania does proceed to use this name she could face a lawsuit for trademark infringement if a part of the other company also has a location that sells or markets a coffeeshop inside of it.  It can be quite easy to get the two companies confused if you were doing a quick internet search for the name of the two companies that both sold coffee.  To lessen the confusion I would just go with a different name altogether.  In the long run finding a new name will save her time from dealing with the mistaken identity as well.

Shania now has to deal with who she should include in her business.  Her husband has offered to contribute money to the capital of the business but says that he wants to have no participation in the operation or management of it.   Although he is not an interested party at this time I would advise her to find out if he means he wants to be a silent partner in the business, if he is gifting her the capital or if the money will be a loan.  These questions would have to be answered before Shania moves on with her business so that she has a good understanding of what her husband’s intentions are. 

Shania’s sister Kelsey has expressed an interest in becoming a part of the business as a way to get out of the house but has responsibilities at home with her two teen children and her husband opposes her working outside of the home.  Shania should tell her sister that she will not be able to allow her to go into business with her because her husband doesn’t approve of it and because her first duty is to her husband and children.  “Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband” (Ephesians 5:33, King James Version). Even though Kelsey’s husband is not yet a believer, as a Christian she still has to respect her husband and that means she needs to listen to what he is saying about her working outside of their home.  Shania is actually helping to reduce potential conflict in her sister’s home by not taking her on as a partner.

Shania’s neighbor Carlos has expressed his interest in participating in the business to earn extra money.  I would advise Shania not to take on Carlos as a partner because he is non Christian.  “ Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 7:14, King James Version). Since a business partnership is closely related to that of a marriage it especially would not be a good idea to add Carlos to a business that is going to be Christian based.  Shania can only make this decision early on because of the statements that Carlos has made in the past.  If Shania had already started her business and Carlos was applying to be an employee I would advise her not to discriminate based on his religious preferences.

 

References

Kusabek, N., Browne M. N., Herron, D. J., Dhooge, L. J., & Barkacs, L. (2016).  Dynamic Business Law: The essentials. McGraw-Hill

Mendez, M. T., Galindo, M., & Sastre, M. (2014). Franchise, innovation and   entrepreneurship. Service Industries Journal, 34 (9/10)

Perrigot, R., Hussain, D., & Windsperger, J. (2015). An investigation into independent small business owners' perception of franchisee relationships. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 43(8), 693-711.

Petravick, G., & Troutman, C. (2007).  HAS THE LLC REPLACED THE S CORPORATION AS THE ENTREPRENEUR’S ENTITY CHOICE?  Business Entities, 9(6), 18-27