Cooper Collins is a bright, hard-working engineer who once owned a successful engineering consulting firm in his native country of Evensplitia. Cooper was discouraged by the high tax rates in Evensplitia, so he immigrated to the United States seven years ago. Soon after moving to the U.S., Cooper again tried his hand at entrepreneurship and opened Coop’s Consulting. The company struggled at first, and almost went bankrupt midway through its second year. However, Cooper never lost faith, the company survived, and eventually developed a great reputation in the community. Coop’s Consulting began experiencing sustained growth early in its fourth year. In fact, Cooper hired additional employees to keep up with the increasing workload. His company, which started with only Cooper and two other full-time workers, now provides jobs for 43 full-time employees as well as many part-time workers and interns.
Despite these past successes, business ownership is not without complications. The company suffered its first drop in business since its very early years. Cooper is convinced that the problem is not with his company, but rather due to a downturn in the U.S. economy. He heard a national broadcast last week reporting that the value of the total output of final goods and services in the U.S. declined over the last quarter. The anchor went on to state that many economists believe that this downward trend is likely to continue for several more months. Cooper is concerned that he will have to lay off some of his employees if the economy doesn’t improve. He hopes that the government does something soon to put the economy back on track.
Besides a slowdown in the general economy, Coop’s Consulting faces threats of competition from several other companies that provide engineering consulting services. In order to gain more business, Cooper tries to convince potential clients that his company offers better service than the competition. He has advertised heavily in professional magazines, often quoting some of his highly satisfied clients. The market Coop’s Consulting operates in is an example of
