Real-Life Decision Making
Since finishing college with a bachelor's degree in culinary arts, you've been working with chocolate and learning more about what you can do with it. You've even spent time volunteering with a master chocolatier in Switzerland. Now, you own your own chocolate shop.
Since opening your own shop, you've created many confections. From fruit dipped in chocolate to liquor-filled chocolate shapes, you love to experiment. And your customers love it, too. There's always something new for them to try.
One particular recipe that you concocted -- a raspberry-filled chocolate confection you call Raspberry Ecstasy -- was so well accepted that you've added it to your regular offerings. You often get calls for large orders from corporate clients for their various company functions.
But you never dreamed it would get so much attention. At least, not until you got a phone call from a large candy company that wants to buy the recipe.
The company is willing to pay $300,000 for the recipe. However, they want to buy all rights to the recipe, which means you will no longer be able to make and market the chocolate.
You can take the money and invest it in your business. However, you wanted to keep the business small enough to be manageable with little or no outside help. And you like the feel of having a small shop. Still, the money would make staying with that goal a lot easier if you portion it out. And it would ensure that you could continue your business for several years.
But there are a lot of your customers, particularly many of the large corporate clients that you depend on, who come to you specifically for Raspberry Ecstasy. If you sell the recipe, you'll no longer have their business. This concerns you because if you can't give them what they want, they could go to another chocolatier. And in the long run, it could cost you more than you'll make selling the recipe.
What do you do?