B.1. The Scenario

In 1973, Lydia, Rachel, and Susannah Wright opened the Wright Sisters Garden Shoppe in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. At the time, Lydia and Susannah were young mothers and split the hours in the shop so each worked part time and could spend time with their growing families. Lydia's strength was her love of gardening—she had the proverbial green thumb and was a gifted, though not formally trained, landscape designer. Susannah's strength was her easy rapport with strangers—this made her a natural at building strong customer relationships. Rachel was a CPA at one of the Big 8 (now Big 4) accounting firms, and although she did not generally work in the shop, she contributed all the bookkeeping, accounting, and financial planning.

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