Strain Your Brain

Quiz: What Would You Do?

Running your own business can be a lot of fun, but it isn’t always easy. Sooner or later, you’ll face a business situation that requires making hard choices. How good are you at making business decisions? Test your skills with this self-scoring quiz. When you’re done, look up your answers and see how you rate.

You need $100 to start your summer business. A good way to get the money is to:

Ask your mom for a loan — she won’t mind. After all, didn’t she just buy you a cool new summer wardrobe and three new CDs?
Clean out the cabinets, the attic, and the garage and have a yard sale. Add to your profits by selling cold sodas to thirsty customers.
Only $100? Surely you can get it from your college fund and replace it at the end of the summer.
Ask your friends to loan you a few bucks. Isn’t that what friends are for?

You are selling lemonade at a baseball game. A player hits a home run, and you step away momentarily to watch the excitement. When you return, your money is gone. What do you do?

Stop everybody where they are and tell them no one leaves until the money is returned.
Accuse the person closest to the stand.
Cut your losses. Next time, be sure not to leave your money unattended.
Sue the baseball team.

You want your neighbors to know you cut lawns. The best way to advertise is to:

Make flyers and hand them out at school.
Go around your neighborhood and mow as many yards as you can for free, so everyone sees what a good job you do.
Call your neighbors around dinnertime when you know they’ll be getting home from work.
Go for a walk and look for lawns that need mowing. Then leave a business card or flyer at those homes.

Your competition is silk-screening T-shirts for $2 less than you. You should:

Tell everyone that your product is better. After all, you’re an artist. Those other guys don’t know what they’re doing.
Review your expenses and see if there is a way to cut the price or give your customers more for their money.
Throw in the towel and spend the summer on the beach.
Do nothing and hope they go out of business.

You can’t find your customers’ addresses, and now your order slips are missing. You should:

Give the papers to your parents. This job is too hard for you.
Put each important paper in a different stack so they don’t get mixed up.
Organize a file box for your paperwork
Hire a secretary.

You have a customer who is angry because you broke a window while washing the exterior of her house. The best way to handle this is to:

Offer to tape up the window.
Give her a 10% discount.
Tell her that someone else did it.
Apologize, have the window replaced, and offer a 10% discount.

It seems like your business partner isn’t working as hard as you are. The best thing to do is:

Call her on the phone and tell her what a lousy worker she is.
Talk to your other friends and get them to watch her.
Tell your partner what’s bothering you and discuss possible solutions.
Just ignore it.

Your summer babysitting schedule is filled for the entire summer. Now Mom decides the family needs a two-week vacation in July. What do you do?

You made the commitment, so you have to stay home and do your job.
Give the children’s parents two weeks notice that they need to find another sitter.
Convince the children’s parents to take their vacations at the same time your family takes vacation.
You knew this might happen, and you have a friend who will watch the kids in your place while you’re on vacation.

You are swamped with orders and you’re falling behind on customer deliveries. The best way to handle this is:

Call all the customers and tell them you now charge an extra $10 for delivery. Then hire a friend to do the work.
Don’t worry. The money is rolling in, so you must be doing something right.
Call your customers and apologize for being late. Then hire a friend to help you catch up on the orders this weekend.
Get your dad to make the deliveries on his way to the office tomorrow.

Spike, the family bulldog, decided he wanted to go for a ride and jumped into the front seat of the car. The barbecued ribs you were supposed to deliver to a wedding are now all over the floorboard. What’s your next step?

Call a local restaurant with good barbecue and get replacement ribs. This will wipe our your profits, but it will save you from losing a customer.
Call the customer and tell her she isn’t going to get the ribs.
Go into hiding.
Pick them up, towel them off, and deliver them anyway. You just vacuumed a few weeks ago.

answers

Strain Your Brain

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Strain Your Brain

Quiz: What Would You Do?

You need $100 to start your summer business. A good way to get the money is to:

You are selling lemonade at a baseball game. A player hits a home run, and you step away momentarily to watch the excitement. When you return, your money is gone. What do you do?

You want your neighbors to know you cut lawns. The best way to advertise is to:

Your competition is silk-screening T-shirts for $2 less than you. You should:

You can’t find your customers’ addresses, and now your order slips are missing. You should:

You have a customer who is angry because you broke a window while washing the exterior of her house. The best way to handle this is to:

It seems like your business partner isn’t working as hard as you are. The best thing to do is:

Your summer babysitting schedule is filled for the entire summer. Now Mom decides the family needs a two-week vacation in July. What do you do?

You are swamped with orders and you’re falling behind on customer deliveries. The best way to handle this is:

Spike, the family bulldog, decided he wanted to go for a ride and jumped into the front seat of the car. The barbecued ribs you were supposed to deliver to a wedding are now all over the floorboard. What’s your next step?

Strain Your Brain

Fun ways to learn about business!