Circuit Makers LLC is a small$-$scale circuit board manufacturer who is looking to expand their business into working with significantly smaller circuit board parts. This will open up a whole new market for them, but it requires additional machinery with higher precision and an engineer that is trained to design boards of this size and the associated quality testing procedures. Circuit Makers plans to be in the "very tiny circuit board" market for a long time. Which strategy would you recommend they pursue to acquire the additional resources they need?

Purchase the machinery themselves and hire the specialized engineer so they can begin building the associated capabilities around manufacturing "very tiny circuit boards"

$(1)$

Purchase the machinery but contract with an outside firm for the engineering work; this will allow them to avoid hurting shareholder returns by committing them to the high salary associated with a specialized engineer

Contract with a nearby firm with the specialized machinery for line time during their off hours and contract with an outside firm for the engineering work; this requires no significant initial capital outlay and maximally protects shareholder returns

Contract with an overseas firm to do the manufacturing of the boards and hire the specialized engineer with an eye towards transitioning into a circuit board design firm to reduce workforce size and avoid having to offer specialized training to their manufacturing employees