December $2014,$ Cayden Cole was sitting in the cab of his Hitachi ZX$670$ excavator, a $72,000-$ kilogram machine that could excavate a $14-$metre radius and lift $10,000$ kilograms per bucket load. He was working with Carmen Construction on a job at the Vale Sudbury Nickel Smelter Complex that involved expanding drainage ditches; but he needed to wait for the blasting contractor to finish drilling so he could place containment mats on the next section to be detonated. Cole did not like the monotony of waiting for an hour or two and then working briefly for $30$ minutes before waiting again. As his thoughts drifted off, he considered the idea of buying his own backhoe and being his own boss. HISTORY Cole had completed high school, but he had to admit that high school was not the most enjoyable experience of his teenage years. What he really liked doing was driving and fixing any mobile equipment, whether it was the remote$-$controlled basketball shooting robot he helped build with his high$-$school robotics team or his dad's various trucks, loader, and backhoe. Of course, anything to do with snowmobiles, boats, personal watercraft, and cars was high on his list of activities and pursuits. He had acquired this interest in driving and fixing machines from his father and grandfather$$his dad was a Class A Mechanic with many other skills, and his grandfather was a welder, machinist, finishing carpenter, and jack$-$of$-$all$-$trades. Cole had spent many hours in the family garage taking apart various engines, electric appliances, and other operating machinery. He had a good idea of how things worked, how to fix them, and how to operate equipment and vehicles. After graduating from high school in $2013,$ he got a job as a labourer with a construction company. The owner could see he was a hard worker, punctual, and eager to learn, and also that he was keen to be an equipment operator, as indicated by his willingness to stay late, wash machinery and vehicles, and move them around the yard. Cole's desire to be an operator was soon fulfilled, as he was assigned to a small loader for the upcoming snow removal season. He enjoyed this work, especially being in a heated cab, while the other labourers cleared walks and stairwells by hand$-$shovelling during the cold winter nights. After the winter season, Cole decided to investigate other possibilities for heavy equipment operating. He was interested in moving on to a bigger machine. He placed an ad on Kijiji' offering his services as an "experienced$$ operator and waited to see what happened. He received two calls from potential employersa construction company in Sudbury, Ontario and a road maintenance contractor on Manitoulin Island, Ontario, $1\mathrm{.}5$ hours away. He decided he liked the Manitoulin potential, so he set his truck up with a camper for accommodation and moved to the job. The owner let him park in the storage lot and plug in to the garage building. The camper became his new home away from home. Cole worked there for five months but then winter was coming. He did not like the idea of sleeping in the camper when temperatures went down to $-30\backslash$deg C$,$ and he was not entirely satisfied with his treatment by the owner, so he again explored his options. The first step was to call the construction company that had responded to his first Kijiji ad$.$ Coincidentally, that company was looking for an operator again, so Cole jumped at the opportunity and was working for the company the next day. That was five months earlier, and although his supervisor had complimented him on the speed and tidiness of his work, Cole was already thinking about alternatives. One idea he had was purchasing a backhoe to become a contract operator. BACKHOE OPERATION MARKET POTENTIAL Cole had no idea how to attach a size to the backhoe market or how much business he could get. He wondered how many backhoes existed in the region and estimated there must be at least $100$ in the area when he considered where he used to work; also, his dad and his cousin each had one. Typically $10$ backhoes were posted for sale on Kijiji at any time. A glance at the Yellow Pages for Sudbury revealed $54$ excavating contractors. Assuming at least one backhoe for every company listed in the Yellow Pages, and likely for each of those there was another one that was not advertised, he estimated there were $110$ backhoe operators. He wanted to be number $111.$ He decided not to worry about the demand side of the equation, but rather to concentrate on building up his own business by having a good reputation for operating safely, efficiently, and with a positive attitude. He estimated that in his first year he should be able to get $10$ hours a week of paid work at CA$ $70-$$$802$ per hour. In his second year, he thought he could get $20$ hours per week, and by the third year, he hoped to be working, on average, $40$ hours per week. For four months of winter$-$mid$-$December to mid$-$April$$he estimated he would work only half$-$time due to lack of construction and heavy competition for what would be the market analysis for