Interviewing a Business Owner
Michelle Whitsitt
January 4, 2009
Writing Assignment # 1: Interview a Business Owner
Due: January 7, 2009
For my interview I decided to pick the owner of the company I work for. The owner’s name is J. Kent McNew and he is the owner of Eastern Petroleum Corporation. The company is a petroleum distributor of gasoline primarily through gas station outlets. Eastern Petroleum Corporation is a Maryland corporation and its corporate office is located in Annapolis, MD. Mr. McNew sells products in MD, VA, DC, and some in DE. The scope of the business is done in the Mid-Atlantic Region of the United States. Eastern Petroleum is an S-Chapter corporation, which means S Corporations do not pay any income taxes. Instead, the corporation 's income or losses are divided among and passed through to its shareholders. The shareholders must then report the income or loss on their own individual income tax returns. Mr. Kent said that he’s always had an entrepreneur spirit and it started way back when he was in grade school. He stated in his school each class had to sell garden seeds and he always sold the most in his class, so that inspired him to go into business. He worked for Hess Oil Company while attending the University of Richmond, realizing while selling products to his customers he wanted to go into business for himself. So he started the company called “Eastern Petroleum Corporation”. To come up with the corporation’s name he sat down with a legal pad and just wrote down different names that came to mind. He didn’t want to name the company after himself because his father had a company called the McNew Brothers, and since he was based on the East coast he came up with Eastern Petroleum Corporation. Mr. McNew also came up with a company color which is yellow, because he wanted everyone to see the gasoline trucks on the road and he knew yellow would draw people’s attention. While talking with Mr. Kent he stated some of the advantages of being a corporation compared to
January 4, 2009
Writing Assignment # 1: Interview a Business Owner
Due: January 7, 2009
For my interview I decided to pick the owner of the company I work for. The owner’s name is J. Kent McNew and he is the owner of Eastern Petroleum Corporation. The company is a petroleum distributor of gasoline primarily through gas station outlets. Eastern Petroleum Corporation is a Maryland corporation and its corporate office is located in Annapolis, MD. Mr. McNew sells products in MD, VA, DC, and some in DE. The scope of the business is done in the Mid-Atlantic Region of the United States. Eastern Petroleum is an S-Chapter corporation, which means S Corporations do not pay any income taxes. Instead, the corporation 's income or losses are divided among and passed through to its shareholders. The shareholders must then report the income or loss on their own individual income tax returns. Mr. Kent said that he’s always had an entrepreneur spirit and it started way back when he was in grade school. He stated in his school each class had to sell garden seeds and he always sold the most in his class, so that inspired him to go into business. He worked for Hess Oil Company while attending the University of Richmond, realizing while selling products to his customers he wanted to go into business for himself. So he started the company called “Eastern Petroleum Corporation”. To come up with the corporation’s name he sat down with a legal pad and just wrote down different names that came to mind. He didn’t want to name the company after himself because his father had a company called the McNew Brothers, and since he was based on the East coast he came up with Eastern Petroleum Corporation. Mr. McNew also came up with a company color which is yellow, because he wanted everyone to see the gasoline trucks on the road and he knew yellow would draw people’s attention. While talking with Mr. Kent he stated some of the advantages of being a corporation compared to