I'm not a tax expert, but I think you're confusing whether to take the standard deduction or itemizing (listing out charity giving, mortgage interest, etc) with business expenses. Business expenses are deducted from business income, but that doesn't have an effect on whether you itemize.
I have a blog and it earned around 2K in 2012 plus I worked a W2 part time. I just used Turbo Tax and listed my wages from my W2 job. Then it asked about business income so I reported revenue of 2K and I also reported expenses (web hosting mainly) of $200. This made my profit $1,800. You don't really see this when using Turbo Tax, but the program uses that information to create a Schedule C Profit or Loss Statement.
I'm a college student and would have nothing to gain by itemizing, so I just took the standard deduction. But my business income had no effect on that decision.
From what you've described, I think Turbo Tax could easily handle this situation, but $250 also isn't a huge amount of money if she wants some peace of mind from a professional.