Chapter 20
CHAPTER 20
HUDSON
W e arrive at Sinclair’s corporation soon enough. I step out of the car and send Alison on her way while I walk into the building. She has some more work to handle. I have two meetings today, and the one with Randall must go well. I went to college with Randall, so there is some hope there.
Getting into the building, I notice the eyes on me. It is usual for my workers to get self-conscious and try to act busy whenever I walk through the corridor, but this time, they all are watching me out of the corners of their eyes. I don’t have the time to wonder what that’s all about, so I head into my office immediately. I make myself a cup of steaming coffee and return to my seat, but I realize I’m without a secretary. The secretary I got from At Your Service Agency is at The Dubois ranch house, playing fiancé.
It’s just meetings. I’ll survive without a secretary.
About an hour later, with my coffee ingested, I get a knock on my door. It’s Randall. He’s about fifteen minutes early. I have nothing else to do, so I welcome him into my office.
“Hey man,” he says, giving me a firm handshake before taking his seat.
“Can I get you anything to drink? I have some good Arabian coffee.”
“Yes, some coffee will be nice. I can smell it already.”
I nod and walk to the machine to prepare the coffee myself. This is something I learned from my father. Always treat a prospective client like they matter, and they’re not just some entity you’re looking to leech money off. Make their coffee, provide them with whatever they require, listen to them, and provide appropriate feedback. Business is beyond throwing money around. It’s also about throwing a reputation around.
“How do you take it? Black or with milk?”
“Black,” he says.
“With sugar?”
“Two cubes?”
I prepare his coffee.
“How are the restaurants?” I ask Randall as I hand him his cup of coffee. It’s too hot for him, so he blows on it.
“Man, who knew running a business can be so hard,” he says with a shake of his head. “What am I saying? I have it easy. You’re up in the same pants with Frank Dubois. That’s a stress level I never would want to perceive. How are you handling that?”
Make the meeting about them and not you.
“Oh, Frank and I will find a level ground, I’m sure. What’s the number of restaurants now, fifteen?”
“Eighteen. We’re expanding to Kansas this summer. We have the locations set and are just waiting for the summer rush to open them.”
“Sounds like a lot of work,” I tell him.
“I mean, I meet with so many people in a day that I lose count: contractors, constructors, food merchants, and hiring firms. It is crazy. But that’s the price of running a business. The grind never stops.”
Be relatable.
“It just never stops,” I say.
“I like this coffee,” Randall chips in when he finally takes a sip from the coffee.
“I can have it sent to your office. I have a connection who brings them to me right from the Saudi.”
“That’ll be great, thank you! I guess we better get down to business then,” Randall says. He reaches into his bag and pulls some files out. He passes them to me. Since we have a standard menu in all the restaurants, the requirements are mostly the same I’m referring to the kind of seafood we make and the products we’ll require from you. But quantity varies from city to city and restaurant to restaurant.”
I nod, perusing through the file. “Fifteen products,” I say.
“Yes, but my partners say we start with eight.”
“Why?” I ask.
“Come on, Hudson. You know why. We can’t transfer all of our contracts to you and break off contracts with previous suppliers.”
“Judging by the numbers I see here, of the eight products we’ll be supplying you, we’ll be providing just twenty percent of the total number your restaurant consumes.”
“Yes,” Randall says. “Playing it safe.”
“Come on, Randall. You’re losing money that way. If you give me all fifteen products and kick the percentage up to eighty percent, you save over a million dollars monthly on sea products. You know how much that racks up to in a year. Fiscal improvement.”
“Yes, we know that. And I pointed that out to my partners, but there are talks that you might not be here by the end of the year. Now, if we lose a major supplier, we lose production and more than we would have saved if we had got onboard with you. They’re not comfortable with that risk. I’m here because it’s you and I would love to do business with you”
“I’m not speaking to your partners,” I say, knowing those said partners do not have any say. This is Randall expressing his fear. “They sent you here because they believe in your choice, and I’m telling you, shifting to us is the best choice for you.”
“What about Frank?”
“He’s nothing to worry about.”
“Come on, man, he’s not nothing to worry about. We see the numbers. You’re bleeding.”
“Yet, we have a record-high sale this month.”
“The money from those sales can’t plug the hole Frank has dug.”
“Yet, here I am, standing stronger than ever. Why do you think that is, Randall? If Frank could annihilate me and not kick himself in the nuts in the process, he would have a long time ago. I’m at a stalemate with Frank, Frank Dubois. No one has ever done that before.”
“But can you stay in stale mate forever? Someone will shift. The market says you’re more likely to.”
“The sea says otherwise. It’s a bountiful season for catch.”
“You have fish. Frank has cash.”
“But does he? If he does, why am I still here? If Frank is the big bully everyone fears him to be, why can’t he buy me out? My company is valued at six billion dollars. He can pull several levers to get that off, buy me out, and toss me to the dogs, but that hasn’t happened. Old Frank would have done that months ago. But he’s stuck.”
“What are you saying?” Randall asks. I have his attention now. If I close this deal with him, it will send a message to others out there that doing business with me isn’t as riddled with risk as they think it is. If I get new customers onboard and improve sales even more, I will get more customers, and we will get more leverage and can play the waiting game for longer with Frank.
“I’m saying you’re not paying attention. How about I make this deal less risky for you?”
“What are you suggesting?”
“I deliver to eight restaurants at fifty percent. If my fiscal accumulation by the end of next month goes up, we improve the deal to ten restaurants at sixty-five percent. If it goes down, the deal becomes five restaurants at twenty percent. If, in three months, I keep a steady fiscal balance or improve, I get the whole deal. You’re still saving and bearing little risk.”
“There’s something you know that I don’t,” Randall says.
“What I know is simple. I am not losing this war to Frank. That’s why I said to pay attention, Randall.
“How will you do well in the market when Frank is on your ass? It’s not possible.”
“I’m Hudson Sinclair. I can make anything possible.”
Randall smiles, clearly impressed. “I think my partners will like this deal very much. You send the paperwork to my company tomorrow, and I’ll get my legal team to go through it.”
“Good. I’m glad we could do business.”
“Yea, that aside. Let’s talk about your girl making the news,” Randall says, shifting into a comfortable position as he gulps his cup.
“Girl? What girl?” I ask.
“What do you mean what girl? Your fiancée. She’s the talk of the town. Everyone is steaming like trains trying to find out who she is.”
I frown, lost. I pick up my phone to find out what Randall is talking about. And there it is, the news of the day.
What Do We Make of Her: She Seemed to Have Dropped From An Obscure End of The World .
The first news article I read has a picture of Juliette and me walking down the red carpet holding hands. Juliette looks a little dazzled by all the lights, but her exquisiteness is captured. She has the grace of an angel learning to walk on cobblestones. Everyone is asking the same questions: Who is she, and how did I keep her a secret for so long?
“She’s a big catch,” Randall says. “That picture of hers absolutely blew me away.”
He continues his compliment while one thing runs through my mind.
I have to call Juliette.