Chapter 4
Sen was learning a great deal about running a multibillion-dollar business.
But she was having fun too. The people who worked directly with her were so pleased with her working with them that they went out of their way to be nice to her.
She didn’t fully trust them, but she was happy to be on board with them for the time being.
She’d been working there for a month now, and things seemed to be going well.
Of course, she had Brandy to thank for how to watch for someone to sabotage her, but so far, she’d not been able to find fault with the people that she worked with. So far, anyway.
“There are seven companies that we don’t deal with.
One of them is a large corporation that sells retail high-end furniture, which is larger than any other company that we deal with.
They sell furniture retail, you understand that, don’t you?
” She asked what had happened. “They decided that Mr. Ranger was too hard to work with and that they didn’t want to deal with his temper tantrums.” She could understand that and had been hearing that about a few other companies that they dealt with.
“So what should we do? Tell them that we’re under new management.
Or do we just let them go deal with someone else in business?
” He said that he’d tried to get to talk to the owner, but he wasn’t having it.
“He probably assumes that I’m just like Howard, and he doesn’t want to deal with me. I understand that too.”
“I can try again if you’d like. It would double our sales for that end of the country, and that would show a substantial profit for the whole year that you’re required to work for this company.
I must say that I’m going to miss you being around.
Just in the short time that we’ve been working together, I’ve been impressed with your way of getting things done. ”
“I like getting things done when they’re due and not when they’re about to be due.
” Apparently, that was something that Howard did.
Wait until the last minute to get things done, which would drive the others crazy.
“You said you’d get me a sales report for the business.
Have I done so terribly that you’re afraid to show me? ”
“On the contrary. You’ve already shown that you can make a profit.
I don’t see you having any troubles with the stipulation of the will.
” Mr. James snorted, something that she was sure he didn’t realize he did quite often.
“If it were left up to me, I’d just have you running the business without all the things that he has you jumping through the hoops about.
I knew you’d be able to do that the first day. ”
She didn’t point out that she’d had to make him speak to her about the business.
He’d thought, as a great many had, that she was exactly like her father in his way of doing things.
A couple of businesses found out really quickly that she wasn’t like him at all and had to apologize a great deal when she hung up on him.
He thought that he could bully her into a better discount when she’d been on the first day of work.
She nipped that in the bud right away. No one spoke to her like that and got away with it more than once.
She’d done a lot of things already about saving money.
She no longer took the limo to lunch. And if she could, she’d eat at her desk after having something brought in for her.
What was the point of having meals catered to you when it was too much for one person?
Then they’d throw the rest of it out. Stupid way to do business if you asked her.
Early morning meetings were done in the conference room rather than going to a restaurant to have donuts and coffee served.
The same thing could be served here and not have to go to the expense of having things brought in that no one ate.
That wasn’t her idea, but Mr. James’. Howard thought that if he made a big meal out of the first meal, the people working for him would be impressed.
All she’d gotten from it was that no one touched the food, and every bit of it was tossed out.
She thought that Howard showed he was wealthy by tossing out uneaten food.
Whatever. She didn’t think it was good business smarts, and Brandy agreed with her.
“I don’t have food at the meetings anymore.
They’re too distracted by getting their bagel just right than they are listening to what I have to say.
And I’ve been sending out emails too, instead of gathering everyone together.
It has saved me time and money by not having them break away from their desks to come to a meeting with me when they could be working.
I save having food in for when I’m talking business with someone else. ”
Another thing that she told her to do was set up her computer so that she could tell when someone was reading her emails or not. Hers sent a receipt when the email was opened, and it saved her a lot of trouble when they said they didn’t get it. She had proof that they got it.
Brandy was a great deal of help. She had learned how to run businesses from her grannie and had done a good job of it.
Brandy was going to slow down a bit now that she was a mom.
She was currently training someone to go in and take over for her now that things were moving well at both their home and business.
It was well after six o’clock when she was finished for the day.
She’d made the necessary phone calls to get the other businesses online to work with her.
If she could get their businesses to now buy from them, she could very easily make a profit for the rest of the year.
She wondered if there was a loophole in the will for her to be able to stop working if she did that. Probably not. But one could try.
Driving home, she was glad that she’d taken tomorrow off.
She’d worked it so that she had every Thursday off with Ivan since the clinic was closed on that day.
Ivan was a good vet and a wonderful person, and she loved him with all that she was.
They both had it on their calendar how many days she had to work for the firm that her father had owned, so that she could stop working and get the money.
She didn’t think she was greedy about the money.
Well, perhaps a little. But she was going to do well with the money as soon as she got it.
She and Ivan had been working on a list of things that they wanted to use the money for.
One of them was to set up a clinic for pets to be seen for free.
It wouldn’t be just him working it; he’d contacted a couple of the people that he’d gone to school with, and they said they’d work with him on it, too.
Then there was the underground spousal abuse program.
It was something that they’d been hearing about for years now.
And it was something that she thought would work for some of the people around town.
She knew that they were being abused by their spouses, and she wanted to do something about it.
Just getting started would be the challenge, but she knew that with the help of the Frazier family, she’d be able to make a good headway into getting it done.
She knew that she’d be able to save a lot of lives with the way things were going with abuse.
Ivan wasn’t home when she got there. He was having dinner with his brothers.
She thought that was the sweetest thing that they did.
Keeping up with each other’s lives and having fun while they were doing it.
She envied them the time they spent together and wondered if she could start having dinner with the other women in the family so that she could get to know them better.
Especially Lisa, since she was new to the family.
When Ivan came home, he was in a great mood. He was like that when he spent time with his family. It didn’t matter if they were all together or just one on one; he loved his family very much. As soon as he was on the couch with her, they talked about his brothers and what they’d talked about.
“Devlin will be moving into his house any day now. The people have finally moved out, and he’s ready to move in.
They’re combining their things so that they don’t have to buy as much.
With auction season coming up, they’ll be able to get the rest of what they need that way.
I guess there’s one this weekend that he wanted us to go with him to.
” She said she would love to go. “Good. I didn’t tell him yes, but I did tell him that I didn’t think you’d have any trouble with going.
I think they’re fun and we get so many good deals. ”
“I have to get a couple of things for the last bedroom. The quilt that I had repaired looked really good in there, along with the rug now that it’s cleaned.
” He asked her if she meant the yellow bedroom.
“Yes, that’s the one. The yellow and orange vase that I got at the last auction looks really good in there.
Like it was made especially for that room. ”
“I love that you’re able to get some knick-knacks for the rooms. You’ve certainly saved us a great deal of money.
” She said that they could have bought all new with the money that they had in the bank.
“True. But this way we’re buying locally.
You know that each of those auctions that we go to is someone’s family that needs the money? ”