Chapter 9: In Business

“What, exactly, is this place?” I asked David. “I must have driven past it every day last summer. I just assumed it was some big company’s office.”

“It’s a serviced office building. There are about fifty or so offices, workshops and studios of various sizes—everything from a one-person office to half of the top floor from which you could run something like a small call centre. The leases are cheap and flexible, and the rent covers everything—electricity, internet, heating, the whole works. There are several of them on this estate—it’s a popular format for modern small businesses.”

“And why are we here?”

“Tenants can hire the meeting rooms—they have a range of sizes of those too—and Bobby’s just taken out a lease on a small office here for some new venture he’s started. So, we’re taking advantage of that. If Wintersmith becomes as successful as we all hope, then we can think about taking an office here too in due course. That’s some way off, though.”

“What new venture?”

“He won’t tell me. Says he will eventually, but not yet. Says he might be looking for investment too—eventually.”

It was three-thirty on Monday afternoon. I’d been to two revision sessions in the morning and had lunch at Jak’s with my housemates before heading into town for this meeting. We were in the foyer of the Westell Park Innovation Centre, which was on the edge of the Westell Business Park—the same business park where Will’s office building was. A building I’d soon own if things went to plan.

Well, I say ‘soon.’ It was still probably over a year away.

I was sitting on one of the sofas in the reception’s waiting area. David sat on the sofa opposite me, and his trainee, Marie, sat beside him. We were waiting for Bobby to return from checking us in at the reception desk.

It was the first time I’d seen Marie in a few months, since she didn’t do shifts at Jak’s anymore. She looked as good as she ever had in her professional attire—a straight, black, knee-length skirt, white blouse and black jacket. Her hair was pulled back into a simple, tight, professional-looking ponytail—so tight that you could see she was a natural blonde. Her hairstyle showed off her elegant neck and shapely jawline, too.

I found it difficult not to stare at her the whole time we’d been sitting there, and I had to force myself into the conversation with David instead.

David leaned forward on the sofa. “Paul, when we get settled in the meeting room, you’ll need to call the meeting to order. I’ve written here what you need to say to do that.” He held out a sheet of paper to me. “After that, we go through the points on the agenda one by one. You can chair the meeting yourself if you want. Just go through each point on the agenda and call the person named. Or you can turn it over to me or Bobby to chair at the beginning. It’s entirely up to you.”

I took the paper and said, “I guess I’m going to have to learn how to do it eventually, so no time like the present, right?”

“Quite so. Start as you mean to go on. If you get stuck or are unsure of anything, just ask to go ‘off the record,’ and Marie will stop taking minutes until we go back on the record. Then, ask whatever it is you need to ask. Got it?”

I nodded. Then took a deep breath. “Yep. I think so.”

David smiled. “Relax, you’ll be fine. It’s just the four of us. We need to document that we’ve done things properly, but we don’t need to be too formal about the actual meeting itself. It’s the record that’s important.”

Bobby reached us, and we stood up, ready to follow him.

“Meeting room three,” he said, “There are refreshments in there, so let’s go and get settled.” He looked at Marie. “It’s Marie, right?”

She nodded.

“And you’re taking the minutes. You have your laptop with you, or are you taking handwritten notes?”

“I’ve got my laptop,” she said, tapping the bag slung over her shoulder.

“Good. Well, the password for the Wi-Fi is on a sign in the room. Just let us know when you’re ready to go.” He looked at me and said, “Are you chairing the meeting yourself?”

I nodded. “I’m going to give it a go.”

“Excellent. Don’t worry, we won’t bite. Let’s just keep it as casual and run through the agenda as quickly as we can, then maybe we can go for drinks or something if it’s not too late.”

“But, like I said,” David added, “Don’t feel the need to rush for the sake of it. If you are unsure about anything or need clarification, then we’ll go off the record, and you can ask. Okay?”

“Yep. It’ll be fine. Let’s ... Let’s just get on with it, shall we?”

I sat at the head of the large oblong table, with Marie to my left along one side, David next to her and Bobby opposite them to my right. Marie had her laptop open, ready to type, while the rest of us had large notepads and pens. We also all had a printed copy of the agenda that David had put together.

I took a deep breath. “Okay, so...” I looked at David’s note. “I call this first meeting of the Directors of Wintersmith Holdings and Investments Limited to order. Present are all three Directors, and Miss Marie Tomlinson, an employee of Laird and Co, who will be taking the minutes, to be distributed for approval by the end of the week.”

I looked at David. He smiled and nodded.

I continued. “Since this is the first meeting, there are no minutes from previous meetings to accept, so we move straight to item one on the agenda.” I paused as I looked at the first item on the list. “The formal appointment of Company Officers.”

I looked at David again. “David.”

“Thank you, Paul. The first position is that of Chair of the Board. I see no need to discuss this and move immediately to appoint Paul Robertson.”

“Seconded,” said Bobby.

David looked at me. “Any objections?”

I shook my head, but David made a gesture to indicate I should speak. “No,” I said. “No objections.”

David smiled and nodded, then looked at Marie. “Motion passed without a vote.” He then addressed me and Bobby again. “The second position is Company Secretary.”

“I propose David Laird,” Bobby said, immediately. Both he and David then looked at me.

“Erm ... I second the motion,” I said, hesitantly. Both smiled.

“I have no objection,” David said. “The motion, therefore, passes without a vote.” He looked at Marie. “Off the record for a sec, okay?”

She nodded and moved her hands away from the keyboard.

David looked at me. “Just so that we’re clear, Paul. Anything that has to do with the business of running the ‘Company,’ we have to vote on. But nine times out of ten, we won’t actually vote. We’ll do what we did just now—that’s called ‘nodding it through.’ We only need to vote if there is an objection or a disagreement. But even then, a vote is pointless.”

“Why is it pointless?”

“Because you have all the voting power. The three of us have one vote each. But yours is the casting vote since you’re now the Chair. But you also get a vote as the sole shareholder. Since you will never vote one way as Chair and the other as Shareholder—because that would be crazy, you have two votes to mine and Bobby’s one each. And one of yours is the casting vote, meaning if the vote is a tie, then whichever way you vote is the winner.”