Chapter 25

Beep, beep, beep, beep

Ah, Thursday and I'm in my own bed with my two beauties and Mattie. I moved from between them and went to the bathroom for relief and to brush my teeth. The girls were sitting up, giving each other a morning kiss, by the time I came back into the bedroom to wake all of them up.

I received my morning hugs and kisses as they went on their way to the bathroom. The three of us were quickly in our workout clothes and downstairs while Mattie began getting dressed to go home. Our workouts had progressed to about forty-five minutes long now, giving both girls the opportunity to become very sweaty.

After a quick fun shower, I was dressing in the closet when Kindle came in and suggested that I wear one of my new shirts. She said they were made with an extremely nice cloth. These maids are so weird because they will often stand in the closet doorway and watch us dress.

I dressed in a suit as usual, and we went downstairs to have breakfast. We were directed to the big table where we were served almost exactly what hotels offered. The difference was some melon slices that are always good, especially with the salty, smoky taste of a piece of bacon along with them. I grabbed my laptop and headed for the office with Yori after listening to the girls and their plans to work IPOs today. I unlocked the office door at seven-thirty five and made coffee in both break rooms. I began hearing movement upfront by the time I sat at my desk at seven forty-five. Joan came to the door to say good morning. Tiny Sandy peeked around Joan and said 'good morning' too.

Rebecca usually comes in with Joan, but she wasn't with the two. Kelly walked into the office and asked, "What's Rebecca doing over at the construction trailer?"

Joan said, "She's working with Julio on the move of the material yard and construction trailer. We need to have a plan to move everything."

I mentioned, "We haven't been given the go ahead for the new building yet. We're getting ahead of ourselves."

Rebecca walked in and said, "Not really, I want everything to be ready when we do get the go ahead. Have you seen the modification Ken did on this office and the rest of the first floor? I knew you were going to be looking for a second Assistant, so I had Ken expand this office another fifteen feet so that five desks will easily fit in it. I think Alec's idea of putting a skinny row of planters between the desks will be good. The separations will only be between you and the Assistants, and them and Yori. The plants will make the office smell good too.

My cell phone rang and I answered with my usual "Johnson".

It was Dan, "The partners and their wives can't wait to come out there. Would it be okay if we came a day early?"

"What time will you be getting in this evening?"

"Ha, ha, ha," Dan laughed and said, "Everyone's ready, so we should be landing in Burbank just before noon. Even Dot is packed and ready because she heard from the wives."

"Amazing. Some businessmen actually will be a day early."

"Ha, ha, ha, hey, we all want to see this phenomenal operation you have. I'll see you in under four hours."

Kelly was looking at me with an arched eyebrow. I said, "Nothing like being caught with your pants down."

Rebecca said, "You are never caught like that. You always land on your feet. You better call home."

I did call Jules and she didn't sound very happy. She said, "All four IPOs that were supposed to be such great winners suck. There is nothing to play with unless we do commodities," before I could tell her what I needed

"Good, I have news. Dan and Mika, along with the other partners and wives with Dot and possibly her daughter will be here today, not tomorrow. You need to alert the house staff and ask Brindle to arrange a party bus or multiple limos to get the folks from the airport. I can put them up in a hotel for a night if this is going to be too much of a problem."

Jules said, "This is good. You can feed them lunch at Johnny's and give them a tour of the office before bringing them to the house. I'll have the temporary staff we're bringing in come a day early and give the cooks something to think about for the extra day. How about I get a reservation for the men to play golf out at Hideki's country club? We can take the women into Hollywood to enjoy some time shopping with the stars."

I told the girls, "We have pool tonight and I was looking forward to going. I'm going to advise them that we will be playing pool and they can come with us or they can chill out at home." My phone was giving me the 'gurgle' that meant a second call. "I'll call you back, my phones ringing again."

It was Dan again, "The guys and most of the wives and Dot want to stay out at a beach resort tonight. Mika and I would prefer to be with you and your girls. The others have made reservations and you can skip the lunch at your restaurant for today or for just Mika and me. Hang on, let me ask around." There was a pause then he said, "No, we'll eat lunch with you, tour the office then take the partners to the beach resort. They're going to be upset when they see your place. It will only be Mika and me tonight and tomorrow night, but everyone will stay at your place Saturday night. Will that work?"

"Sure, I'll get everyone from the airport. Make sure your pilot is coming into Bob Hope Airport in Burbank. It's a hell of lot less crowded than LA International."

I needed to tell Dan about our evening, so I said "Just so you know, Dan, the girls and I are obligated to our pool team tonight. We'll be out until about eleven. You can come with us or hang out in the saloon at home."

Dan gave me his answer, "We'd love to share an evening with you guys when you're having fun. Mika is a better pool player than me, so the girls will have to shoot each other." Dan exclaimed, "I heard them say that was where we were flying into, but I'll confirm that."

"How are you getting here in four hours?"

"That's easy, our new Citation flies at six hundred miles an hour. Hell of nice airplane. We're pulling up to the plane now, so I'll see you soon."

I called Jules back to explain what was going to happen. She laughed and said, "We're going to be tripping over the extra help around here. I won't call them in a day early but will still keep them as scheduled for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday."

Rebecca and I made a tour around the office to listen to yesterday's successes and the plans for today. Each stop was filled with enthusiastic anticipation of that next sale that awaited us.

Kelly had a huge stack of reports when I came back to the office. She told me, "These are the reports you like for all your current offices, and the stacks under them are for the Florida region and the central southwest region. I'd say you have a few days of reading to catch up on."

I began going through each folder, making a couple of notes on my pad of paper each time something that needed a better answer caught my eye. San Diego looked good, Las Vegas was good, and Reno was really coming on like gangbusters. I checked on Sacramento because I had just been there and it showed me what I knew because it showed the Title office dragging down the overall picture. That should be fixed now. San Francisco and Oakland were unknowns, but both of their accounting sheets looked good now that Oakland had divested itself of the non-producing family members. San Francisco's volume is down, but it might be just a slight dip. Their payroll also shows a decrease. Kelly had brought me coffee while I was reading the files, and Rebecca picked up each file as I put one down and scanned it the same way I had.

My cell phone rang and it was Brindle telling me that the party bus had picked up the plane load of people. She confirmed there were ten total, so that told me Dot's daughter was with her. She wanted to know where to take them. I asked Kelly, "Should I take them straight to Johnny's?"

Kelly held a finger up and dialed a number. She talked for a second and said, "Johnny's will be ready so seat them there."

Brindle said, "I heard that. I'll meet you at Johnny's in about twenty-five to thirty minutes."

I looked at Rebecca and back to Kelly. I asked my super secretary, "How many did you make the reservation for?"

Kelly grinned and said, "I told Juanita that it would probably be about fifteen. I also told her to put everyone on a single bill and use your credit card."

"Okay, good. I want you and Kelly to have lunch with us, Rebecca. We'll give them a tour of the office after lunch, and then take most of the group out to the beach where they have reservations and one couple to the house. Powder your noses if you need to, because we're leaving for Johnny's right away."

I went up to tell Joan, "Use the office credit card to go get Subways. Have Sandy get the orders and someone go get them."

We were at Johnny's in less than five minutes, and were shown to a rear room that had a large banquet table set up for us. I didn't even know this room existed. There were sixteen place settings, so there should be more than necessary. I gave Juanita my credit card so she could write the numbers down and there wouldn't be any confusion later. I thanked her profusely for fixing us up so well.

The group was ushered in by Juanita about five minutes later. I shook hands with all the men and was hugged by all the wives. I introduced them to my secretary and my Assistant. I leaned over to Brindle and told her to go get the bus driver and have him eat with us too.

This was classic, since it was usually me who was being shown around and fed lunch in Indy. I was happy to be able to be on the host side. Annie, Rose and Sheila's mother, sat next to me, and immediately started in on me.

"You know my Rose said you set her up with some Taz guy in Reno. Is he worthy of my oldest daughter, or are you fixing up a loser with a winner to balance their lives?"

"You'll have to meet the man, Annie. The man asked for my help before I had ever met him, and the help he needed was Rose. I made the suggestion to him to take her to dinner so that she could hear everything he needed, and they have had a lot of dinners together since. It's my guess that you might want to visit her because you're going to have your hands full if you don't like the guy."

Forest Harding, a partner, as well as Rose's dad and Annie's husband, leaned forward to look at me, "If Rose has made up her mind and Annie doesn't like him, her only recourse will be a funeral. Rose is more bull-headed than Annie."

That's when Annie said, "I just can't understand why both of my daughters are out here in this guy's region. What kind of magic magnet do you have?"

I told Annie, "I honestly didn't have anything to do with Rose coming out here, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to have Sheila be my new Manager in Salt Lake City. I doubt she'll be there long as I'll use that office to prep a new Manager before going to a busier market. I think she'll quickly be very capable of running a much bigger office and she already asked for an Assistant to train. You should be proud."

"I am, and so is Forest, now that he's finally let go. He wanted her to go to law school too, but Sheila said she wanted to be in business management where she can make things happen. I just wish she could be closer to us."

The partners were all directing questions to Rebecca and Kelly. Dan asked Kelly, "Are you going to be able handle as much traveling as Brad is going to be doing? I know how fast he goes into offices and pushes everyone into his methods. He leaves them dizzy, but producing. He's been the best problem solver we've had in the company. There hasn't been a single problem where he wanted the partners to intervene since he took the Florida region over. He had one of us review the problems out here, but Brad was already resolving them and cleaning it up."

Kelly told the partners, "I'm still not sure if I can handle being out on the road every day of every week, but I might be able to do it if he can get it down to two or three days a week. I know he needs me with him, but you would be as worn out as I am at the end of a day if you saw how hard he pushes when he's in an office."

One of the other partners said, "Everyone always tells us how early he gets to an office in the morning. He's up in the morning working out in the hotel gym, having breakfast, and then sitting in the lobby at the home office by seven thirty when he's been in the home office. Does he do that on the road?"

"Oh yes," Kelly said. "He doesn't insist, but I work out with him for thirty to forty-five minutes, clean up, eat breakfast, and we always get to an office by seven thirty. He'll roam around out in construction if no one is in the office. They start earlier, so he enjoys talking to the Construction Supervisor. He's on his way as soon as someone is in the office."

Dan said, "All that is true, and he makes people leave at five. I've watched him thank everyone for their great effort, and his promise of more successes tomorrow. He has most of the company following his example."

Rebecca was asked, "What's it like to be his Assistant?"

She said, "I really haven't had time to think about what it's like. He made me his Assistant and he vanished to go rescue offices a few days later. He makes sure that I do all the same things he does, like knowing what everyone in the office is doing and to visit with each department head. He likes to follow the sale from the Sales group to Finance, Decorating, then to Title and closing. Brad gets nervous if we don't schedule the architect and decorator for an interview with the owner within a day or two when it's a custom home. Then I'm asking construction how they are doing, of course. Do you know that he likes to inspect every custom home before it goes to closing? He says it's the one way to ensure that our homes are what the customer was dreaming of."

I spoke up and told the partners, "I've had our chief decorator and an engineer go to finished homes with or for her to check on those details that make our homes better than others. I'm also trying to find a second Assistant to help out so I can begin taking an Assistant with me when I visit other offices."

It looked as if everyone was finishing their lunch, so I suggested, "Let's go to the office so we can give you one of my tours. I'm curious to see how sales are today."

Kelly and Rebecca smiled at each other, so I knew there was some good news.

Joan and Sandy greeted everyone with a smile when I brought everyone into the office. I introduced the group and had Sandy make up some of those stick-on labels so we could write everyone's name for easier introductions.

Dan asked, "Why so many desks," as we passed by the Manager's office. "You don't have any privacy at all."

"What do I need privacy for, Dan? I took the doors off so no one would or could ever accuse me of fooling around with Kelly. I now have both her and Rebecca in the same room, so I'm doubly tempted. Wait just a second and you'll see some real temptation."

Dan said, "Can't be much more after that receptionist, Joan. I don't know what it is, but whatever she has is very disconcerting."

Matt was up and coming for me fast when we went into the Sales department. He didn't wait to be introduced, pointed at the board, and said, "Look at that board, it's not two o'clock yet, and there's already twenty-two sales. Look at the new listings, fourteen so far today."

He turned to the people with me and blushed, "Sorry about being so excited. This is going to be our biggest Thursday yet."

I think the partners were shocked even though I was sure they had seen our numbers, but they were now witnessing it first-hand. I told all the men from Indy, "Matt's goal is to have a hundred sales a week. He means a hundred sales a week for several weeks in a row, until it is the norm and will just happen. He's doing this with only thirty salespeople right now. I'm trying to get him up to forty, but we are a little shy on space right now."

The magnitude of sales had given the partners some glazed expressions.

I had the three secretaries' stand for me, and said, "These are the women who bust their butts getting the contracts up to Finance. First there is Ginger, who was instrumental in my getting this place under control. The middle lady is Racine and was actually the last hired. The far lady is Willy. She has another name, but prefers Willy."

You could see the partners all begin to drool and the wives begin to grab hold of their man's arm to protect them. I thought it was sort of funny as I was now almost immune to the influences of these magnificent women.

We visited one decorator, as she was the only one in. The title people were all very busy and I was told that they were trying hard to have twenty-five closings today.

Finance was busy, as was the insurance office. We looked in on the architects where I told them that little Sandy, the alternate receptionist, was going to join these people next week because one of the men was moving out of state.

Connie in Accounting is always special, and you could see her really checking Dot's daughter out. I wondered if the girl was "that way" or went in all kinds of directions.

I took the group into the conference room, and had them sit for a minute. "Okay, Folks, what do you think of this crazy place? I'm going to get my chief architect and have him give you a short presentation."

Ken came wheeling in, put his riser on the floor, rolled up on it, and rose to table height. He put his laptop on the table, used a remote to turn the big screen monitor/TV on, and pushed a button on his laptop.

The first thing you saw was what looked like a gigantic building with a scrolling digital marquee that had Mooney Real Estate, Mooney Home Loans, Mooney Custom Homes, Mooney Pools and Spas, Mooney Insurance, and Mooney Interior Decorating. Everyone was mesmerized at seeing the tall marquee display our businesses.

When he changed screens, Ken said, "This is the first floor design for an overall look. It's pretty much the same, but note that the front will still have windows, but there will be twelve closing and interview rooms down each side. We should be able to handle thirty-six a day, as well as some evening and weekend custom home interviews."

A partner asked, "When did we start to have both an architect and decorator in custom home interviews?"

I answered that one, "I've done it that way when it could be done in Florida, and found the two together often increased the sale value. It's important to build the sale that much more now that we have a pool and spa business. You'll begin seeing how a home sold for one price closes at a much higher figure. I attribute that to having both at the interview. Those two entities receive a portion of the commission from the sale."

Ken began using his mouse to point to the highlights of the first floor and told them the number of employees each area would hold. He put the second floor up from there, and went through the departments. He then showed the third floor, and said, "Only architects, appraisers, and surveyors are going to be on the third floor in the beginning. But we'll use part of the open area for a conference room like this one and an event room."

Dan exclaimed, "Jesus, this will be almost as big as the home office. What's the estimate to build this thing?"

Ken said, "I need Brad to give his income and profit estimates before I tell you how much it will cost."

When Ken pointed at me, I said, "I just found out that we now have a survey crew. I would suppose this is because of our pre-owned sales and the finance office's need for an appraisal and the title office's need for a survey. I haven't met that crew yet, but I'm sure they're wedged in here somewhere. I wonder if we sell their services and create a profit center." The partners all laughed and applauded.

I want you to realize that this is Los Angeles, California, where the average very small pre-owned home is selling for over a half million. Pre-owned houses in the average to better neighborhoods are one point two to two point three million. Better homes, but still not luxury homes, are all two point five to three million. I asked for a breakdown of home prices we sold during the last two weeks, and found the average pre-owned home we listed and sold was two-point two million. A couple of homes sold for over five million and skewed those numbers a little, but not much because of the number of sales. We are moving toward one hundred sales a week and will probably exceed that this week. We're about to open a new development with homes beginning at five million and topping out at around eight to ten. I don't have a handle on the profit percentages yet, but they will be similar to all our developments."

I paused long enough to look around, and in a soft voice said, "Do you know that even without the new development, this office is on track to sell fourteen billion dollars worth of property? That's billion as in nine zeros. Our profit would be $1.4 billion if we only come through with a ten percent overall profit. Now add in all our other profit centers and you're looking at an annual profit of at least one point six or seven billion. Now, what's the estimate to build this building and the related construction and moving expenses, Ken?"

Ken flashed a screen on the big monitor and said, "At today's labor and material prices, the total cost to build this will be a little over two hundred dollars a square foot. We could be up to about two twenty-five if we use upgraded floorings and ceilings, plus some fancier fixtures throughout. We're being robbed if we have to pay more than two thirty-five. Remember that we own this property, and we could probably do it with a big profit if you wanted to move the office and sell the land, but we get a lot of traffic by here. A lot of the traffic is big earners and that's who I want to have see us. So, we can have the office you just viewed for about five percent of the profits for this next year."

One of the partners was coughing, and another was twisting around in his seat. Dan asked, "How can this be? How can this office go from showing about a million a year profit to a billion a year profit?"

Forest said, "Now you know how those two assholes who were our partners became landowners in South America and are living down there on us. Just think if they had figured out that they could make a lot more by pushing the sales of this office. Well, do the numbers on what Brad has shown us seem accurate, Jim?"

I volunteered, "Walk down the hall to see Connie and ask her for the numbers, Jim. She's been putting this together for me on an almost daily basis to make sure I know exactly where we are. I'm pushing you men for a purpose. I need to get this project started. We're growing faster than I can think up how to use more space. Go ask her, Jim, she's one hell of an accountant."

Jim got up and walked to Accounting. While Ken took some time to show the new Manager's office arrangement, I sweated it out hoping that Jim saw what I saw. The man came back to the conference room clutching a handful of papers and sat down. He looked over his glasses at me, and said, "You told us some fictitious numbers. According to what I have right here in my hands, you underestimated your profit this year by almost three hundred million. I'd say build your palace, but keep it under a hundred million. Come on, Fellows, let's vote on this right now. I want to bathe in all those millions coming out of the west coast."

Dan looked around and said, "Okay, I'm for it how about you, Forest?"

Forest said, "Sure, do it. It won't cost anything and might even increase sales."

Donald Williams said, "I'm with you, Brad. I can see how you're stressed for space here. I think it's awesome that we can be doing that kind of business."

Dan said, "There it is, do it. When can you start?"