Chapter 1

Douglas Morris was sitting at a desk in Walter Karl’s Realty office waiting for his ten-thirty appointment to arrive. It had been a lean month so far for Doug as to sales and he was hoping he could improve his monetary situation if Jeff Martin would purchase this small strip mall Doug had told him about and invited him to see.

Three months ago Doug had phone duty at the realty office when he received a phone call from a man who introduced himself as Jeffery Martin and said he had noticed a for-sale sign on a small strip mall building. Doug had shown this building to Jeff who made an offer to purchase it which was accepted. Jeff said he knew of two businesses that were looking to add additional locations and he thought he could interest them in leasing the two unoccupied spaces. One of the vacancies was because the paint store which was there had become unprofitable when Home Depot opened a location a quarter mile away. The video rental store threw in the towel when the popularity of Netflix increased. Jeff commented that this was a good location because of the heavy traffic which passed by daily and that was the primary reason he wanted to purchase the building.

Jeff was about the same age as Doug and they developed a friendship. They had gone out to dinner after Jeff’s offer was accepted. Jeff told Doug that if he was aware of other buildings that he thought Jeff would be interested in the should phone him. When Doug saw this strip mall newly listed for sale he phoned Jeff and set up an appointment for a showing.

When Jeff arrived at the office they shook hands and immediately left to see this strip mall.

At the location, Doug noticed Jeff first giving a good look at the area and the traffic before he looked at the building. Once he looked at the building Doug could guess by some comments that Jeff made that indicated he was not impressed by this building. Jeff suggested that they go to the Chili’s they had passed by in coming here and have lunch.

At the restaurant, after they had placed their food order Jeff said, “I think you could tell by my comments that this strip mall does not interest me. Even with the right tenants, I don’t see where there would be substantial appreciation in the value of the building or that this would be a cash flow-positive operation. I am going to take a pass on this building.”

“I thought that is what you would do because of what you said when we were there. I haven’t seen any other listings that I thought you would be interested in but I will keep my eyes open and contact you if I see anything.”

“Fine with me on you doing that but tell me how are you doing? How are things going for you in the realty business?”

“Things are fine.”

“Doug..., please tell me honestly how things are going for you.”

“Well, to be honest with you I have had some good months and some not-so-good months. I haven’t had the financial success I thought I would have but I am not sure what else I could do.”

“Why don’t you come work for me?”

“Doing what?”

“For your information..., let me just say that I have been very fortunate and have made some investments that have put me in a very enviable financial position. Couple that with my wife Amy who is what you could say is a very accomplished and successful financial investment advisor, life has given us much to be thankful for. We have talked about how fortunate we have been and we want to give something back.”

“To that end, we have set up a corporation we called “Loaning a Helping Hand.” My wife Amy and I are the only officers of this corporation. We are funding this corporation with a rather substantial sum of money and want to have this corporation give loans to startups or expanding businesses in the hope that they will achieve financial success. We thought initially of giving out grants but for several reasons, we have decided to do loans rather than grants. We think the people who receive these loans should as it is said “Have some skin in the game.”

“Now there are businesses already existing that do make these types of loans but there is one big difference between those businesses and the corporation we have set up. These other businesses are doing this to make a profit to pay a dividend since for the most part, they have stockholders to answer to. Our corporation doesn’t want to make a profit, we hopefully just want to break even. Because of that our interest rates will be lowest and the time when a loan needs to start to be repaid is negotiable and something both parties can agree on.”

“Let me give you an example of what we are talking about. Tom Carrol is a medical doctor who wants to start his practice in Amy’s small home town which doesn’t have a doctor. Amy and I strongly support him doing this. He is someone who you should meet with and have a discussion as to how much of a loan he needs to establish and start his medical practice. Since Tom has a rather large student loan outstanding that needs to be repaid, the discussion you have with him should also include when he thinks he can start repaying our loan which would be some time after he repays his student loan. Is it five years, or seven years or when and what would the interest rate needs to be decided and agreed upon. One percent, two percent, or three percent for an interest rate on this type of loan is well below what these other businesses are wanting in granting loans.”

“Administering this program is the position I am offering you. Your responsibility would be to make this corporation first of all known, solicit applications for loans, interview, and approve or disapprove the loan applications. Those applications that you approve would be sent with the specifics of what was agreed to Attorney Brad Stevens. He will draw up and execute the contract and dispense the funds. Barbra Harrison from Harrison Accounting Services will receive a copy of the contract and handle the collection of the payments when they become due. If there are any problems in servicing these loans you would be informed and it would be up to you to resolve the problem.”

“It sounds interesting and certainly different from what I am doing now. But let me ask you a crass question, what does this administrator job pay?”

“What did you make last year?”

“Last year was my best year financially” and Doug told him what that amount was.

“The administrator’s salary will be twenty-five percent more than that along with health insurance and a 401K. In addition, you can hire a Secretary excuse me, let me say Administrative Assistant at a salary you determine with a 401K, medical, and other benefits. As to where you hang your hat, the strip mall you sold me had an insurance agent’s office. He has now retired and his office is available to be your office. What do you say?”

Doug was quiet for a while weighing in his mind the pros and cons of accepting Jeff’s offer of employment. It certainly was different from what he was doing now and was more monetarily rewarding along with eliminating the uncertainty of what his compensation would be. Since the pros outweighed the cons Doug extended his hand to Jeff saying, “Hi Boss.”