Chapter 9

That I laid out too much, too soon to them was certain now. They were still crying after I had asked them twice what they wanted for breakfast. That was very unusual, food had been their weakness, better than some vices, I guess.

I left after coffee. They were still crying when I left them. Dinner girls, we can have Ribs out or meals back here, “I’m buying but you have to get your work for today done.”

One of the changes that were made was to mesh the cell phones to the office phones via the wireless router. My cell stayed connected to it or to a messaging system. Another change was to the Web server. in addition to download of the qualification forms, messages via a contact icon replicated our individual email system.

Ashley seemed to take to that Web server, it might have something to do with the tech she hired. Sheila had her own tutor, she made Sheila much more knowledgeable about taxes and what was needed to withhold taxes for employees and options for consultants. I don’t think they ever suspected I never expected them to learn to do so much so quickly.

The Web specialist must have liked Ashley. She pointed a dozen or more search strings to our server without demanding extra money for it. I agreed she should be our first full time hire.

We has fifty-five ‘Hits’ that first day, none of which bothered to download the qualification forms. For almost a week the hits went up but no forms were sent back, although they were downloaded twice. The one line entry that Ashley added to each initial query reminded them that nothing would be done without them submitting a completed qualification form. That helped some.

Prepared responses, something akin to a form letter were used for forms submitted that were incomplete. There was one which stated that ‘at this time we are not accepting submissions for your type business’.

One submitted request was for a lottery system for Memphis. Although it was brand new, I thought of ‘HER’(Jess) interests. I forwarded it to Dad to do what he thought best with it.

Another submission looked good, very good, too good to be real. I asked Sheila to thank them for the opportunity but we failed to see what help our funding would be since their previous net income exceeded the amount of funding requested. I did not mention that the equity holders that were identified far exceeded 100%.

We sat down and brainstormed what changes could be made to the Web to improve what we were getting. Viable inquiries received a phone call and an email from Ashley or Sheila to re-state what was needed and attached the proper forms. That helped, sort of. What became clear was either we were wrong in thinking there was a need for funding or people feared formalizing their particulars.

Leads from the investment firms started coming in. These were more in-line with what we wanted. We took a half-dozen of these and began reviewing them by the numbers. The advisers did a great job in detailing the requests. In two of the cases I let Ashley and Sheila each pursue one. It would be good experience. If I had to second guess them the entire company would fail.

“Nick, we think these first two are good prospects but we have a lot of questions. we could use some kind of video conference. Could Ashley go with me to at least see this one company, we have questions for like 10 people?”

“Not on your life! If you both went who would make coffee?”

They looked lost.

“I’m kidding! I’m proud of you both. You my loves are doing everything and more. I’ll miss you but could not be happier.”

Company one was in Philadelphia, the second just outside New York. Wendy was now handling our company travel. I agreed to open a business account so she could justify her help.

Both opportunities were not $100 million but who’s counting. We needed something like this for the experience, Sheila told me people from local offices of the lawyers and the investment firms were to come in and start the reviews of the other four proposals.

I was very pleased at how things were proceeding; that is until I made a terrible mistake. The phone I answered was linked to my cell.