Chapter 4

Ken was having lunch sitting at the kitchen table when he said to Maria, “I was thinking about planting some fruit trees and having a vegetable garden. What do you think about me doing that?”

“I think it would be a nice idea to do that and have fresh fruit and vegetables but you do know it requires a lot of work. It isn’t just planting and harvesting but there is preparing the ground, tending, weeding, watering, and picking up the fallen fruit from the ground that all needs to be done.”

“Well, I just thought it would be nice to have.”

“Mr. Ken, don’t get me wrong, I think it would be nice to have fruit trees and a vegetable garden. You know if the garden and the orchard were big enough, Jose our landscape man would probably do all the work for the overage of the fruits and vegetables we don’t need. Do you want me to see if he is interested in doing this?”

“Sure, why not.”

Jose was interested in this project because he was at Ken’s home the next day.

There was a discussion about the project and then Ken went outside and showed Jose the amount and location of the land down from the house he was considering turning into a vegetable garden and an orchard. This amount of land was a little over an acre. The amount and types of vegetables to be planted along with the number and types of fruit trees were discussed. Ken said he would check with the extension service to see what they would recommend as to varieties of and types of fruit-bearing trees.

An agreement was reached with Jose that Ken would purchase the vegetables and fruit trees along with the material necessary for a sprinkler-watering system. Jose would install the watering system along with doing the planting, tending, and harvesting. They shook hands on this deal.

The business of rehabbing houses was continuing to be a profitable endeavor. Ben and now Joe were each handling two home projects at a time. Ken was handling the purchasing and was successful in selling the homes to the buyers his PMs had found at or close to what Ben and Joe thought the asking price should be.

What wasn’t going well for Ken was that these projects were now generating a considerable amount of paperwork in managing the business. There had to be a better way of doing this he thought. Ken concluded it would be easier if he had a part-time accountant to handle this paperwork.

While he could go to an accounting firm to handle this record-keeping work, he thought that maybe he could find an accountant who would do this work for him. He needed to find someone who was looking for part-time accounting work. To that end, he went to the job placement office at UT to place a want-ad. While he was there he looked at the positions wanted postings by people who were looking for work. There was a listing there from Tracy Corday, that said she was a CPA and she was looking for part-time accounting work. He took down her phone number and phoned her later that day.

He explained briefly to her his business and what he was looking for. She told him of her qualifications in that she was a graduate of UT and a CPA who left work at a major accounting firm to give birth and raise her daughter Emily. She said she was interested in doing the type of part-time work he was looking for to be done.

“I am conducting this business by working from my house. If you can come over we can better discuss what is involved and you can see what the job entails.”

“When do you want me to come over?”

“I am flexible, so anytime tomorrow would be okay.”

“Let me see if I can get my mother to babysit and...”

“That won’t be necessary, bring Emily with you.”

“I can?”

“Sure, one of the few benefits that will come with this position is that you won’t need a babysitter or daycare. You can bring your daughter with you when you come here to work.”

Tracy did come over the next day with Emily. Emily as they say was a “Cutie.” Maria picked Emily up in her arms and treated her to some cookies and milk.

Tracy said she had graduated two years before Ken. Ken showed Tracy what he was doing and what was needed to be done. He could see she gave his business a good looking over and made some comments and how some of what he was doing could be done better. Besides tracking the projects and handling the business’s taxes, Ken also indicated part of her job duties would be to handle his income taxes.

Ken indicated that she could pay those bills the PMs submit and he would give her online banking access.

“No, that is not going to work for me. I don’t want access to the checking accounts or the banking access. I will prepare checks for you to sign but signing checks and paying bills all can be done in ten minutes and is something you need to do. Now, what hours do you want me to work?”

“That is up to you. So long as the work is handled it can be one hour a day, or five hours a day, or no hours a day. As I said, so long as long as the work is handled that is all that I care about.”

“What is my compensation for doing this work?’

“We can agree on an hourly wage and you can give me a list of the hours you worked. Another option is since you have seen how the business is going you can be paid four percent of the profit we make when a house is sold. Like the PMs, I will consider you to be an independent contractor. In time I do plan on adding more PMs as the business grows. What would you prefer?”

It didn’t take Tracy long to say, “I’ll take the four percent.”

Her doing that told Ken she had a good eye for his company’s operation and resultant profitability potential. He confirmed that she could bring Emily here when she worked and she along with Emily was free to use the pool and take in the rays when they wanted. He made a mental note to purchase a wearable life preserver for Emily.

Tracy said she would be here tomorrow to start and would bring the new computer this corporation was purchasing. Laughing she said her husband worked at Dell and would get a nice discount on the purchase. She mentioned she owned and would install the necessary software she needed to do this work.

With that problem solved Ken now started to think that maybe he should start to enjoy some of the wealth he had. Taking vacations or cruises and going to places that he hadn’t been to was a possibility. The thing that he wanted to do and dreamed about doing for some time was learning to fly. Ken would frequently pass by the small airport that was a few miles from his home and had noticed the sign that said “Harris Flight School.”

Ken went to the airport and walking into the office for the Harris flight School he met Ted Harris. Ken explained to Ted that he wanted to learn to fly and get a private pilot’s license. Ted explained what was involved in doing that. Ken could see that Ted was a no-nonsense guy and spelled out what was involved and studying necessary to earn a license. The different types of certificates were explained. He also covered what the cost would be which for Ken didn’t present a problem.

After listening to Ted, Ken signed up, gave him a check, and was given some books to study. Ted directed where Ken could go for the physical exam and to get a Student Pilot Certificate. The ground schooling he said would start on Monday.