Chapter 27

I had on my swimsuit when Tamara arrived. Trish and I were sitting on the patio drinking ice tea. She walked through the gate with a grocery bag. I stood and walked over to hug her. Every time I get this close to her, a warm feeling rushes through my body. It was so calming and yet I would also begin to get an erotic excitation that was apparent by the bulge in my swimsuit.

"Hi, Tamara," Trish said from her chaise lounge. Trish got up and walked over to greet her.

"Hi, Trish," Tamara replied. "How are things going?"

"Could be better," she said. "But thanks to John, I'm safe and healing."

"Hmmm... does he heal with the laying of the hands?" Tamara said teasingly.

"Hands maybe, but I haven't had the pleasure of the laying part," Trish shot back.

"Ladies, please," I said. "I care about both of you, let's not get any female testosterone going here."

Almost in unison they said, "We're just teasing you."

"Good, because we need to talk business while we three are together and have no other distractions," I said.

We got Tamara's stuff put away in the kitchen and then went back out to the patio. I brought up the office situation and how Trish was going to fit in working for me and helping Tamara get her corporate office established.

"Sometime this weekend, I need to pull Bob aside and find out when we can get some office space. I have already put him to work on clearing out half of the fourth floor for our offices," I said.

I continued to explain that I envisioned two suites, one for Kegler Enterprises and one for Sanger Hair Care. Tamara spoke up and said that wasn't the name. "I want to expand into more phases of beauty and health care. I'm going to dba 'Sassy Health and Beauty.' My grandmother's nickname is Sassy," she said.

"Sounds good. Names aren't important at the moment. I want to design the suite with my portion to one side and yours to the other with a common reception area. We don't need two full time receptionists. Trish's office will be in my suite. I envision a shared conference room behind the receptionist to be utilized by either company," I said.

Tamara spoke up, "I don't see me in the office on a daily basis. I'll be hiring a general manager who will be though... and a corporate staff of probably four to five people: a GM, a controller, and someone to handle product inventory controls, plus maybe a clerk/gofer. Who will have the receptionist on staff?"

"I don't really care," I said. "I only need someone to filter calls for me. I don't foresee me in the office more than a couple times a week. Trish will be on my payroll and handle the office staffing which should include the receptionist."

"If you're going to expand, you might think of an HR person to check into benefits," I said. "I may have you put Trish on your payroll for benefit purposes and you bill me for her services."

"This is sounding more complicated with each thought forward. It has been so simple to run the units as individual companies. I can see where consolidation can be beneficial to both my employees and me. Right now the salon managers control every aspect. I created the Regional Manager positions last year. Some of the managers balked at someone looking over their shoulders. So far, Michelle and Sherry have proven very helpful but they could do more in a better structured organization," Tamara said.

Trish spoke up, "Let me get this straight, neither of you have a set corporate structure yet?"

Tamara and I both responded no.

"I have a little experience with these matters. I helped the company I'm with expand from one location to five. Then the owners sold out to a larger corporation and I stayed with one of the local ones as the office manager because I didn't want to relocate because of Stephanie. Will you let me write up a business plan for SHB? I can probably work something up by Tuesday." Trish said.