Chapter 31

Debbie had the report on the charity home building project. It was doing well.

Terrell's crew at the hotel for the homeless was coming along and should finish the remodel before fall. The new clinic was in operation with the USF medical school operating it. That part of S&S was working. People were being helped and even more would be helped as the hotel was completed. Sue's training program was attracting many of the people we wanted to assist. If we could expand that to men, we would be performing an even more valuable community service.

Tiny had a massive business plan from Tim for the school. It was complete with mini-blueprints of the proposed building. He had a drawing of the building, as well as drawings of a couple of the classrooms. Tim had worked hard before proposing the plan. Tiny looked at me and said, "Give the go ahead and we'll get this started. Tim did his homework on this. Here is the list of the other trade schools in town and their curriculum. They appear to be full, so there is a need for more classrooms, plus we are going to use this as a way to help the community too. This should work, plus pay for itself."

"Do it, Tiny, make it happen. What about the cart plant and store? Do you have any plans on the expansion there yet?"

"Here, Steve," Tiny said, as he pulled out a blueprint that showed the old and the proposed new. Terrell says he should be able to do the plant expansion in two weeks, but would take close to a month before the maintenance booth area could be complete. He's struggling to keep up with his labor demand. You really have him humping out there."

"Tiny, I'm concerned that Sue is going to need about half again as much manufacturing space as she has now. Can you have a study made to see if we could build two more buildings like the original four and still have space for the school? We would also need to know if the cafeteria and day care center is large enough to handle that many more people. I think we will need to plan on the expansion."

"I'll do that; now let's go see Mr. Burns and his T-shirt and embroidery company."

We walked the two blocks to a large modern building that was obviously two floors. Once inside the door we were greeted by a receptionist who made a call. An older couple came out to the lobby. Tiny made the introductions, "Mr. and Mrs. Burns, this is Steve Sharp, Steve, the Burns."

After the handshakes, Mr. Burns said to call him Sid. Mrs. Burns said for us to call her Hildie. They took us on a tour of the building. The place was clean, but stark. The walls were still the grey concrete, never having been painted. The concrete floors had never been sealed, so small particles of concrete were scraped up as you walked. The lighting was not quite bright enough to easily see your work.

The floors were divided into two distinct sides. One side of the first floor made nothing but T-shirts. They had huge rolls of material that were laid on a cutting table to be cut into pieces for T-shirts. There were rows of seamstresses that were putting the T-shirts together. I did notice they had barrels that seconds were being tossed into. That needed to stop.

The other side of the first floor was dedicated to making knit golf shirts. It was the same, with large rolls of material and rows of seamstresses. There were not as many barrels for seconds in this area but there were still some.

Upstairs one side was dedicated to screen printing T-shirts. This area had horrible fumes everywhere. The place really needed better ventilation. It was not well lit here either.

The other side upstairs was where the embroidery was done. There were probably fifty women working on various patches for uniforms and sports functions. The machines were computerized and did the work, but it did require a trained person to keep the machines working.

The Burns took us downstairs to a small dimly lit conference room. Mr. Burns had his proposal to sell the business prepared for us. Tiny took out his file and handed me his appraisal and estimate of what he had considered basic improvements.

I asked Mr. Burns if he had a P&L for the last four quarters to see the flow of business. He produced that and I compared it to Tiny's estimates. The numbers were close. What he was asking was within Tiny's appraisal, but I was thinking it was going to require a lot more money to improve the plant than Tiny had estimated.

"Mr. Burns," I asked, "have you had many complaints for poor lighting over the years?"

"Employees always want more light. It's good enough to work in and meets OSHA minimum standards. They check often enough."

I asked then, "How about the fumes up in the screen printing area? Has that been a problem?"

"OSHA has given me two warning notices for that but I just ignore them. This is a business and we need to make a profit, it's not a day care center or health resort for employees."

"Have you had any offers for your business since it has been for sale this last year?" Knowing from Tiny that he had a lot of inquiries.

"We've had dozens and dozens of people such as yourself come through the plant. So far you're the only one who has come back for a second look. Your man made a pretty thorough check of the books and went over the operation very closely. Are you really interested or just looking."

I began, "I'm a serious buyer, Mr. and Mrs. Burns, but I feel that before I can make the plant profitable for me, I would have to spend quite a bit to bring the building up to my operating standards. Would you have a few minutes to come look at my manufacturing facilities?"

The couple looked at each other and he asked, "Where is your factory?"

Smiling I said, "Just down the street, S&S Enterprises."

"You mean the place where they make those fancy truck bodies?" Mr. Burns asked.

"That's one of my shops but I want to show you my original shop to give you an idea of how I like my shops."

They agreed to walk down to our main place. Walking in the showroom is always interesting. Julie, the receptionist stood up and said welcome to S&S Enterprises. I told Julie it was just Tiny and me with some visitors. We walked through the showroom into the shop, stopping to observe the men working in the frame area. It was bright and still looked clean with hardly any welding dust yet on the white floor.

We walked through the sheet metal forming area noting the same bright area with clean white floors. The next area is always a surprise. When you see the teams working on racing engines as if they were performing surgery, you can see the pride in their work. The place was near spotless, with nothing lying around. We walked back across the shop to the rebuild area to find machines in various stages of being torn down and some being put back together. In all cases, the areas only had today's dirt. I took them across the orderly yard into the super lift department. All of the machines there were in the process of being finished, so the floor was spotless and the machines shined. It was very impressive. Next door in the fiberglass shop, Jeff's men were pulling panels from molds before they began grinding and smoothing them. The place looked nice.

I mentioned, "Every night before my men go home, they spend from fifteen minutes up to a half hour making sure their work areas are clean and neat. When they come to work in the morning, they come in to a clean shop that they are happy to come to. Can you see why I would question your lighting, Sid?"

We were walking back to his business when Mrs. Burns asked, "Is this business as clean as the other?"

Tiny said, "It had better be. We pride ourselves in having a great workplace. Let's take a look."

We walked through the little showroom and into the plant. Men were in little work groups, putting bodies together. Once again the place was brightly lit with the white walls and floors clean except for today's dirt. Every workspace had a smaller S&S logo in the middle of the space. I wonder whose idea that was. The men all waved and smiled at us, but kept right on working.

The four of us walked back to the T-shirt plant's little conference room. As soon as we sat down, Mrs. Burns said, "You have a wonderful place for your people to work. Sid has never felt it important to make it very comfortable for employees. If our place were fixed up like that, I'll bet it would sell right away."

Before Tiny and I could say anything, Mr. Burns asked, "What do you think it would take to bring this up to your standards?"

Tiny looked at me and said, "My original estimate for lighting, painting, and ventilation was for this amount." Tiny showed Mr. Burns a sheet of paper with the listed improvements and costs. "Steve, thinks I'm low by at least a third."

Mr. Burns said, "I want to sell. I want to do it now and you seem interested. If you will pay me my asking price less one and half times your estimate to bring the building up to your standard, we can make a deal."

I nodded, "It's a deal. Do you want my lawyer to make up the paperwork or will you have your legal person prepare it for mine to look over? Since this is partly a real estate transaction, we'll order a survey, appraisal, and title search."

"What do you need an appraisal for? Do you have to borrow a lot of money?"

"No sir, the appraisal is to make sure when they reassess the property for taxes, I need to know a baseline to be sure the assessment is accurate."

"Very smart, young man, very smart," Mr. Burns said. "I will have my attorney make up the papers and we can get this done. Do I have him talk to you, ah, Tiny?"

Tiny said, "I'll be the contact man for right now. I will have one of my people come over to begin interviewing your employees so we can integrate them into our employee benefit plans. If you have any illegal immigrants, have them tell us so we can help them with legal papers and a legal work permit."

Tiny and I both saw the look pass between the Burns. There would be a problem with illegals.

We left with some handshakes and on the way back Tiny said, "Guys like that could make a lot more money if they didn't run sweat shops. You know he's hiring cheap labor and giving himself an under the table bonus with what he says he's paying the men. He knows that they will never tell the IRS."

I answered with, "If we want the joint, we have to clean it up physically, as well as the employees. That's what lawyers are for. Let them fix it up."

As we reached the shop, Tiny said, "This might be a place for Henry to start. But again, perhaps one of my grunts should begin cleaning it up first. Northern people may not understand how much of a problem this is."

We went upstairs and told Ruth about the need to have one of her assistants begin work with the employees of the new acquisition. Tiny said, "Better make it a Spanish speaking assistant. We're going to have an illegal immigrant problem there. Make sure we verify all of the social security and work permit numbers."

Ruth said, "No problem, I'm getting used to it. The more we hire, the more it comes up."

Tiny went down to tell Phil we were in the T-shirt business. Phil asked immediately, "What kind, what do we ask for the printing, do we sell by the dozen or the gross. Do you have any idea of the production yet?"

I had to say it, "Tiny, don't tell him we have something when we don't yet. You get his hopes up that he has something new to give his men. He's got Ryan out there hiring field techs just to build up his sales as it is."

Phil said, "Did you see Chicago's numbers for last week. They are really picking up since the men from there have been rotating through our place down here."

"Okay, guys," I said, "I have a lunch appointment so I'll see you all later."

I drove home to keep my appointment with my two ladies. Mercy and Sue, with Juanita's help, had lunch ready for everyone. Martin was in good spirits, which made Glenda feel good. Martin had talked with another park resident he knew to do the trimming and grass cutting for a while. He said he would still go around to see the folks that always needed help with repairs. Sue said for me to get him a golf cart. Juanita said that he should use hers during the day, as she didn't need it if she were here.

After lunch, the ladies and I were getting ready to go to the gym. We would return to gather Glenda to go to the pool. Juanita asked, "Do you do that everyday? How long do you go?"

Sue said we go to the gym for about an hour to an hour and a half, then we go up to the pool for sun for a half-hour and to swim for about fifteen minutes. Juanita asked if she could go with us. Mercy smiled and said for her to join us. Juanita went inside to ask Hanna if she wanted to go to the gym with us. Hanna said that she usually stayed with the little ones while we went.

Nelda was sitting, finishing her lunch and said, "You young people go to the gym. Ernie and I can handle the little ones for an hour or so. They'll sleep most of the time anyway."

The five of us went to the gym, returned to put on a swimsuit, and to take Glenda with us to the pool. It was fun to help spread lotion on some new ladies. Hanna was working on getting back to her original size, but was going to take a while getting there. The once small, little, flat-chested, girl was now very plump with very large milk-filled breasts. She was cute in one of Sue's Big Girls swimsuits.

The two-hour lunch break is always nice. I took Juanita's cart up to see if the new homes were in place yet. They were both setup and Terrell's men were putting up patio covers. I needed to go to Home Depot to get a couple of plastic sheds and get them installed. My family should be happy here. I hoped so.

I drove over to see Terrell at the last of Sue's four buildings being built. Darnel was still acting as the job foreman, making sure quality was being maintained throughout the construction. Terrell said the contractor was over at the cart shop with a survey crew to begin the expansion there. The contractor would go back to the little shopping plaza as soon as the expansion was started. He would then control both.

Up in the housing area, five home sites were being readied for a concrete pad. There was a lot going on. The sports complex was staked out, with some tree removal going on. It was too bad they couldn't just uproot those big trees and replant them. It would be difficult, if not impossible to do, or at least very expensive, so it wasn't an option.

I went home with the cart, to find that Sue was at her original plant with Betty and Joan, working on the production start of a new design. Mercy handed me a glass of tea and said, "Everything is running pretty smooth, isn't it? We should take a little vacation with Ben and Beth either down to the Keys or to Costa Rica."

"Do you know where they are?" I asked.

"No, but you can always get Ben on his cell phone, unless he's in the air. I've seen Sue call him down in the islands and in Costa Rica often."

I dialed Ben's number and he answered almost immediately with, "Hi, Steve, what can I do for you?"

I said, "Just wondering where you were. Mercy thought we might all come visit you if you are in the Keys or down in Costa Rica."

"That would be great, Steve," Ben said. "Beth was just saying it was too bad you kids weren't down here with us for a couple of days. We're in Costa Rica and we are coming back up for the weekend, so come on down."

"Where is the airport from where you are?" I asked.

"Close. Just up route one, or uno down here. Call me when you get in and I'll come get you or you can rent a car and follow me back."

Ben hesitated a second, "Say, could you fly us back to the States with you? That would save us airfare; I'll help with the fuel if you can."

"I don't think it's a problem, there's plenty of room unless you have too much luggage," I said.

Ben replied, "No, we bring very little. We have clothes down here. As soon as you know you're coming, call me."