Chapter 37

Monday morning is always exciting as it's the beginning of a new week. New challenges, new goals, and new projects are waiting for all of us.

This morning I got Ryan off to the side and asked if he was up for me to go through our dealerships and distributorships, one at a time, to see how they were doing. He became excited, saying he would love to show me how they were doing. I asked him to make up an itinerary for us and we would fly around to as many as we could get to in a week. If we needed the next week, we could do that as well. Ryan and Michelle said they would be in the office to plan, and we could leave anytime after ten this morning if that was good.

I really didn't think the idea would generate that kind of enthusiasm or immediacy. Once I talked to both Sue and Mercy, it was decided I would use the Beechcraft King Air and begin today. The two girls packed for me and laid out some dressier clothes to wear. I insisted on a bunch of jeans, T-shirts, and boots to take along as that's what I wear. I didn't want to represent myself as something I was not. The girls finally relented, but insisted I take along some nice clothes in the event we went out to eat. It was funny, because I was not used to being the big man in charge. I was always just one of the guys getting something done. This was going to be different.

Sue and Mercy insisted that I take someone along that could be my support person, like a secretary. I kept saying that Michelle could take care of anything that came up, and that I was not helpless. If Deanne was not pregnant, she would have had to come with me, but I finally won and was able to go without a personal assistant.

We flew to Jacksonville and toured the dealership there. They were doing above the projections set up by Phil and Ryan as far as sales. The dealership did repairs of all sizes of generators, but did not work on forklifts. Any lift repairs they could get were shipped to Tampa. They did have mobile repair and welding vehicles. The welders on staff had gone through our school in Tampa.

The next stop was in Savannah, late in the afternoon. They had a small dealership, but were responsible for a decent size port. They shipped super lifts to Tampa for repair, but did a lot of work on ships as they came in to port. That night we entertained the dealership manager for supper and I did wear dress pants and a nice shirt.

The next morning, we were up and off the ground early so we could be in Atlanta when they opened. Atlanta was a good city for us. In addition to the big distributorship, we also had a dealer location. We went to the dealership first where I was impressed with its appearance. This store had a big S&S Enterprises sign and absolutely sparkled. Every door had a "Is it Perfect?" sign and there were perfect signs all over for employees to see. Even the floor in the showroom and the warehouse had a logo. It was good for my ego.

This store was showing some great numbers. It was obvious Ryan was proud that his influence had been so effective with the manager and the employees. The store had started a sales promotion for home generators. It seems the local power companies were having problems because of growth and couldn't keep up with the demand. When peaks hit, there were brown outs and black outs in several suburban communities.

The dealership advertised a system for home and business owners that offered what was known as "ride through protection" and the generators to handle the power requirements during the outages. The system was modeled after the FAA units we had installed, but on a smaller scale. The ride through protection kept essential circuits operating through constant-supply battery back up units that were constantly charged from either the grid or the generators.

One of their advertisements included a testimonial from one of the largest data processing companies in the area. It was a great idea. I called Abe and told him to come up to see the operation and figure out how we might market the product in Tampa and other markets. He said he had seen the operation and had been working on a roll out of the product with Phil.

The big distributorship was another pleasant surprise. The place had been clean and neat when I had been there with Tiny to sign for the place but it now looked like it was part of the S&S family.

Outside and inside, the white paint emphasized the "perfect" motto. They had a rebuild area similar to Tampa but only had eight men working within. All of the men in the distributorship were in uniform and appeared to be busy and happy.

Ryan had a surprise for me when we went into the conference room. All of the area salesmen and technical customer servicemen were there, with Phil and Abe among them. Phil was showing off that he had been busy teaching the sales people his and our methods from this location. Each of the representatives described the geographic area they worked in and how Phil and Abe had set them up so they could handle marketing, warranty, and other technical problems.

I applauded them all and congratulated the manager for such a great job. Phil said each of the salesmen had been trained in Tampa to get the feel of the company. Abe said that the technical people actually worked in the various shops in Tampa during their indoctrination and all of them had attended factory warranty schools.

That night, after a small banquet for as many of the people from the two places that could be there on short notice, Ryan, Michelle, Phil, Abe, and I were sitting in the hotel lounge having a beer. I looked at Ryan and asked, "Is the Chicago area as good as this?"

Michelle said, "I called them and said you would be coming up there probably next week. They actually told me that you could come up immediately as they were proud of their operation."

I thought for a minute, before saying, "Ryan, how about we just go straight up there and see how our biggest distributorship is doing."

Phil and Abe looked at each other with bit of a smirk, causing me to ask, "Is there something I should know?"

Abe said, "You'll have to see for yourself. If we're going up there then you need to see all three locations. You will recognize some of the people, as some of the managers came from our Tampa operation."

Phil announced, "The area sales manager is one of my first salesmen from Tampa that I trained as you directed. He works, sells, and manages just like me. You'll like him."

Ryan said, "Let's skip some of the dealerships and just go straight up there tomorrow morning. Phil and Abe, can you two come with us? I think it would be nice if you came along as well."

We flew into Chicago, rented a big SUV, and showed up unannounced at nine on Wednesday morning. We had parked in the large fenced yard of the main distributorship. The outside of the building had a giant S&S sign over the top of the original owner's sign. That wasn't the big change though. The huge, drab, dirty looking building glistened in white paint. The once dirty metal roof was now bright white with S&S painted on the top.

We walked into the main shop and warehouse to see a buzz of activity in a clean, neat working environment. This didn't even look like the plant we had purchased. Ryan walked us through the shop area toward the front. As we went into the showroom and office area, a nicely dressed young lady stood up and greeted us. Her manner was similar to Cindy, the blind receptionist in Tampa. This one said, "Good morning, nice to have you, Michelle. Is Ryan with you today?"

Since Ryan was standing next to Michelle, I knew the girl was also blind. Michelle said, "Yes, Patty, Ryan is with me, as well as Phil and Abe. You remember them I'm sure. I also want to introduce you to Steve Sharp."

The girl seemed to get flustered but stuck her hand out in the direction of Michelle's voice. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Sharp. Welcome to S&S Enterprises, Chicago."

I took her hand and gave it squeeze. "Call me Steve, please."

Michelle suggested that Patty call George, the area manager, so he could show us around. In less than thirty seconds a guy in his forties came walking out of an open office door to greet us. I had met him when we bought the distributorship, but we had not spent much time together. Another man came from the main shop area to greet the gathering in the showroom. This one was introduced as Jim Beckett, the main distributorship manager.

Jim Beckett immediately insisted that I accompany him through the buildings. He explained that as soon as he had returned from Tampa he had begun painting and refurbishing the entire complex. The best thing about the new look, he said, was that it had increased productivity and attitude. Where before he was always hassling with the union steward, it now seemed they were willing to work out minor problems as they happened. Jim had even placed the perfect signs throughout the buildings.

By the time we were finished looking at the main building, George suggested we have lunch in the cafeteria. In the back of the main building was a small cafeteria with a few food choices that would please most anyone. Today's special was meatloaf. This was obviously a favorite of the employees.

"How long have you had a cafeteria?" I asked Jim.

Jim smiled and looked at Ryan. "This wasn't my idea. It was Ryan's. While he was up here, he saw that most everyone went out to eat and most, if not all, were late getting back every day because there are no places close to eat. Ryan suggested I look and ask around to find someone who wanted to create a small cafeteria for the company. As soon as the place opened, our productivity went way up and nearly everyone in the company eats here daily."

"The prices seem very fair, Jim. What did you have to do to get the prices so low?" I asked, curious how he did it up here in Chicago.

"We used company money to remodel and furnish the cafeteria and hired a retired chef to manage the place," Jim answered. "He hired and trained all of his own people and you can see he serves a lot of people a lot of meals."

"That still didn't answer my question. How does he make the meals so inexpensive?"

Jim explained, "Everyone in here is an employee of S&S. The food is purchased by the company and prepared under the direction of the chef. The entire cafeteria is designed as a benefit to the employees. A good thing is that we do not lose the time it would take for employees to travel to and from a lunch place. The employees get a well-balanced meal and go back to work happy. The meal is inexpensive so eating here is both desirable and appealing. Now the best part; the cafeteria makes money. It doesn't make a lot, but it makes enough to justify the space, the remodeling, the equipment, and the employees' morale."

George said, "Thank Ryan, as he said we needed to copy Tampa so we could keep our people on location."

While we were having coffee, Ryan handed me a stack of papers. "This is the quarterly report and the most recent month and weekly report for the three locations here. As you can see, George has three successful locations."

I needed Tiny to guide me through all the numbers, but I understood enough to see that the Chicago area was definitely in the black.

George suggested, "Can I show you the other two locations? I'm proud of what we've done in each of them. Our service departments are now known throughout the City and area construction companies. We barely keep up with the sales department's installations and have increased service personnel by over twenty-five percent. Most of them have come from your school down in Tampa. We have been lucky to find trained people."

It took two days to see the rest of the main location and both of the other locations. All three of the locations were neat, clean, and freshly painted, with our 'perfect' mottos throughout the buildings.

Friday morning, Ryan said, "Let's head home this morning, and we can stop by the new dealership in St. Louis on the way. It is the first new building we have and was built by a group of S&S construction people. You will like this."

We went into a small executive airport just south of the city. Michelle had arranged for a limo to take us to the dealership. Right in the middle of a retail and commercial area was a large general steel building, completely white, with a large S&S sign painted on the side and on the roof. Ryan explained that we couldn't get a permit for a large street sign so he and Tiny designed the building so he could use the entire side for a painted sign.

The huge showroom flowed into the shop area. Inside the showroom were a boom truck and a regular welding truck. Displayed with it were more trucks with the other bodies that we built on them. There was a group of offices for the management and an open office area for the sales people. In the shop area, there were marked places on the floor for each truck in the field. They were parked inside at night so they could be cleaned and restocked. The trucks circulated around construction and manufacturing sites on a regular schedule. They had just begun rebuilding generators and compressors, and had only two sets of mechanics working on them. It looked nice but the activity level was not there yet. I'd be interested to see it in two or three months.

We arrived home about four Friday afternoon. I had my truck at the airport, so I was able to take us all home. I dropped Abe and Phil off at their homes and took Ryan and Michelle to their place. I arrived at home right at five.

Little Steve came running up to me saying, "Dadadadadada." That is about as good as it gets. I picked him up and he gave me a big smooch while holding my head. Inside the house I found Sue changing Mike, while Mercy was nursing Lizzy.

"This is kind of turned around isn't it?" I said, indicating the swapping of the babies.

Mercy said, "Whoever is closest is usually the one who feeds the hungry baby."

Lizzy took her mouth from Mercy's nipple and giggled at me and stuck her arms up at me. I put Stevie down and picked up Lizzy. She gave me a little hug then I put her back down to nurse on Mercy. Mike held his arms up to me, so I picked him up and gave him a kiss. He began smacking his lips so Sue dropped a side of her blouse to nurse him. I gave each of the ladies a warm loving kiss, telling them how happy I was to be home with them.

They said they had missed me, but had heard progress reports from Michelle as I traveled.

The Friday night party was laid back, but fun. Most of the S&S people and several of the clothing people were there eating and drinking. There were no special announcements, but there was a feeling of accomplishment for the week.

That evening, I enjoyed visiting with everyone at home. I noticed that Ernie wasn't getting around very well and that Nelda seemed to be fretting over him. Sue said that Ernie had been to the doctor a couple of times and was having several physical problems. She said that he wanted to have a talk with me as soon as he and I could get together.

Around nine, I rode with Nelda and Ernie back to their trailer. Once Ernie was inside sitting at his kitchen table he had Nelda and me sit with him.

"Steve, you've given me a gift far greater than any monetary gift a man could have. You made it possible for me to find Nelda and to have more friends than I've ever had in my life. I'm afraid I'm getting a little feeble and a lot forgetful. It seems that I may be developing Alzheimer's disease. I don't want to be a mental cripple or be totally dependent on my Nelda. She's not happy about this but it is something that worries me. I want you to promise me that you will put me in a care facility; you know, a nursing home, when I can't take care of myself. You also have to promise me you will bring my sweet Nelda to see me every day."

"He just won't listen to me, Steve. I keep telling him that he's mine and I will take care of him. He's not even ninety yet and he's talking like an old man. I won't have it. Now that I have him, I just don't want to let him go."

I looked at both of them and said, "Listen to me, both of you. I will take care of both of you as long as I can. If you can do it here, then you will stay here with us. Alzheimer's is bad, but we don't have to be beat by it. You both need to be seeing a doctor regularly and you both need to be with us, your family, as much as possible."