Chapter 12

Lisa showed up, towing a small trailer about 9 days later. We left it in the garage for the night and, after she had freshened up, Sandi and I took her to dinner. I might as well have stayed home because she and Sandi talked about the shop and staff, non-stop.

The next morning they left early for the office and I didn't see either of them till after 10PM, when they came in and went straight to the shower and to bed.

Sandi was really enthusiastic.

"This is working out even better than you thought, Jake ... She's a whiz!" Sandi purred as she snuggled into my arms.

"That's great, hon..."

"In fact, I am going to start phasing out next week."

I protested that ... I thought it would be a good idea for Sandi to take a little longer but she would have none of it.

"No, seriously ... she's already interviewed everyone and, when we compared notes, she has them all pegged exactly as I see them. I didn't even give her the least clue, either!"

"Not only that, she has the Sales and Order app that Mary built down perfect ... she says it's the best interface she's ever used, by the way ... AND ... guess WHAT!" Sandi bounced up and propped herself on an elbow, grinning.

"I give up ... she sold a gross on a cold call?"

"No, BETTER ... she talked Laura out of leaving!"

Wow! Laura was the office assistant who had given her notice and started this ball rolling in the first place and she had been adamant.

"Hmmmm ... maybe this chick is TOO good for our little company." I said this with a straight face, because I meant it. I'd been through this before; hire someone with TOO much on the ball or too much ambition, they will cut you off at the knees first chance they get. Or, at the least, steal your clients and suppliers and take off.

"I thought of that silly ... she and I have been talking non-stop and not just about business. She REALLY appreciates this job, Jake; she was frustrated in that little shop and she sees us going national."

Sandi hugged me and purred.

"She's going to make you and Bill rich, sweetie!"

I didn't get more than 2 hours sleep that night ... and it had nothing to do with Sandi, who feel asleep right at that last statement.

I spent all day with Bill and took him around for a meet with Lisa. After two hours in her office, he emerged beaming and we went to a late supper.

And by the end of the week, we had drawn up the skeleton of a new business plan, re-ordered the company shares and announced Lisa to the staff as the VP of Sales Operations. To go with that she got a 5% share in the company, Sandi was given 10% on the premise that she would audit about every other week and make sure everything was on the up and up. My share was bumped to 30% and Bill said that he fully expected to make out at only 55% rather than his previous 75, because he was sure sales would triple in a year with Lisa running the show.

And it was even better than that ... it's too complicated to go into here, and there's no reason to, anyway ... but Lisa proposed, and Bill and I approved of, a plan to give a mil-share per week for every sales agent that sold over her maximum commission rate.

That was the carrot that Lisa announced at the company meeting the next week. Then she unveiled the stick to each of the Sales Agents, separately, in a private off-site meeting.

She went over what she had been told of the previous difficulties and conflicts and asked each if it was true that they had harassed the office assistants and carped at each other.

We only knew of this because Lisa had asked for our support before she did it ... but apparently, after a little disclaiming, they admitted it.

She then bluntly told each that there was only room for ONE Bitch-on-Wheels in the company and she had been hired for that position.

And if they didn't like it they could take 2 weeks base salary plus any commission they were owed and walk.

Needless to say, things worked a LOT smoother after the meetings. Laura reported that not only had the sales women been sweet as pie to her, they each took her to lunch and apologized for their conduct.

I ALSO found it interesting that Lisa set up a safety-valve for all three of the women then in the office. If they were ever unhappy with things as they stood, or wanted to get something off their chests, they were to just ask and Lisa would set up a meeting with Sandi.

This was something I should have thought of, in the first place. I could have done that but I'd forgotten the primary rule of the all-woman office. There MUST be an ombudsman or an outlet valve, so to speak.

Ah well, at any rate, the peace and harmony lasted for a couple months. And the problem wasn't with Jill and Marta ... the two original miscreants, it was with Roxanne who had been hired from Limited to expand the customer base with cold calls. She was very good at sales, but seemed to use up all her good humor with the prospects; off line she was bitchy, cranky and rude.

She had been given a version of the same speech Lisa used to shock the other girls but the effect lasted no time at all. She went through the outlet interview with Sandi and it still made no difference.

Finally Lisa had an idea. She thought she recognized the particular personality symptoms, and she ran ia plan by Sandi who agreed it was worth a shot.

Sandi and I came in just before end of business the following Friday and we met in Lisa's office with Roxanne. Lisa went over the usual last warning script, and Sandi chimed in a couple times, while I remained silent and just stared at Roxanne's eyes ... well, not so much a 'stare' as a fixed gaze. This had the effect that Lisa thought it might ... Roxanne went from denying she did anything wrong, to a passive sour expression to a sort of withdrawn meekness within about ten minutes. She would dart a glance at me once in a while and it seemed like each time that happened she lost a little more of her bravado. Finally Lisa leaned back in her chair and was silent for a minute then: