The Big Meeting

Keep up with Elise and her story of becoming a successful entrepreneur:

“Thursdays are the best. This Denny’s gets the new ranch dressing in on Thursday afternoons, so the ranch is the thickest, creamiest, and tastiest on Thursdays.”

“Can you stay on the subject for one minute?” Dave demanded, growing frustrated.

“No. Not a chance,” Elise responded, dunking another messy cluster of French fries into her ranch and shoving them in her mouth. She could not sit still. She was bouncing in her seat.

“Look, this is your business, but I don’t think you really listened to what he was saying.”

“Are you nuts. He loved it. He loved me. He even loved you, though God knows why, you curmudgeon. You saw him. He sat right there and read every word of that business plan and said he wanted in.”

“Exactly. He said…Elise! Stop. Listen.”

Elise stopped bouncing, bit her lip, and turned back to him in a posture of enormous contrition.

Dave narrowed his eyes. “You just aren�t as cute as you think you are. Look, what Sean said was he is willing to front the money in exchange for a silent partner position. That means he gives you the money, but then he owns half your business. You do all the work, he gets paid.”

“Yeah, but not until the store goes black. He said I could pay myself, use as ambitious a growth plan as I wanted, and only had cut him in on dividends after everything else. He going to front 20,000 dollars. Since his part is for equity, that means that the only debt the store will have upon opening is the 6,000 dollars we owe on the SBA backed loan.”

“But do you really want to work that hard and only end up owing half of your own store?”

“Look. You are the one who keeps grimly reminding me that the store may very well fail. This deal means that if it fails, I don’t owe him a penny.”

“And if it succeeds, you will end up paying much more than you would pay a bank on a loan.”

Elise paused. She was not oblivious to Dave’s warnings. Nothing he was saying had escaped her notice, but weeks of fruitless searching for funds had left her on the edge of despair. Sean’s offer was not perfect, but it was real.

Dave watched her hold his stare, watched her prevaricating. Finally, he shrugged. “Look. It’s your call, but, if you go for it, see if you can talk him into putting in a buyout option. Get something that gives you an opportunity to save up your money and buy him out. Get it in writing.”

Elise frowned, nodded, and ate another French fry.

Next Week: The Dotted Line