“Why don’t you all go out in the courtyard so Dare can conduct his demonstration? While you do that, I’ll get everyone a copy of the document,” Grace said, and everyone started for the door. “David, can you stay for a moment?”
“Yeah, sure.”
◊◊◊
Chapter 28 – Shut the Door, Have a Seat Saturday March 4
I followed Grace to her home office.
“Shut the door. Have a seat,” Grace said.
I was impressed. If I were trying to set up an office to show I was a big deal, this was how I’d do it. My only change would probably be to go with more of a natural wood look to make it more masculine, instead of the cream palette Grace had used. She had an informal seating area off to the side with a view of the river. I could envision sitting there smoking a cigar as I had an after-work scotch. I could tell our meeting was going to be more friendly than business when she picked that area to sit.
Before she joined me, Grace stepped to her desk and hit a button on her phone.
“Phyllis, I need you to copy some documents for me.”
The side door opened, and a stunning woman in her mid-thirties came in. Grace handed her the papers.
“I’ll need these in about an hour,” Grace said, and then noticed that Phyllis was looking at me.
“Where are my manners? Phyllis, this is David Dawson …”
Phyllis all but knocked Grace down to rush over to shake my hand.
“I’m a big fan. I loved the first episode of
Well, I was a big fan of hers. If I were fifteen years older … Grace saved me by clearing her throat. Phyllis reverted to business mode.
“I’ll take care of this,” she said and briskly walked out.
“She’s my weekend person,” Grace said, as if that explained something to me.
In my mind, I was deciding I needed a weekend person if they looked like that. Then again, I might never get any work done. I mentally smacked myself in the back of the head. In this day and age, that kind of thing got you in trouble.
“I take it you’re considering going into business with Carl,” I said.
“Yes, and your comment about there not currently being a market for security drones was something I’d talked to Mr. Buchanan about earlier this week. At the time, he pushed back on that idea. When you said what you did, I could’ve kissed you.”
“Caryn’s replacement, Scarlet, told me her granddad taught her that if you were going to do business with someone, you should seek an ownership interest. It was because of her that we partnered with our insurance provider,” I said.
“That’s a smart strategy, so long as you do your due diligence. Not every business opportunity is a good one. I’ve been burned a few times, but I’ve learned my lesson and know what to look for now. That doesn’t mean I don’t lose money now and then, but it happens a lot less,” Grace explained.
“What do you look for?” I asked.
“For an investment, or if you want to be an entrepreneur, you must be passionate about the business you’re building. It’s not enough to believe that your service or product is a good idea. That’s because any good idea attracts competition. If your competitors are zealous about doing it better, you don’t stand a chance.
“If you find something you love, the next requirement is to be customer-obsessed. You don’t just want customers who like your product or service. You want them to love it, enjoy the process of buying it, and sing its praises to everyone they know. And to think of you the next time they need it again,” Grace said.
“That’s all good, but if there’s no market for what you’re proposing, you’re bound to fail,” I said.
Grace gave me a knowing smile.
“If you come up with a business plan and eliminate all the risks, it’s probably already been tried and failed. Either that, or it’s flooded with competition, and it will be nearly impossible to enter the market. You must be willing to take risks. The key is recognizing whether there’s a real opportunity or not.
“I expect you know this, but another critical factor is to make sure the right people, or mix of people, are involved at the right level. I’ve seen some good ideas blown by a start-up because the team starting it lacked in one or more respects or because key players didn’t get along.
“In the case of your businesses, you recognized there was a need for the various services your people provided and that bundling them together would be attractive to potential clients. Typically, they would need to go to different people for each of these services, assuming they recognized the need in the first place.
“I never really considered how daunting gathering all those resources could be for an individual. That’s because I’d been able to use the staffs of my various businesses to provide those individual services for me. I simply hadn’t applied the concept to my personal life, so I hadn’t realized that others would have a need that I didn’t necessarily have. Phyllis, for example, is one of my company’s employees, but I’m using her today to support me in an individual capacity.
