Chapter 10
The tractor had little trouble making it's way through the snowy road. It slipped a few times going up the hills but other than that Bob kept going at a steady pace. The trip that would have taken twenty minutes in the summer in a car, on a summer day, took an hour and fifteen minutes in the snow due to the slower speed of the tractor and the caution he had to use going up and down grades. Even with the four-wheel drive the tractor almost slipped off of the road a couple of times.
When he finally arrived at the row of row homes that were sold as condos he let himself in and quickly gathered the suitcase, briefcase and papers and started back to the cabin. The sun shined brilliantly on the snow and Bob wished that he had brought his sunglasses. He had to hold the suitcase and briefcase on his lap on the way back and almost lost them several times.
As he pulled into the driveway leading to his cabin a fox ran across the driveway in front of the snow mound that was Ann's car. Bob proceeded up the driveway, pulled around Ann's car, and pulled to the front of the cabin and turned off the tractor's engine. He looked up and saw Ann watching him out of the window with a worried look on her face.
He jumped off of the tractor and began taking Ann's things into the cabin. To avoid tracking too much snow into the cabin he dropped her suitcase and papers on the floor at the front door. Ann grabbed her things and moved them out of the way.
After her things were safely inside Bib got back on the tractor and began to clear the driveway. The New Holland tractor had a small front-end loader attached instead of a blade and he had to maneuver a bit more with the bucket than he would have had to if he had a snow blade on the front of the tractor. In a short time he had the drive cleared down to Ann's car, in back of her car and had part of the road cleared so that the tow truck could turn around and back up to her car.
Bob parked the tractor under the shed and went into the house. Ann met him at the door with a large mug of coffee. As he mumbled his thanks, he took several large sips of the coffee and then handed it back to her and took off his boots and parka. Retrieving his coffee from Ann he went to the woodstove to try and get some heat back in his bones.
"It's not that cold outside but the dampness goes right through you," he said, "I've got your car cleared so that the tow truck can get to it."
Ann looked out of the window trying to see her car, "Could you see if the car is... can it be fixed without spending a whole lot of money?"
He hesitated before answering, "It's going to cost a couple of thousand to repair the front end. I don't know if there's any damage under the car. I didn't realize it last night but you really buried the car in the ditch."
Ann's heart sank, "I guess I'll have to use the delivery van for a while. I was hoping that the car would last for a few months until I got another job. The delivery van goes with the shop when I sell it."
"Don't worry about your car," Bob said, putting his mug on the coffee table, "The Vice-President that we let go had a company car, an Explorer I think; although it might be an Expedition. It's fully armored to B6. You can use that until I officially hire someone to replace him. If you send in that application you might wind up keeping the car."
Ann gasped, "I can't use your company car. Suppose I damage it and besides, isn't that illegal?"
"Don't worry about it. Since I own all of the stock in the company, I don't think that anyone will question me on it. Come to think of it, the car has to be about ready to be replaced. If you do come on board with the company you'll have to get another car."
"You said it's armored up to B6. What does that mean?"
Bob laughed, "That means that it offers protection against high powered rifles, grenades and land mines. We use it as a demonstration vehicle. Level B6 will usually let the occupant of the vehicle escape with only minor injuries if they run over a land mine or a grenade."
"How much does an armored car cost?"
Bob watched her face as he answered her, "Well, a Mercedes S-class limo, fully armored to Level B6, can cost as much as a million dollars; I could probably get you one for around five hundred thousand though. The Expedition that I was talking about we sell for one hundred and nine thousand and up. The little add-ons are what drive the price up."
"I don't know about that job. I haven't any experience in your type of business. It would take me forever to learn about the company's products. You need someone that can jump into the job and hit the ground running."
"Look Ann," he said, turning to face her, "I'm at the point in this business that it's just getting too much for me to handle by myself; even though I have some very good people working for me. Your job will be to convince clients that they should deal with us. The engineering and installation is handled by people that we already have in place. I'm looking at you more as someone that I can bounce ideas off of. In talking to you, I think that I see the type of person that I'm looking for. I need someone that will listen to me and not be afraid to tell me whether or not my idea will work and if I'm being a jerk. In you, I see someone that has integrity and is confident enough that you are not afraid to tackle whatever life throws at you. Everyone that I have working for me now is very competent but there is really no one that will stand up to me and refuse to go alone with any hair-brained scheme that I think up. I need someone who will help me take the company to the next step. I want to pull my horns in a bit and I need someone to keep an eye on business when I'm not there. I realize that there will be a big learning curve but that is great. Just think; you'll be coming in without any preconceived ideas of how the security business is supposed to be run. Hopefully, there will be a bunch of fresh ideas that you'll come up with. After my marriage broke up I threw myself into the business and shut everything else out. I need someone who will take on any task that I give them. I know that I told you that I'm looking for a sale's pro but the job; at least I envision it, will be to keep the company growing in the right directions and keep an eye on our day to day operations along with me. You'll have to make sure that what we say we will do, we do. We've got a great reputation with our clients and the marketing is taking care of itself; it has been taking care of itself for years. Most of our business has been from referrals for the past few years anyway. The rest of our business comes from the fact that people know about our company and they contact us to find out if we can help them with their problem. What happens with our clientele is that they decide that they need security. They contact our company and we question them about what they expect our company to provide and our engineering department works up a package. Then we present it to the customers."
Ann put up her hands, "Whoa, what makes you think that I am qualified for the job? All that I've ever done is run a couple of florist shops."
"A couple of shops," Bob grinned, "I only knew about the one. That just makes me feel even more that you might be what I'm looking for. Think, Ann. You took a business that was beginning to show its age and you made a living off of it for a long time. You expanded and grew the business; in between running the business, expanding the business, managing employees and making a living you managed to raise a daughter and get her into college on the way to becoming a doctor. Now, is that such a small job?"
"I never realized I was so overworked," she said with a big smile.
"So you're going to put in an application?"
Ann looked at him, trying to see if this was really happening, "I'll put in an application but I don't think that I'll get the job. Who is the HR person that I should send the resume to?"
"Don't worry about getting the job. If you put in the application you've got the job. I'll have to bring you in for a long interview just so that my HR person doesn't get her nose bent out of shape. You just spruce up your resume and make it sound as good as you can. I'll be sitting in on your interview and I'm going to make the interview go my way."
"What if someone else applies for the job? You said that you have advertised in the paper."
"We don't get too many applications for any job that we advertise. Not too many people want to travel as much as our people do."
"Will there be much travel involved in the sales position that you want me to apply for?"
"There will be considerable travel but you would be amazed how many of your contacts will be by phone or email or conference call. Our telephone systems are secure and you can discuss anything on them. We pick up all expenses for travel naturally and the salary reflects any hardship that travel causes you. I don't think that I mentioned the salary but we'll start you at 125. There's a great benefit package also. As a vice-president you'll have full medical, surgical and dental coverage and a one hundred thousand dollar life insurance policy. We shut the company down for the last two weeks of the year unless there's something pressing on one of your projects and then we make it up to you later."
Ann looked puzzled, "125? What do you mean?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. We'll pay you one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars a year to start. That's salary of course. We also take ten percent of the net profit and distribute it among the employees a week before Christmas. It usually amounts to about ten thousand dollars for each employee. We don't ask any of the officers of the company to contribute to the benefit package. That's our way of making up for the overtime and travel."
Ann stared at him for a minute before she could speak, "I've never made that much in my life. The most that I ever made from the shop was about forty thousand. Just what does this job entail that you pay so much?"
"That's not much for the position. I've been told that we pay a little under the industry average. Don't go selling yourself short. Wait until you start the job. I believe that you'll agree that you're earning every penny."
The security business must be very lucrative?"
Bob got a big smile on his face, "I doubt that you have any idea how much an armored car costs or how much it costs to train a Special Forces unit and neither do our clients. Let's just say that our profit margins are acceptable."
"I don't know Bob. I wouldn't want to take the job and then find that I just couldn't do it. I would kick myself if I abused your trust. I've never worked and not earned my way."
"Look Ann. I see something inside of you that I can't really explain. I know that you will give me a dollar fifty cents profit on every dollar that I pay you. I'm tickled to death that you don't know anything about the security business. You won't come to the company with any baggage and you'll try things that we think can't be done. As I said, I need someone to question everything that I do. In just the short time we've known each other; you've discretely asked pointed questions about my decision to sell my company. I've noticed that lately I'm beginning to try to rest on my past successes and that's usually the beginning of the end of a business. I need help and I think that you're the one person that can sit on me when I get too crazy."
She looked at him for a minute, "I don't know where that is coming from. I just hope that I can be as good as you want me to be."
"Don't sell yourself short Ann. I feel that a great part of my success is that I hire people for what they can be and then give them the tools and the responsibility to become the person that they can be. There's just one thing. I'm going to give you a very long leash but if it doesn't work out I will have no qualms letting you go. I don't think that will ever happen but I just want you to know that I feel that the company is my child and I won't let anyone harm it."
"Now young lady, I think that I'd better get wood in for the stove or else I'll have to tromp through the snow after it gets dark."
Bob put on his parka and boots and went outside. Ann watched him
through the window as he covered the tractor and made sure that it was
tied down securely. After several trips to the wood shed he was finally
satisfied that he had enough wood for the night.