As a single mom in a small town, there's only one thing I want. Another baby. When all the roads to getting what I want lead to dead ends, I turn to one of my best friends for help.
In my mind, Trent Castillo is the perfect baby daddy. He has good g...
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Bruce has been working with me at the shop for three weeks, and I'm still not sure about any of his systems or ways of doing things. Rather than being fully digitized, he's still been relying on filing cabinets, paper files, and handwritten notes and calendars.
Instead of insulting him, I've been trying to grapple with his system. He even does his scheduling—holidays for staff, payroll, all of it by hand.
I finally broke down and installed a desktop computer at the front desk. The last few years, Bruce did most of the office management, while the other guys worked on cars. But I want to be in the shop, seeing how things run, not behind a desk hoping for the best. I know I'll need to hire someone, but I have to be sure the finances support that.
I have a laptop in my office, and I'm trying to get everything from the last three weeks loaded. With only one week left until Bruce actually retires and I take over, I need to get a handle on how I want to do things, so the shop doesn't stall. Already, I know clientele is down.
Looking back at the bookings from January to the end of March, Bruce's schedule was packed. Looking ahead to May, mine is a lot less so. There are substantial gaps, and while Bruce tried to reassure me that many of those will get eaten up with oil changes people suddenly realize they need, brakes that give up, car accidents, electrical problems, and so forth, it's hard to see so much empty space.
I don't want to lay anyone off, but I also know that running this business into the ground isn't just a problem for me. Emily's put her faith and her cash behind me, and knowing the money came from her dad's life insurance policy only doubles the pressure. To me, that money would be sacred, and so I'm treating it like it is for her too.
At seven o'clock, I'm still hunting and pecking on the keyboard of the laptop when there's a knock on the frame of the office door. I look up to see Emily, and I grimace.
"Everything okay?" I ask, trying to find my place again and typing the next line.
"Amir's at jujitsu, so I thought I'd stop by to see how things are going. I know Bruce is done at the end of next week, and you seemed a bit stressed."
"It's just what I already told you," I say, moving the ruler down to another line on the ledger. "Everything on paper, and I've decided I'm getting it into a computer. It just doesn't make sense to do it all by hand when there are programs that can calculate these things—payroll, taxes, all that."
"How much are you digitizing?" she asks, coming to my shoulder to peer at the laptop.
"As much as I can."
"Trent, that's going to take you forever. Why don't you hire someone?"
"Can't," I say. "Until I know I'm going to have the customers to keep this place ticking along, I need to conserve money, not spend it."
"That's very responsible," she says, and when I glance at her over my shoulder, I see the glint of teasing in her eyes.
