Broken Back Business

By Donald Robert Meyette

This is about the joys of starting and running a business, or perhaps more correctly, the misery and ruination in operating a business. Two young men chase their dreams, initially with some success, only to fall down the mountain of failure, with many interesting tales along the way. Their methods of operation and decision-making causes wonderment and confusion for anybody looking in from the outside. There is also suspense at times, and also some violence leading up to murder. And through it all, there is the realism that these things could happen in real life. Th e story has believable dimensions, and actual historical events woven in. Finally, it is a business and human success and failure story with a number of very interesting personalities.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 25, 2011
• ISBN: 9781456723286

Donald Robert Meyette

Donald Robert Meyette is a 45-year veteran of the business world, both small and multi-national. He holds the credential of CPA, and has held varied positions as a financial consultant, chief financial officer, director of international internal audit operations, as well as in the professional capacity as a CPA. He is an avid reader of non-fiction books, including extensively on business and world events. He is a resident of Green Valley, Arizona, and secondarily, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

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Contents

Introduction

Boys Entering The Business World

A Rocky Beginning

A Rock And A Hard Spot

Broken Back

Knights On White Horses

Upward And Onward

Big Broken Heads

The Big Merger And Move Again

Falling Down The Mountain

Cook Books And Lawsuit

Reaching The Valley

Going Over The Waterfall

Falling Rocks

Sweet Revenge

Introduction

The title to this book, Broken Back Business, the Broken Back part of the title, that is, sounds a little like the name of a fictional mountain way back when that was used in a fairly popular film about two guys that lived out West from 1963 to 1983 in the State of Wyoming. The movie was all about their romantic and sexual relationship over time, and continually in the background was that fictional mountain named Brokeback Mountain. This was a good movie directed back then by one Ang Lee.

Well, one might ask, What is a brokeback or a broken back mountain all about? If you saw the movie, you would remember that Brokeback Mountain was just a long range of jagged peaks, each peak running high into the sky, then falling back down to a much lower level, then back up to another peak. The fictitious name of that mountain somehow stuck in my mind when searching for a title to this book, and what this book is all about.

As you will see, this story is all about business (actually two specific businesses) and the characters who ran them. Talk about ups and downs – you will not believe how these characters had, and caused, their own ups and downs in their business-world. Some rather stupid stuff happens. Some pretty nasty stuff happens. Some human behavior takes place that will make you laugh, or choke. There are some fairly interesting and entertaining characters involved, if you keep your sense of humor, and some perspective as well. The word interesting is also used here referring to the manner in which these characters conducted their business and treated each other. Some might respond after reading about these various individuals in the business world by just using the word, GAG!

So it was the ups and downs of these characters, with their behavior, that brought on the title to this book of Broken Back Business. This book is fictional, but by the same token, some or many of the ideas and scenarios created here are from memories or experiences dating back many years, from my lifetime career in the business-world, and involvement with so many different businesses environments, functioning as an internal auditor, as a CPA, and with holding various positions at all levels of management in business concerns. You find it hard to just ignore your past experiences and exposures when composing a book like this, all of which helps stimulate your imagination and creativity. Again, it is all fictional, but your past helps you to define your fictional story. Now relax, and do not break your back while reading this amazing tale.

Boys Entering The Business World

Stan Bartlett woke up suddenly, swinging his feet to the floor and staring out at the small portion of the Pacific Ocean he could see from his apartment bedroom window. He glanced over at the dresser clock and thought crap! It was only close to 6 A.M., and he did not need to be at work until 9 A.M., with just a short drive to get there. Crap! So Stan got out of bed anyway, headed to the shower, firm in his plan he would go get breakfast at his favorite joint and just take his sweet old time in the process. He felt hung over from the night before – all that booze and flirting – but that was nothing new. Most mornings he woke up feeling hung over. So what’s new?

Stan, like most other mornings, also entered his grouchy mood, or attitude. This was only because Stan blamed the world around him for who he was, or was not. Working all of his life for someone else, that would never cut it. No sir. Stan had his own visions of who he was and what must become of him. It was king of the mountain and nothing less. He did not want to work for somebody else – he wanted to be the ultimate employer, not just some employee. And the more that time slipped away, the more the frustration set in. He was not an old man, rather he was still in his early thirties, but for Stan, the time was now! The problem was not his age. The problem was he had no money. The other problem was he had no college degree, and no special schooling of any kind. He never bothered to do anything about it, and never even picked up a book on business management and related disciplines – only books, or magazines, with pictures of women always below half-dressed. Old Stan boy never focused on what he should have done, what he should be doing, to start a successful business career, most assuredly as the owner and manager of one. What he seemed to know about business and business disciplines came straight from the seat of his pants, and nowhere else. Even while Stan, the wonder-boy in his mind, should have been blaming himself, he chose to always blame his circumstances – but not by any means to change his circumstances. So as Stan complained in his head, off to work he went with time for his short and usual unhealthy breakfast.

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A little way further to the east in San Diego, Stan’s co-worker, a fellow by the name of Fabian Model, was, as normal, up and about at 6 A.M., only to always fix his own breakfast at home and read the morning newspaper. Fabian works in the cubicle right next to Stan, and both perform the same duties, which entails customer support for a fairly large travel company that not only has direct walk-in clients, but a significant website operation on the Internet marketing all forms of travel arrangements. Fabian pictures himself as always the good-guy, being polite and understanding in dealing with the many calls from customers coming in from those that use the travel website. They all have questions here, or need a little assistance there. But on the other hand, Stan always seems to have a rather short fuse when dealing with these call-ins. Fabian can never quite grasp why Stan is not a little more down to earth, especially since that was part of his job to treat customers right in the hopes that they will again return for travel arrangements in the future. Fabian often thought that it was a good thing that Stan was not downstairs on the first floor with the job of dealing directly, face-to-face with walk-in customers on travel arrangements. That prospect was frightening.

Fabian, like always, checked out the want-ad section of his newspaper that morning, focusing on businesses for sale. Fabian often heard Stan’s repeated desires to be not just an employee, but a business-owner. Fabian heard this so often, he likewise was taking on the same interest. Why not?

They could do a great business together in Fabian’s opinion, based on nothing really solid or concrete. So now Fabian checked daily for possible business ventures for sale, most assuredly those that might be related to the travel industry in some form or fashion. And BINGO! This morning, he found an ad for a travel agency business in a sort of middle-class suburb of San Diego. So he tore this out to take to work and to show it to Stan. You never know. This one could be it, even though previous ads and buyer contacts had proved to go nowhere – mostly because of not the right price, not the right conditions, not the right perceived potentials. But, hey, can’t give up, and old Stan seems more desperate as each day passes. Fabian reasoned (often) that it was a good thing old Stan got plastered every night, because it takes his mind off of his perceived failed mission in life.

"***************

Together they came to work this morning in early March of 2002. Grabbing coffee, Fabian pulled Stan aside into his cubicle, and out came the ad from the newspaper on the travel agency for sale. Less than fifteen minutes later, Stan was on the phone to the broker and set up an appointment for the following day, hopefully to be able to gather all the details over their lunch-hour. Gather they did. The agency was solely owned by an older woman ready for retirement by the name of Helen Green. Helen had an asking price of $150,000. She and the broker had reached this selling price using the ten times net earnings rule of thumb. Actually, real net earnings of the business were averaging around $12,000 a year, so if you were to apply the ten times net earning rule, that would give you a gross selling price of only $120,000. But we all know we seek more than we expect to get when trying to sell something, and so did Helen.

Stan and Fabian became interested, and the gross selling price on this business was quite far below selling prices on other businesses they had considered previously. Since neither guy had that much money, the boys figured they could get some money from friends and relatives, and could likewise secure a loan. So the negotiations began in earnest, and Helen, really tired out and so looking to retire, came down in price to the net earnings rule amount of $120,000. Done deal.

Fabian got a limited amount of