“So then, he said, 'I don't care how much you offer to buy it for – I don't care that you're a billionaire. This isn't for you people.' I just laughed, because if some other people would rather be bigoted and broke, it's not my job to change that. There's plenty of businesses out here to buy.”
“So, basically, Pop-Pop, the business you're in now is buying other businesses?”
Almost 18-year-old Vanna Trent was listening to her grandfather explain a side of business she had never heard of before.
“I've actually been in that for a while, because being a billionaire takes all sides. I've worked for companies, started and built my own, then bought other businesses on mergers and rolled them in, sometimes broke a division off and and set it up on its own or sold it off as a separate company – but in these later years, what I enjoy doing is farming out my startup ideas to younger people and also helping people that need exit strategies to get those together.
“Take the Ludlow Bubbly – your father and Capt. Ludlow can run that to any size they want, but it will take over their lives and they and their families will be miserable. The workers, backed by local veterans' groups, want to buy the Ludlow Bubbly and make it worker-owned, but they don't have the raw cash necessary to meet the valuation. Guess who does?”
“You do!” Vanna said.
“Right, so, I will work with the worker-owners-to-be, pay the buyout costs up front with my portion, and then they can buy me out of my portion over time. Everybody wins. Your father and Capt. Ludlow get to exit with money to secure their families' futures, the workers get to own the company, and I get repaid with a bit of interest as they move into full ownership. Not only that: while I am in ownership, I will both make bigger connects and teach them how to make bigger connects so that we keep winning, and then they keep winning after I also have exited.”
“See, I could get into this in business,” Vanna said. “Truth be told I'm a lot like Mom on this: I don't really like the idea of dog-eat-dog, survival of the richest type of stuff.”
Mr. Stepforth stopped short … Vanna's mother Melissa was his oldest child, and he had not been aware that she had received that kind of impression about business … from him.
Vanna noticed her grandfather's sudden discomfiture.
“What's wrong, Pop-Pop?”
“I realized where I went wrong with your mom and your aunts and your uncle – we never talked about the creative part, the fun part. I was operating out of fear a lot back then – nobody wanted me to be rich, and what you just said is really what I thought about a lot then too. I was going to be the biggest dog, and the richest – but it cost the family heavily. This is actually why I specialize now in helping people do win-win exits, so they don't get trapped.”
“And I want to go into that with you – I mean, right now, I'm bringing in good money on my remote work consultations, but whenever Covid is done that is going to slow down.”
“Oh, in Lofton County, you keep working three days a week, and that will run another year at least, because once people realize they can live out from under – well, we'll keep it positive – point is, you do need to start thinking about where to invest that money, and you'll be 18 in two days. But first, do this as a thought exercise: what's your exit plan if things don't slow down?”
“You know … yeah, Pop-Pop, I have work to do because even though this year the college work at W&L online isn't really challenging me, it's going to be a whole different ballgame if things open up and I gotta commute.”
“It's also going to be a whole different ballgame because I actually clicked to the right and you had 1,500 people in your last Zoom yesterday. I counted. Vertran also reverse-engineered it to check: 1,503. So how much are you charging right now for your remote work consults?”
“I raised the price a bit because people sometimes just keep coming back to hang out with me, which is nice but a bit creepy although I understand with all the time people have on their hands safe places to go online are a must – but not at $50 an hour, so those are all new people.”
“So, you know that since you have a full scholarship to W&L, and of course you are using Chegg because no descendant of mine will be over-charged for books, and because you have already repaid me your startup costs, and you have no debt, you are a cash-flowing grand-mogul of mine too, right?”
“Yeah, I guess so – I don't really do all that math in my head.”
“Vanna,” her grandfather said gently, “this is why you need to plan your exit. When it's not enjoyable any more, then you need to be ready to go. If you are not money-motivated, and you don't want to do the math, you are definitely in the wrong business at the worst time on earth.”
He made his voice even gentler.
“15 times 5 is 75,” he said, “times 1,000, my dear.”
“Yeah, I know and it's scaring me a little,” Vanna said. “I've already got 1,879 registered for the next – people are finding work and telling friends and family and coming with testimonials and I'm not even asking. I love what I'm doing because so many people – lots of young people like me, too, with kids – really need this, but the money part is actually kinda scary.”
“Never be scared by money,” he said. “We just plan for it. We plan getting other family members into the cash flow. We plan investment strategies so that as soon as 2021, you can just retire and stay in university until it doesn't interest you any more if you want. We plan scholarship funds for young women just like you who need an education and can't afford it. We plan partnerships with non-profits we can give proceeds to. We plan you taking a day with Pop-Pop and looking through his investment portfolio so you can become a partner with him in helping other people not be scared and not get trapped, since that's the part of the work that you like.”
“A lot of that actually sounds good,” Vanna said.
“This is the creative side,” he said, “and like grandparents are always saying, I didn't know in time for my kids, but I know in time for my grandkids!”
“I'm going to go do my own exit plan,” Vanna said, and when she had gone, Mr. Stepforth was surprised by a big hug from Vanna's mother, Melissa Stepforth Trent.
“You're not too late, Pop,” she said. “Your kids are learning too, now that creativity and not fear is how we are healing and learning.”
business acumen
Yes indeed ... I don't have a billion dollars, but I do study!