Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 72655 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72655 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Call a taxi and get back to Gen’s. This has now become about damage control.
I finally lower my arm and turn the voice recording off. My finger hovers over the delete button, but for some reason, I don’t hit it. Instead, my mind goes down the illicit, dark tunnel of replaying that deep, rumbly voice saying that he’s a fiend for pudding, and my legs get a little bit of a watery feeling.
For the love of crab legs in a purse. Really?
Ugh. No, not really.
I call a cab and vow to delete the voice memo as soon as I get into the backseat. I’ll tear off the wig, look up how to get the smell of seafood out of just about anything, and then plan what I’m going to tell Gen about this disaster, including that vague-ass threat about pudding at the end.
Mont isn’t really rich enough to buy out an entire pudding empire just to prove a point, right?
No freaking way. Never. It’s not possible.
Or is it?
Chapter four
Mont
Oh, it’s possible.
And it’s happening.
I’ve decided to take a monster share of my cash and go into pudding.
I didn’t wait ten days just to cause a false sense of security to permeate Evilla’s life. I had to do my due diligence, which took some time. When I was sure the pudding company was a sound investment, I made my offer. It was quite generous. Mike and his family were quite attached to what they’d created, but when I offered three times what the company was worth at the moment, they were happy to sell. I was very adamant that I would like as many employees and former owners to stay on as possible. Whoever wanted to remain was more than welcome. I left room for Mike and his parents—the original founders of the company—but they declined. They had ideas about retirement and tropical vistas that they were happy to trade pudding for.
When I was asked if I wanted a non-compete clause, I didn’t make Mike and his parents sign one. However, I did make sure that I was the sole owner of all the company’s recipes, any patents, and any and all flavors they’d copyrighted. All branding, designs, logos, and even the name went to me in the sale.
As of this morning, at ten minutes after nine, I became the proud owner of many, many puddings and all things associated with bringing them to life and the market. Factories, offices, buildings all across the country…
But there’s only one that I care about.
Tampa happens to be the original pudding’s founding family’s place of birth. They loved this city, so they set up their headquarters of sorts here. I had zero plans on running a pudding company myself. It’s a terrible plan to try and do anything yourself, especially on such a large scale.
People. People make all the difference.
Good people. Good people create.
They bring wonderful ideas and turn those concepts into reality. They make the world spin. I’ve always believed in finding good people and being good to them in turn. I haven’t acquired so many companies or turned them into successful businesses without good people.
The world might accuse me of being successful because I had family money to fall back on and because my parents helped me get started. I won’t say I didn’t have a massive boost, but the momentum I have right now is solely mine and not my parents’.
Before he decided that a semi-retired lifestyle suited him, my dad and his dad before him were in business. As a family, we’ve lasted decades because we’ve surrounded ourselves and built our brand with people who believed in it as passionately as we did. We’ve hired talented and innovative people, people who care for our company like it’s their own business, which it kind of is because I’ve always believed in having all employees own shares. They’ve worked hard to build a brand they believe in.
I love my other companies too much to want to stop what I’m doing and, all of a sudden, solely become a pudding mogul, but for the next few weeks, I’m going to have to take a hard look at how this new place is structured. From the bottom all the way to the top, I want to make sure all employees have good benefits packages, pensions they’re able to pay into, fair wages, and good working conditions.
Pudding isn’t tech, and most of my acquisitions are based in that world, so I have a lot to learn. I’ve already looked at the financials, and they’re solid, but I want to delve a deeper look into the company’s structure and plot out a long-term game plan. I’m a fast learner, and I’ve spent the past ten days also doing as much research into the pudding industry as possible, which, at large, is, of course, the food and grocery industry as well. Retail in all aspects, this place is a goldmine just waiting to be tapped on the merch end of the spectrum.