Pecking Order, page 26
Paul shook his head and said, “Hey, man, we’re versatile. We don’t need to be in the dark.”
“Yeah, Paul never liked it so dark anyway. That was more my taste,” Jeff commented.
Ivan smiled. He was happy his guys both liked the place. Jeff and Paul had already made close to twenty-five thousand dollars in their business with Ivan, and that was just the beginning of things. With Eddie K. on board as the advertising manager, and Ava Tate as their new editorial manager, Ivan projected a first-year income for Jeff and Paul in the eighty-to-hundred-thousand-dollar range.
“How’s that for two crazy guys coming right out of college?” he joked to them.
They were now considered IDPromotions.com’s creative executives, a fancier business title Eddie K. had given them to substitute for webmasters.
But when Eddie saw his ad office set up in the back bedroom, he was less thrilled about it.
“Oh, so I get the oldest kid’s room in the back. The eccentric problem child on drugs?”
Ivan grinned and argued, “They need more room than you, Eddie. It’s two of them and they have to deal with all of that computer shit.”
Eddie laughed it off. “I’m just messing with you, Ivan. I understand. Those guys are the kings of the castle around here. And this place definitely creates a great atmosphere for what we’re doing. It makes me feel like the leader of a college think tank.”
“A think tank that makes money,” Ivan told him.
Eddie had made fifteen thousand dollars in his start-up ad efforts online, but he looked to make more than a hundred and twenty thousand by the end of the year with the company, which was right in line with his salary in the newspaper industry before he left. However, if the website ad rates were able to increase at IDPromotions.com the way he projected they should, he looked forward to pulling in nearly two hundred thousand in his second year.
Ava Tate, the editorial manager, was set up in the small middle room, right next to the second-floor bathroom. She was a black single mom, originally from Fort Worth, Texas, who had settled into San Diego as a freelance magazine writer. She was in her midthirties, divorced from a Navy officer, and looking for a more consistent position that allowed her to continue her passion as a freelance writer. Since she mainly used her laptop, she could write her blogs, edit copy, give assignments and suggestions, and email Jeff and Paul from any location to post her completed work on the site.
Although her position at IDPromotions.com only paid her five hundred dollars a week, Ava was able to create her own entertainment news page for the site, solicit freelance work, reprint her magazine and newspaper articles, and sell ads on commission. Along with the money she received from child-support payments for her two sons and daughter, Ava was perfectly fine with the economics of her new position.
She saw the placement of her editorial office and joked, “Perfect, I’m right next to the bathroom. Was that by design?”
Ivan chuckled. He said, “Not really, but if it works it works.”
The downstairs area was just as Ivan had planned as well. He had an open cubicle area in the dining room, with several smaller desks, computer stations for laptops, a printer and copy machine, and several office phones. In the living room, he created a meet-and-greet lounge area, with a receptionist desk and a floor-model television set, surrounded by comfortable sofas, a coffee table, and plenty of magazines. Inside the kitchen area, he ordered a bench table, an easy-to-use microwave, a large refrigerator, and a few vending machines.
Ivan explained in his first full staff meeting of twelve, “IDPromotions.com is a great vehicle for us all to get our feet wet in the computer industry. And although I can’t assume that we all will remain with the company, with some of you guys still students here, I would love for all of us to be able to look back and consider this a start-up unit that we can all be proud of.”
He said, “Now, only five of us are gonna have keys, and I want us all to raise our hands: Paul, Jeff, Eddie, Ivan, and Daphne.” He explained, “Now, Jeff and Paul are always going to be around campus somewhere, doing homework, projects, reports, or whatever. But just like they did at their on-campus home, they will spend a lot of their time here now.”
“Yeah,” Jeff agreed eagerly.
“You bet. This is officially our new favorite place to be,” Paul commented, adjusting his glasses.
Ivan said, “So, in the afternoons and evenings, you can always find one or both of them here to let you in. But Eddie, our ad sales manager, does a lot of outside meetings, so sometimes he’s here, sometimes he’s not. The sales staff will definitely need to lock in his number.”
He said, “Now, Daphne, this lovely young woman to my left, who also works the doors at the parties we throw, will always be here to open up no later than nine in the morning. She seems to stay up late and still get up early, like I do,” he commented. “She lives on campus and can be called for emergency or lockout situations. And me…don’t ever call me for a lockout,” he told them, “because it’s not gonna happen.”
They all laughed, but Ivan was serious. He told them, “I will only be here on a need-to-be basis. However, I will stop by on occasion to check in on everything and to bring potential clients over to see what we do. So if anyone doesn’t know who I am when I walk into the room, somebody needs to inform them fast, because I don’t want any embarrassing situations for us.”
Jeff joked, “Ah, who are you again? How the hell did you get a key? You can’t just walk up in here. This is a business.”
Ivan smiled and said, “Exactly. We don’t want any of that to happen. So, if anybody here has a bad memory, you need to check the website biography page once a day to remember what I look like. And Jeff and Paul have done a great job of making me look good there.”
“I have a minor in airbrushing,” Paul joked with his hand up.
“Well, you need to hook up my picture, too, then,” Ava told him. “Make me look like Mary J. Blige’s lost cousin.”
Ivan grinned. He said, “Last but not least is the issue of security. If you notice, the front door is a heavy, self-closing and-locking door. And with all the valuable property on the premises, we don’t want any of it deciding to get up and leave without us knowing. You catch my drift?”
“We got you,” Ava responded. “So, unless all this stuff can just walk out on its own…”
Ivan nodded. “That also goes for damages. If anything no longer works or is broken, we need to know about it as soon as possible. And it doesn’t matter who did it, as long as we know what needs to be fixed.”
“Now, that should let a lot of us off the hook right there,” Jeff joked again. “Fido did it!”
They all laughed.
Ivan said, “Well, as we can all see, we are definitely fun, hardworking, and smart people in here, so let’s all keep our attitudes positive and optimistic about making IDPromotions.com one of the most talked-about and utilized websites in the San Diego area.”
“Yeah!” the staff shouted, and clapped. “I.D. Promotions!”
Ivan hadn’t expected all of that from them, but he was glad to hear it. Enthusiasm was a pleasant surprise.
Eddie K. pulled him aside when the evening staff address was over.
“That was very well done, Ivan,” he commented. “Very well done.”
Ivan told him, “Thank you,” but he didn’t get too excited about it. All he could think about was how much he had to pay for everything. Good business was not cheap.
IVAN HAD A LATE real estate meeting that same week at Thomas Jones’s office.
Thomas said, “You did a damn good job putting together these first few houses, Ivan. I’m telling you, man, you should have gotten involved with me on this real estate game a long time ago.”
“Not with no money,” Ivan told him.
Thomas paused. He said, “Well…that’s true,” and laughed.
Ivan said, “Yeah, I’m a hundred and fifteen thousand dollars in the hole right now, and renting ain’t gon’ get my money back.”
Ivan had spent sixty-five thousand to buy the three foreclosure properties, and another fifty thousand to paint and remodel them.
Thomas looked across his desk at how urgently his young business recruit had declared his position, and he began to chuckle.
He said, “Ivan, now you’re about to learn how the rich really get rich. You just bought these houses at half price, then spent good money to make them better than what they were, and now we’ll put them back on the market at three hundred and eighty thousand apiece, or a little more than the property value of the area. And realistically, you can accept anything from three hundred thousand up and still make a killing.”
Ivan nodded. “Yeah, I know how it works. I’ve done the figures. So let’s just go ahead and do it.”
Thomas nodded back and said, “Well, welcome to the land of the rich. You’re about to make yourself two hundred thirty thousand dollars and change.”
Ivan frowned. He said, “I came up with two hundred sixty-five thousand and change.”
“Minus my ten percent,” Thomas reminded him. “We did agree on ten percent, right?” he asked to make certain.
Ivan grinned and said, “Oh, yeah, I just…” He felt embarrassed and shook his head. “My bad, I was just working the sales figures.”
“And the sales figures always include the commission,” Thomas told him. “Unless you’re gonna be out there selling these houses yourself. And you don’t have the time for that. But I do thank you for giving me that ten percent. That’s nice and generous of you.”
Ivan told him, “It’s all good, man. This is a good money deal. I thank you for putting me on to it.”
Thomas responded, “This is just what the rich do, Ivan, buy low, sell high, all day long. Wait until you start getting involved in these development deals I told you about.”
Ivan stopped and asked him, “So, if you know how easy these deals are, then how come you’re not getting in on this for yourself?”
It was the million-dollar question.
Thomas looked at the young business hustler and chuckled again. He said, “You really wanna know the truth about that, Ivan?”
Ivan stared at him. “Yeah.”
Thomas explained, “I couldn’t afford the risk anymore. And most of the time, when I made any good money, it was already spent.”
He continued, “I’m an older man now, Ivan. I got a family, kids in college, two mortgages, car notes, credit card debt, health bills, back taxes, all kinds of shit. And I’m not complaining about it. I still manage to live a good life. But if I could do it all again, knowing what I know now…” He shook his head and concluded, “Man, shit, I would kill to be in your position.
“You’re young, single, vibrant, gainfully employed, with no kids, and you got two hustles bringing you in plenty of money. Shit, I’m ready to ride in this boat with you. Maybe I can get back on my grind now.”
Ivan sat back and smiled, listening to an older man using a young man’s language.
Ivan told him, “You still haven’t let me help you out on your taxes yet. I could probably save you another thirty thousand dollars or more.”
Goddamn, this motherfucker’s a shark! Thomas sat there and thought. He started laughing again. He said, “Ivan, you’re still in here hustling. So, what you get, a new client commission over at Hutch and Mitchell, and now you’re trying to bring everybody over there for taxes? I saw that ‘Financial Corner’ page on your website.”
Ivan grinned. He answered, “Client commission is their whole model. I just wasn’t using it. But now I use it with my own company. And you get all motivated people that way.”
Thomas shook his head, grinning again. He had to stand up from his chair. He stuck his dark brown hand out across the desk and said, “Ivan, I’m on your team now. So, if you need me to sign up with Hutch and Mitchell, like I got you to sign up for the Urban League, then let’s just do the paperwork tomorrow.”
Ivan stood up and shook his hand on it. He said, “That’s a good money deal.”
When they both sat back down, Thomas said, “Now let me ask you a question, Ivan. What made you decide to just turn it on all of a sudden? I mean, I’ve been knowing you ever since I did that real estate lecture on campus, but you never seemed to be interested in anything. Now all of a sudden you just…taking off,” he commented with a forward clap of his hands.
Ivan sat there and thought about it. He looked up and said, “I don’t really talk about it much, but…when my mom passed away before last summer…she told me, man, ‘Live your life now’…and you know, I had always felt guilty about not being back home with her while she struggled with cancer. But once she passed…it was like, ‘What are you waiting for?’ You know?”
Thomas sat there and heard him out. He had nothing to say for a change.
Ivan shook it off and said, “So I just started seeing things that I wanted to do and that I wanted to be a part of. And I kept telling myself, ‘You don’t have no excuses now.’ Not to say that my mother’s cancer was an excuse, but…in a way, it was. It stopped me from really putting myself out there. It was like I was always holding something back. But now…it’s like I can hear my mother in my ear. ‘Do it, Ivan. Live how you wanna live.’ So I just do it now, man. You know? Like you said, I feel like I got nothing to hold me back anymore.”
Thomas heard all of that and was still speechless. He just nodded his head. He said, “Well…that’s, ah…pretty powerful. A mother’s love for her son is about the strongest love in the world. In fact, you make me want to call up my mother tonight and tell her that I love her for the hell of it.”
He said, “But you keep on being brave, Ivan. That’s what holds a whole lot of us back from making ourselves good money: a lack of courage. And a lot of folks just don’t know any damn better. They’re scared straight, thinking the earth is still flat and shit. Like their money’s gon’ fall off the edge of the world if they invest it in something.”
WHEN IVAN ARRIVED back at his downtown apartment that night, Thomas’s comments were still ringing in his ears. Being scared held you back from making good money.
Thomas had traveled west to California from his own roots in Greenville, South Carolina, to make himself some brave money thirty years ago.
But you gotta be smart, too, Ivan argued to himself. He figured his partner Lucina Gallo was smart. But she still has to learn she’s gonna have to be a little more patient.
He mumbled, “It’s all gonna happen in time.”
Then he looked at the clock on his kitchen microwave and came up with an idea that would surely please her, another brave money deal.
It was only ten thirty, and one of the few nights when he didn’t have anywhere to run out to. So he called Lucina up to chat.
“Hello, Ivan,” she answered.
He said, “I got an idea,” and walked toward his apartment balcony to look out at the San Diego skyline. It had become one of his favorite things to do.
“And what is that?” Lucina asked him.
He said, “First of all, we’re gonna start doing those celebrity invitation parties. We can do two to three of those a month with different crowds and make up to fifty, sixty thousand.”
Lucina said, “Ivan, we talked about that already. And I’ve already started making my contacts. So that’s not a new idea.”
Ivan said, “Well, I have a birthday coming up on March fifth. And I want to call up the Manchester Grand Hyatt to see what their ballroom capacity and rates would be for my own birthday party.”
Lucina told him, “First of all, you can’t call them only a month in advance and expect for them to have availability there. Second, the price will be high, including in-house catering.”
Ivan said, “We’re gonna make it all back. We can charge fifty dollars a head and make a hundred thousand.”
Lucina asked him, “Are you crazy? Who are you going to invite for fifty dollars? That’s a concert ticket.”
Ivan told her, “All of the businesspeople who want to meet me and celebrate my birthday with me.”
Lucina went silent for a minute. She was waiting for the punch line from him. But when he didn’t give her one, she asked, “Are you serious?”
“I’m dead serious,” Ivan told her. He said, “I just got a good feeling on this. You raise the price to make the real money people curious. And you said that 944 magazine wants to interview me now, right?”
She said, “Yeah, but—”
Ivan cut her off. “I’ll pay for this whole party with my own money and still give you half of it. But I’ll need you to really go after the money people hard and pitch this as a once-in-a-lifetime event: the introduction of Ivan David.”
Lucina chuckled at him. She said, “Who is Ivan David?” sarcastically. Her partner was really beginning to smell himself that evening.
Ivan said, “Exactly. It worked for Jill Scott, right? We need to invite her out to an event one weekend, too.”
“Ivan, what have you been doing tonight? Have you been smoking something?” Lucina finally questioned.
Ivan chuckled while overlooking the San Diego skyline from his balcony. He said, “I’m gonna forgive you for that when we make all this money. But I’m gonna create the impulse for the people to come out for it.”
Lucina paused over the phone again. She didn’t know what to say anymore. She needed time out to think it all over.
“Ivan, let me call you back in a few minutes,” she responded.
“Take your time.”
WHEN LUCINA HUNG UP her cell phone, she paced her living room in thought.
“What is he talking about?” she asked herself. But he sounded like he was serious.
She shook it off and said, “He can’t be serious. Fifty dollars? Who does he think he is now?”
Then she called up her best girl, Maya.
“Hey, Maya, do you have a minute to talk?”
“Come on, girl. Always. Spit it out,” Maya told her.
Lucina stopped and said, “That’s nasty. I don’t spit.”
