Back to our story . . . when we last left our heroes, Susan and Larry had asked us to meet them for coffee. Our attitude was pretty much, “Oh great, they just won’t give up and they still probably want us to “tote the note”!” We put hem off for several days and after a lot of prayer and talking about it, I called Larry back and we set a time and place to meet.
When the day for our meeting came, Kris and I had to meet there in separate cars as she would be coming from meetings with owners outside of the office. It was unusual for her to be able to find an hour in the middle of the day to have coffee. It was a typically gorgeous southern California day; about 70 degrees and sunny with no thought of rain for another 6 months. I arrived first and got my coffee and secured us a table outside where we could have a bit more privacy. One by one Kris, Susan and then Larry all got there within about 5 minutes of each other. After we had all gotten our drinks and put the small talk behind us Larry started:”We are still interested in buying the business, if you are still interested in selling.” I wanted to launch into how I didn’t want to carry a note but bit my lip. Larry continued, “we have hooked up with our CPA, you remember Tim? Anyway, Tim is very strong financially and so we are going to partner with him and we have also been talking with the SBA (Small Business Administration) about a loan to cash you out.” I than
ked God for helping me to keep my mouth shut. He asked how much business we had lost since we last talked about it due to the bad economy. Kris was proud to report that our revenues were up by 10% from a year ago. Larry seemed surprised . . . . and I think a little disappointed that the price might be a bit higher than last year. He asked us to consider what he had said and if we were interested in pursuing it further for us to send him some updated financials.
We really weren’t sure what we wanted to do and were going to have to talk a lot about this. This was going to be a touchy subject with Kris as she is so invested in the business, friends with her clients and so on.
We told them we would think about it and get back to them.
When the day for our meeting came, Kris and I had to meet there in separate cars as she would be coming from meetings with owners outside of the office. It was unusual for her to be able to find an hour in the middle of the day to have coffee. It was a typically gorgeous southern California day; about 70 degrees and sunny with no thought of rain for another 6 months. I arrived first and got my coffee and secured us a table outside where we could have a bit more privacy. One by one Kris, Susan and then Larry all got there within about 5 minutes of each other. After we had all gotten our drinks and put the small talk behind us Larry started:”We are still interested in buying the business, if you are still interested in selling.” I wanted to launch into how I didn’t want to carry a note but bit my lip. Larry continued, “we have hooked up with our CPA, you remember Tim? Anyway, Tim is very strong financially and so we are going to partner with him and we have also been talking with the SBA (Small Business Administration) about a loan to cash you out.” I than
ked God for helping me to keep my mouth shut. He asked how much business we had lost since we last talked about it due to the bad economy. Kris was proud to report that our revenues were up by 10% from a year ago. Larry seemed surprised . . . . and I think a little disappointed that the price might be a bit higher than last year. He asked us to consider what he had said and if we were interested in pursuing it further for us to send him some updated financials.We really weren’t sure what we wanted to do and were going to have to talk a lot about this. This was going to be a touchy subject with Kris as she is so invested in the business, friends with her clients and so on.
We told them we would think about it and get back to them.
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