Good morning all. I know I am a little late this morning but it is a good morning. The book is done and out. I’ll be posting the details in a bit. That means that whatever else happens today is a glorious day. So shall we jump into the morning prompt? Excellent.
this was interesting. I had the idea of the failing business making a change and then rocketing well above plans but I never quite figured out what the business was. I’d have to figure that out before I did anything with this, but I do like careful Dan.
Thursday, July 14th: It was a risky move.
It was a risky move. If things didn’t pan out then he would lose everything. ‘But if it works…” He let the thought trail off. Dan was not my nature a gambler. He was a slow and steady kind of guy. He always put ten percent of his paycheck back for emergencies and he watched his bottom line like a hawk.
It was because of the bottom line that he was contemplating the risk. Business had been slow. In his office there were charts and graphs. He religiously plugged in the information into his system each month. He watched the slow and steady decline. Something had to be done.
Once he saw the trend, and realized it was not going to be changing any time soon, that it wasn’t just a bad couple of months, he knew change would come. He understood the need for change and was willing to do so. He was just terrified of making the wrong change.
He took his time, did his research and made sure to eliminate as much of the risk as possible. He had prepared his plans with every chance of succeeding. But it was an all or nothing endeavor. If the change was to made, he would have to commit completely to it. There would be no half –measures.
‘And no going back,’ he thought. ‘Not that there is much to go back to.’
The downward trend continued as he planned and he knew he had a limited window of maneuverability before the business became unviable. He may not have been a gambler, but now he had no choice.
Dan set his plan into motion. He expected slow change, had planned for the reaction to be slow, the outside world adjusting to his changes with time just as he had.
It didn’t.
Phase one was implemented and Dan was almost swamped with business. Instead of his slow leisurely pace, he found himself running through the day, racing to fill orders and reaching the end of his work day feeling exhausted. He knew he had to keep up. To falter now was to destroy the work he put in. After two months, his initial investment payed off and he felt he could start to breathe again. The changes were made and they were paid for. He was edging out of the red. Hois savings accound was once again seeing depostis instead of slow and steady withdrawals.
He felt as if an elephant was no longer permanently sitting on his chest. He could breathe deeply. But he couldn’t slow down. Another month in and he knew he needed help. He hired two new staff members. Surprisingly, with the extra help, business increased. Customers were handled more efficiently than when he worked on his own and they were able to accommodate more people on a daily basis.
The cost of his employees made sense. Dan began to feel hopeful. The trend was no longer a downward one. He was on the rise. Then the unthinkable happened.
‘What do you mean we’ve gone viral?” he asked one of his employees one morning. The two of them were nearly giddy with excitement. To Dan viral either meant a cat video that everyone couldn’t stop sharing or some sort of disease. It turned out he was the cat video. A celebrity had come incognito to the store, liked what they saw and purchased and tweeted to his followers.
His millions of followers.
“The response seems favorable,” Dan said looking at the likes the tweet accumulated.
“Have you checked the on-line orders,” Ian asked.
Ten til Midnight 