Gabriel came back after lunch and brought Mr. Morisa. Mr. Morisa and I retired to my home office. Before we started to talk about business, Gabriel served us tea. Etiquette lessons from Fabia still remain with me.
“It is good to meet you Mr. Morisa. Gabriel has said wonderful things about you. Which is why I am coming to you with this opportunity. Has Gabriel told you what I was thinking?”
“Gabriel gave me a brief outline. I understand that you want to buy out the merchants you suspect will be leaving because of the Monster Wave.”
“Well, close. I don’t want to buy them out. I want to form a new trading company with you. I want the company to buy them out and then you run the company. I have some gold that needs to be invested, but not the time or expertise to run a trading company. You have the expertise and have the experience. Yes, you ran into bad luck with your caravans, being targeted by bandits. Next time, I expect you will hire adventurers to guard our caravans. You know the value of the properties and contacts. I do not. My proposal is to create a trading company with you, using me as the financial backer and with you running the day-to-day business. Any major changes would need agreement from both of us, though. We split the company 50-50. The initial investment gets repaid over 5 years, and we split the profits down the middle. How does that sound?”
“That sounds reasonable. However, it will not be cheap to buy anyone’s business. Even if they are leaving. You can’t lowball them too much, because you will need their goodwill in the future. Most merchants will move to Toverville or the next city over, which will be our main trading partners. First, how much are you willing to invest, and second, I will need a base salary of 50 gold yearly, besides the 50-50 profit.”
I paused for a minute, reviewing the suggested salary. “Salary is acceptable, if the profit is over 200 gold per year. Anything under that would make the investment not worth it. If under 200 gold, then your salary would have to be reduced to 40 gold, and if under 100 gold, 25. Is that acceptable?” Performance based pay can be very motivating.
It was Morisa’s turn to pause and think. “Yes, that would be acceptable.”
“Good. Rather than write you a blank check, I would ask that you tell me what the cost for buying the businesses of the departing merchants would be, approximately.”
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“What’s a blank check?”
“Just an expression from my homeland. It means to give someone access to all their gold. Rather than me tell you how much gold I have, I want you to tell me how much it will cost.”
Morisa thought for a minute or two before he gave his answer. “I would suggest we buy three merchants, Bosco, Maddens, and the Wialar Brothers. All three have said they have had it with the Monster Waves. I believe I can get them for a discounted price, without causing hurt feelings. Enough to let them reestablish themselves, but lower than if they were staying. I estimate 400 gold for Bosco. Another 250 for Maddens, and another 300 for the Wialar Brothers. That’s 950 gold. This price would include their current stock. It can be less, but they will want to sell their stock first. Do you have that?”
“Yes, I do, and I would want their stock, but that would be your call. However, before I give it to you. I would like to ask a few questions. First, tell me why each of those businesses are worth the gold. Second, how do the combination of those three businesses support each other and what will be the yearly expected profit?”
Morisa launched into a somewhat complex explanation of each business, the reasons they worked together, and how combining them would reduce overhead, thus saving costs. His business knowledge was truly impressive. The expected profit would be between 400 to 500 gold per year before the loan debt. Figuring with a 50-50 split, that would give me a 20% return.
Morisa certainly seemed to know what he was talking about. I wasn’t really a business man per se, so the only part that really interested me was the profit part. A 20% return would be great. That would more than cover my current operating expenses. Hell, a 10% profit would probably do it.
I called for Gabriel and asked him to send in Fabia. I then had Morisa repeat his explanation to her. She agreed with his estimates. It seemed like a workable plan. She was familiar with two of the businesses through her adventurer contacts. She did suggest to audit the books once a month, which both Morisa and I agreed.
The last step before handing over the gold was to get contracts written, signed and witnessed. Of course, Gabriel had a cousin that was available to do just that. With that done, I handed over 1100 gold to Morisa. This was to be the starting funds for the company. I expected him to be able to operate with that until we started being profitable. If more was needed, then he would need to bring a detailed accounting for how the original gold was spent, how the additional gold would be spent, and a timeline for when we would be profitable.
He wanted to open up a bank account under the name Morisa Tierra Partners, but I didn’t want my name known to the public like that. I wanted to be a silent and invisible partner. I suggested M&T partners. He agreed. I had two of the house guards escort him to the bank. I also suggested he let the manager know I was a partner in the venture but to keep it confidential.
Before Morisa left, I cast Diagnose on him. He had some minor ailments. With his permission, I cast Heaven’s Heal on him.
