Let's Do Business:  I Made a Sweetheart Deal Last Week

sweetheart deal which I made last week.  I made the deal with a friend, and we both made a profit.

blue chip company.  It was not known nationally for the quality of its signs.  It did not make millions of dollars in profits.  And it was private.  It was not a public company with shares traded on the stock market.

banker's hours for me.   Instead I spent many hours each day, seven days a week, trying to grow the company.  I never cut corners or tried to save on expenses.  I made many cold calls.  I called on possible buyers from a list of people I had never seen.   Such calls were often hard sells.  I had to be very firm.

at a loss.  I did not make money on my product.  When this happened, there were cut backs.  I had to use fewer supplies and reduce the number of workers.  But after several years, the company broke even.  Profits were equal to expenses.  And soon after, I began to gain ground.   My signs were selling very quickly.  They were selling like hotcakes.

in the black, not in the red.  The company was making money, not losing it.

big gun, if you know what I mean.   He offered to buy my company.  My friend wanted to take it public.  He wanted to sell shares in the company to the general public.

strike while the iron is hot.  He wanted to take action at the best time possible and not wait.   He offered me a ball park estimate of the amount he would pay to buy my company.  But I knew his uneducated guess was low.  My company was worth much more.  He asked his bean-counter to crunch the numbers.  That is, he asked his accountant to take a close look at the finances of my company and decide how much it was worth. Then my friend increased his offer.

in black and white.  It was written on paper and more than I ever dreamed.  I was finally able to get a break.  I made a huge profit on my company, and my friend also got a bang for the buck.  He got a successful business for the money he spent.