C'mon Emily, Save The Day

They sat there with the paperwork in front of

them in silence and despair. In the end Robert

spoke emphatically, “ If we could make it to the

end of next month I reckon we would be OK . In

fact I ’ m sure we would be , the NAVGO quarterly

payment is always on time, and they took all

that old stock we’ d already written off in the

accounts , and that payment will be with us at

the end of next month too . ” Then his voice lost

its determination as he went on “ The problem is

how on earth to survive the end of this month

even. ”

Emily sat there looking at her husband, feeling

desperately for him . Three years ago with her

support after almost 20 years working his way

up firstly as a teacher straight from University

and then in the corporate education world he

had finally jumped the corporate ship and set up

in business for himself . Although Emily was

really the arty one she had a good head for

business too and helped him with strategy and

with the accounts . It had been hard work but

they had made good progress , getting the

business established . They had mortgaged the

house to half its value to fund the start up . At

the beginning of the previous year they were

confident enough to go for expansion , but as it

turned out their timing had been unlucky . They

had moved into newer premises and taken on

new staff just as one of their main clients went

into receivership owing them over a hundred

thousand. Although the orders kept flowing in It

had been a struggle ever since in terms of cash

flow. Already they had borrowed nearly the up

to the limit the bank would allow to fund the

expansion and had no choice but re mortgaged

the house and increased the overdraft to the

absolute maximum .

“ Well darling ” , she replied, “ we will have to

renegotiate with Brewster . It ’ s as simple as

that. ” Her husband looked at her as if she were

crazy .

“ Sweetheart you know I ’ ve tried that. Ha , if he

wanted to help he already could have when we

asked to phase the stock payments . What did

we get? I ’ ll tell you what . A big fat ‘ No’ , that ’ s

what. ” He reflected a second then went on

“ There is no way we can persuade him to ease

those payments . No way on earth . ”

Emily was silent for a second , then she stated

“ We have to find a way darling , it’ s the only

thing that will save the business and stop us

losing everything . We are out of alternatives . ”

The truth of her statement was painfully

obvious , what wasn ’ t obvious was what to do

about it. Emily went on, very quietly . “ I think I

could persuade him Rob . ” Her husband looked

at her curiously. “ Really ?” his disbelief was

obvious from his tone . “ Em he ’ s as hard

headed as they come. We have nothing he

wants, he knows the Model 80 is being phased

out so it’ s not like we can promise him huge

orders for the future is it? Anyway even if we did

have a bargaining position the man would want

blood!”

“ Look ” , she responded , “ you and I , we have

worked our socks off night and day seven days

a week fifty two weeks a year for the last three

years . We have invested everything we have in

the business , including the house . And the

company is viable , we both know it . It ’ s a good

business. We have orders on the books and

more coming in. We have new equipment and

our unit production cost is tumbling . We have

assembled a great team of dedicated workers

and we have a viable growth plan . In another

five years it will be a great business. The only

hurdle is this short term cash flow issue, and

that wasn ’ t our fault and we couldn’ t have

foreseen it. The bank is useless and we can ’ t

get more money from them , I agree. The only

thing we can do is delay payments and get over

this hump . And as we are talking the end of this

month, that means Brewster . There is no other

way Rob . It’ s that or we go under inside the

next four weeks. The staff will all lose their jobs

and we lose everything, including the house . ”

Emily paused to catch her breath , then went on,

steely determina