The Loft owners meeting.

I get to the closed nightclub a little after 10 the next morning and find Jessica in the bars counting the stock on hand.

“Hey! Just finalising inventory and we’ll be all set to see how our big first week went,” she tells me as I come and say hello.

“How’s it looking?” I ask.

“Sales were good. Real good. We’re about twenty per cent up on normal for the week. The staff all did great and really pushed the drinks out. The kitchen did alright. Lots of bar snacks sold to go with all the drinks. Main meals about the same,” Jess gives me a quick run down.

“Fantastic.”

“Holly’s in the kitchen making coffees if you want one. I won't be too much longer.”

I leave Jess to finish her counting. Too much talking might make her lose count. I head on through to the kitchen’s see Holly working the steamer into a jug of milk at the espresso machine.

“Something hot and frothy for me thanks,” I say as she turns off the steam.

Holly spins her head around to me, throwing her blonde hair out in a magical twirl that woman seem to possess an innate ability to do. She matches my cheeky request with a smile and a question of her own.

“Oh yeah? One lump or two?” she smirks.

“Two if you’ve got it.”

“You know I’ve got two lovely lumps,” Holly retorts as our playful batter continues.

After pouring out three coffees into mugs for us, Holly and I head to the office where Jessica is adding the stock numbers into the accounting software on the computer. She thanks her partner for the hot beverage before printing out a stack of papers for each of us.

“Alrighty, let’s see what the bottom line is,” Jessica says as she starts reading through the profit and loss statement she has prepared.

“Ahh, God! You know I can never understand these things. Just tell us what we made,” Holly complains.

“You are such a typical blonde!” Jessica tells her girlfriend.

“Like you even remember what your natural colour is after all this time. You could be a natural blonde too for all we know,” Holly argues back.

“What is your natural colour?” I ask having only ever seen Jessica with a rainbow assortment of different dyed hair colours.

“Well not that you can tell from downstairs but I’m naturally auburn,” Jessica tells me as she completes a Sharon Stone legs cross for effect.

Getting back to business then, Jessica explains what the sheet means for Holly’s benefit. “Being in mind that this will all need to be audited by the account but it looks like; total sales were $87,360 with costs of approximately $55,000, giving us…” Jessica pauses for dramatic effect here, “a total net profit of…. $32,360!”

Holly jumps up out of her chair and celebrates by dancing around on the spot with some terribly cheesy dance moves that make Jessica look at her with adoring if a touch embarrassed eyes.

Having completed her victory dance number Holly then asks, “so what does that mean we get?”

Jessica then goes back into the nitty-gritty of the number. “Well I have to discuss how your boy-toy wants to get paid but I’ve included a salary for him in the $55,000 that’s as same as us but his 10% would be worth $3236.”

I’m actually more than happy to be potentially receiving that kind of money along with a salary from The Loft I’ve just learned about. With everything to pay for in the rum business still, every single dollar is going to help.

“What about us though?” Holly wants to know.

“Repayments to Yui’ Dad are going to be almost $20,000 a week but the leftover would be $9,894,” Jessica works it out using a calculator.

“We get how much?!” Holly can’t believe what she’s hearing.

“We’re not getting that just yet. You and I are just getting our normal wage for the time being. It’s going to take us three and a half years to pay off Yui’s Father at that rate but I wanted to see what everyone else thought first,” Jessica tells Holly as they both turn to me for my input as the one who’s been studying Economics and International Business.

I take a moment to think. “Look all three of us are getting paid a wage already so that’s great. We can all live on that, I hope. Whatever else we make extra on top of that I think we should treat it like any other real business should and save it to be distributed, say every six or twelve months, in the form of an owner’s dividend. If we can pay Yui’s Dad back quicker in that time that’s great and something we should look at.”

Jessica nods at what I’ve been saying and agrees with me.

Holly just says “Ah whatever you nerds want. At least let’s have a shot to celebrate!”

Jessica and I nod our agreement to Holly’s proposal and she ducks off out of the office to grab the Tequila from the nearest bar. The main business conducted we toast are successful first week as owners and finish some small administrative task that needs doing. Jessica gets me to fill out my banking details and then pulls out an envelope with some money in it for Aor.

“I’ve got Aor’s cash for the last of the rum she gave us. It’s a pity we ran out so soon before yours gets here. Did you want to give this to her next time you see her?”

“I actually saw her yesterday,” I say, going to tell the girls about the warehouse Aor found for us to use as our storage centre and the timetable for the first shipment to come in.

Jessica doesn’t give me a chance though, “Oh yeah I bet you did. Bet you gave it to her then too!”

Holly laughs at Jessica’s teasing already onto her third shot to our one.

“Oh shut up or I’ll call Dawn in and you can give it to her,” I retort.

“Only if we call Lawan in and you can give it to her again!” Jessica comes back laughing too.

Running a club with these two is going to be a lot of fun.