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Chapter Four

By the time the steaks arrived, Savannah had lost her appetite. Everything Mac had told her about running a business in the short space of time since they had sat at the table sent one clear message—she was in over her head. He’d given her his CEO 101 talk, and she’d realized pretty fast that he was right—a degree in history and some experience remodeling homes didn’t qualify her to sit in Willie Jay’s chair. Not that she hadn’t known that from the first day, but talking to Mac cemented the truth in her heart.

She understood the basics of what Mac said, about receivables and payables, about the impact of sales on their bottom line, but as he started delving into the minutia of the monthly general ledger—deviating from their no-business talk the instant dinner was set on the table—her eyes began to glaze over and the hope she’d had that she was up to turning Hillstrand Solar around began to dim.

He ran a finger down the screen of his laptop, skipping over the figures he’d downloaded earlier. “If you shift to a just-in-time inventory system and reduce the production workforce by two, you should be able to implement additional lean manufacturing—”

“Wait,” she said, putting up a hand. “Did you just say I should fire two people?”

“I said reduce the production workforce.” Mac pointed at a number on his screen, flanked by a percentage on the right. “You have too much overhead.”

“Reducing the workforce is just a fancy way of saying fire people. I’m not doing that.”

“Part of doing business is separating the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, and getting the most return on your investment. By eliminating two of these positions—” he pointed to a line item for the shipping and receiving department “—you can increase your monthly cash flow by several thousand dollars, which will help tide you over until sales increase.”