Stan learned plenty about promotional sales from his father. He often marveled how his dad had managed to be so successful in the no-computer era when he began. There were no websites. Only mailouts and signs. Yet his father was the old-fashioned salesman. He did it with hard work, long hours and shoe leather. Stan had inherited is father's work ethic and in the computer savvy era was doing quite well. He had several internet businesses. He had agents in other countries. It was a task to set them up, but that is where some of his father's old connections prevented him from taking on some bad characters. Now, he just had to keep developing his main sites and hopefully the creative juices would enable him to expand his horizons.
Stan and his beautiful wife, Charlotte, (sometimes Charli to friends and family), met just after he graduated from college. She was a business major and had a master's degree. While Stan was a very good-looking guy, 175#, 5'-11", Charli was still the star of the marriage. She was a tall at 5'-8" and weighed about 140#. She was very athletic and her muscles were toned from working out. With a double D bra and a firm butt, she was an amazing feminine specimen. She did keep herself fit by going to the gym four days a week. She had dark brown hair and gave off a certain radiance. Rarely did she show up anywhere in a unkept hurried sort of appearance. She wore the proper makeup for the time of day or night. Always the proper dress and shoes for the occasion. It didn't bother either of them that when she dressed in 5" heels, she was slightly taller than Stan.
Charli worked in the home office while Stan was there off and on. He had the outside sales and local agents that he spent some time with. Stan knew Lucas White from college. He was the first true friend that Stan had made who happened to be black. They often joked about him being a black White. He was an enigmatic success story. Lucas was an all-state football player in high school. Ordinarily this would have led to a major college scholarship. The only problem was that Lucas was 5'-7" and barely weighed 150#. There would be some potential to put on muscle in college, but he couldn't do anything about the height. Finally, he landed at a small junior college. At least he had some sort of scholarship and it was a start. He performed well his first year, but near his last semester there, he was cut from the team. That is all Stan knew about Lucas' college football career. Lucas managed to get an associate degree in computer programming. He was smart and knew that he had to get at least a bachelor's degree to make any headway in his job search after graduation. He managed to pick up work in his field during his last two years in college and would take on any kind of job that paid. He even worked temporary labor jobs and worked construction over the summers.
While neither man was the fraternity type, Charli was the ultimate sorority sister. She knew everyone on campus and had her pick of dates. She was conservative and kept to one steady boyfriend at a time. She knew none of them were 'Mister Right', but she was in college and it was a way of being escorted to all the functions. When she graduated, she managed to leave enough space from her last companion so there would be no strings attached. She did have sex with several of the lads, but it was casual and not completely exclusive on either part. She met Stan through mutual friends. Eventually they started dating. Stan fell in love and realized that she was indeed the one for him.
Stan was not monogamous in college. He managed to find some easy to mount girls and with his looks, he didn't have much trouble attracting candidates. Most of it was once or twice until he or they moved on. Perfect no strings attached college sex.
When Stan and Lucas met, Stan was developing some ideas that he had run past his father. Lucas impressed him with his computer skills and Stan had him help with one of his courses where he needed to set up a functioning website. Lucas was glad to help. It gave him some real-world experience also. Stan introduced Lucas to his father. Dad was impressed with the website concept and told them that this had some very good potential as a business model.
After they both graduated, they drifted apart for about a year. Both were busy getting off to a productive start. During that time, Stan met Charli and didn't have a lot of time for 'guy' stuff like sports and such. Stan was off to a good start and had expanded his original college idea. He was then making good money and felt that Charli would be not only a great wife, but a wonderful addition to his business interests. She was interested in everything Stan was doing and added a great deal of standard business knowledge while he was the promoter and salesman.
As the business grew, Stan thought he needed to improve his websites and add a few more. While he did have a good understanding of what he wanted, he did not have time to develop the ideas and keep the business moving forward. He decided to give Lucas a call and see what he thought. Lucas came over the following week and basically told Stan that he didn't understand why his business was growing as fast as it was.
"Really, Brother," Lucas flatly stated, "Your websites are very antiquated and not very user friendly. I think I could double your business in a few of the websites and certainly improve it in some of the others."
"Ok, Man." Stan said. "What amount of time and money will it cost me considering your optimistic analysis?"
"It will indeed take some time. I would need to start over on your real prime sites, but the transition will be easy for the users. You will not see any drop-off because of customers not being able to navigate. That I guarantee. As for total cost, why don't I send you my rate sheets. You decide if you want to proceed. I expect rapid results, so see if you gain enough business within the first upgrade. If I can't do that, you can pay my cost of my time and we will still be friends.
Stan could not see how he could double his business with new websites but decided to give it a try on his third best moneymaker. If the results warranted, he would let Lucas go to work on the bigger ones.
The first month, the volume increased by about 85% in his third rated account. Stan felt like that was close enough to move forward. To keep his exposure to a minimum, he handed over some smaller sites for Lucas to work on. It was also inherent that Stan would improve the actual products in those minor lines. After three months, all was working well and the lines were growing, making it necessary for Stan to bring on additional suppliers. Additional suppliers meant more volume and then more competition. He was able to negotiate better unit pricing and the profit margin was also growing. That was all he needed to know, so he let Lucas begin work on his major lines.
As they worked closer together on the sites and supply, Charli was able to bring on some additional help for inventory, billing, etc. Stan had more time after a while and Charli made him promise to take some time off. They planned a vacation and Stan started back playing a little golf and racquetball. He knew Lucas was interested in recreational sports. He invited him to play both sports. Stan also knew that Lucas' athletic prowess was such that he would get kicked by Lucas in racquetball. He hoped that he could salvage his manhood by being the better golfer. With his speed and agility, Lucas did indeed outshine Stan on the court. Stan was able to compete a little better at golf, but not like he hoped. Lucas generally beat his scores at that also.
Stan, however, was not humiliated. He took it in good stride and Lucas, to his credit, never bragged or held it over Stan.
After an outing, they usually had a beer or two. They became even closer. Stan wondered why Lucas never talked about his girlfriend, significant other, or fiancΓ©. He finally brought up the subject about Lucas' love life.
"Oh, Man, you don't want to hear that sad tale."
"Couldn't be that bad, Lucas."
"Actually, I do have a pretty active social life. See I dated plenty of college girls my age when I was in school. I didn't have any trouble filling up my dance card, so to speak. I seemed to lack a sense of commitment and with each coed. One of us or the other just sort of drifted away. When I was in junior college, being a football player, I got more pussy than just about everyone. I guess you could say that I had a reputation around the locker room which spread around campus."