Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 115288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 576(@200wpm)___ 461(@250wpm)___ 384(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 576(@200wpm)___ 461(@250wpm)___ 384(@300wpm)
The reality of the franchise proposal is setting in, and it’s definitely too late to say or do anything to stop it. Not when we’ve already done the preliminary work and have all these meetings set up.
“Declan is working with our lawyer to draft everything. Essentially, we’re asking that any hotel that bears the Spark House name follows the same ecofriendly model and has green partnerships and sources locally. Jackson has an entire team working on this,” London assures me.
“I know it’s a lot all at once, but I promise, the long-term gains are worth the short-term stress. It’s going to take some work and some juggling, but I’m already looking at additional hires so we have a more robust staff to work with while this is happening. Once everything is in place, we’ll have less on our plate and we’ll be able to delegate more.” Declan glances at Avery. “Which we’re all aware isn’t your strong suit, babe.”
She gives him an unimpressed look. “I’m getting better at it.”
“Slowly but surely,” London mutters.
“And you’re going to have to keep getting better at it with this little nugget on the way.” Declan pats her slightly rounded belly.
“I know. I’m a delegating work in progress.” Avery struggles with relinquishing control when it comes to Spark House, but she’s definitely getting better at it.
“Okay. But will we reasonably be able to carve out more time for ourselves when we’re hiring more staff and training people to run franchise locations? We’ve already done the whole struggling-to-keep-up thing as we’re growing quickly, and this seems like it could be another one of those times.” Around the time when London and Jackson started dating, we were expanding too fast for us to keep up. Things finally came to a head when London missed an important meeting that Avery dumped on her because she had her own wedding-related emergency. That was when London and I finally put our foot down and told her that we couldn’t continue on this path without more support.
That led to us hiring Declan to help with the company-liaising side of things. He was already managing our financial portfolio at the time, so bringing him on full-time made the most sense. Since then, we’ve hired more than a dozen people to help manage Spark House, which has kept growing every year. And now this franchise opportunity. I worry that we’re going to end up more bogged down with work, instead of less. And that we’re going to lose what makes Spark House special, which is the fact that it’s family-run and owned.
“I promise it won’t ever be like how it was before we brought Declan on board full-time.” Avery’s tone is full of apology.
“We know we need more hands on deck,” Declan assures me.
I’m aware Declan means to bring me solace, but for whatever reason, it makes me anxious instead. It sounds like we won’t have too much extra work once the franchises happen, since there will be a team for that. Which is great, but it still doesn’t help me figure out how and where I’m going to be most effective moving forward, or what that will even look like. I guess this is a figure-it-out-as-we-go kind of situation.
We continue our discussion about the upcoming meeting with the Mills brothers, and I create an extensive list of questions to ask and add new subsections to the staff training manual London and I started working on recently. It’s nearing dinner by the time we finish.
As I’m packing up my things, my phone buzzes in my pocket. I check to see who it’s from and find a message from Gavin, which isn’t unusual. We’ve been chatting regularly these days, particularly with the zoo trip coming up. But this time the message reads as urgent.
Gavin: mini emergency. Do you have time for a quick call? *cringe face emoji*
I don’t bother responding by text and hit the call button instead.
“Hey. Hi. That was fast,” he says.
“We’re just wrapping up a meeting. What’s up? Is everything okay?” I ask as I put the lid on the empty Tupperware container. Avery ate three scones and is now moaning about how full she is and how she needs to go for a walk.
There’s a brief pause. “Uh, I hate to do this, but I have an emergency meeting with a client and my parents are out tonight. I know it’s really last minute, and you probably already have plans…”
The edge of panic I was feeling disappears. “Do you need me to watch Peyton?”
“It would only be for a couple of hours. Lynn and Ian are busy tonight, otherwise I would have asked them to watch her. I don’t want to drag Peyton along to this if I don’t have to, but I completely understand if you’re busy. I need to find a steady sitter here.”