Free Open Skies by Marysol James Page A

Development Department had taught her a staggering amount about sales and projections and budgets and strategy. She could now read a spreadsheet fluently, and terms which had confounded her at the beginning (such as ‘COGS’ and ‘GM’ and ‘Supplier Rebates’) now just rolled off her tongue. She hoped that Rob was at least semi-competent at his job and would be able to answer her questions.
    The staff meeting at ten o’clock, though, that was a whole different story. She knew she’d have to stand up and say something, but public speaking and making ad hoc speeches or presentations had never been easy for her. She was great with negotiations and defending her decisions to a Board, but off-the-cuff casual and social stuff was beyond her. How to handle having two-dozen pairs of eyes all staring at her as she fumbled her way through a meeting? What to do if they asked her about her plans for the ranch? Should she be honest? Or lie? When she lied she flushed bright red, though. Best not to do that.
    All things considered, it was probably a good idea to just not say too much. Short and sweet and simple: that was the ticket. She wasn’t here to keep anybody happy, and she didn’t need to get to know anyone. In six months, they’d all be going in their separate directions. So why bother getting to know – and maybe even like – these people?
    She sat down at the table nearest the massive window and pulled out a pen and her notebook. She took a sip of her coffee, then opened the book. At the top of a clean page she wrote ‘To Do – Day 1 at Horse Hotel from Hell’. And – like every morning of her life for the past twenty-six years – she wrote her list of things to do that day.

**
Julie sat in the ten o’clock staff meeting feeling very pleased.
    Rob Cathay had taken her aback this morning. She’d asked him for the sales figures for the past year, expecting an Excel file presentation of projected figures versus achieved figures broken down by month – the whole ‘budgeted vs actual’ side of business that can so often be either a disappointment or a glorious surprise. She’d imagined a presentation with two columns, one for budgeted and one for achieved, and maybe some percentages to show the discrepancy between target and actual, either positive or negative.
    Instead, he’d turned up with a full presentation of set budget, achieved numbers, expenses, and some annual patterns which had been noticed over the decade that the ranch and hotel had been in operation. He’d also shown her room occupancy rate by season, year on year, to show how steadily the business had grown over the past decade. Two guest cabins became three, then four, now five.
    Rob also suggested that she consider building another two cabins; he had prepared all expenses she could expect to incur by making such a move, and then projected the return on investment over the next two years. It was completely impressive: it was almost forty pages of tight, careful research, strong analysis and balanced, logical conclusions. She’d also appreciated his creativity in suggesting the two new cabins, the looking-forward and ideas for growth. It must have taken him hours.
    What she had learned from Rob was that Open Skies Ranch was an amazingly successful business: expenses were high, to be sure, but with horses and hotels, they had to be. Staff were well-paid, so that had made them loyal and kept them motivated. Rob had also included a few slides about guest loyalty, and he had shown her that more than seventy percent of guests had returned to Open Skies more than four times in the past five years. That was an astounding client base, one which partially explained the business’ success. It was clear to Julie that the group she now sat in the restaurant staring at – all casually sipping coffee and eating croissants - was a group of people who knew what they were doing, and who did their jobs well.
    More and more it was looking like selling the