First Sales

Lee decided to start with some of the wealthier customers that he knew came in on a regular basis.

He approached them one by one and asked for a bit of time away from the company so that they would not be distracted by the goods for sale.

Some agreed and asked what he wanted to present to them.

All he said was "A portion of the company." That's all he really need to say.

Lee had practiced on some of the poorer people and one had actually come back money in hand for one share because that's all the person could afford.

At that point the knowledge that Lee was presenting to test the water was still little known so the person (instead of getting just one share) got 100 shares at a steep discount.

Lee also told the man to hold onto the shares until he said otherwise.

You will see why he sold the person exactly 100 shares later on.

Lee had already recorded that sale and knew the exact amount he wanted to sell to the public before setting up the presentation to those that were slightly richer than the person who bought the shares at a discount.

When Lee had enough interest and the place set up, (which he had his Dad help him do as a business expense) he sent out a message to all those that were interested with time, date and place for the meeting to occur.

The meeting was also attended by the aide to the King.

Lee kind of knew that this presentation would have questions that he would need to answer and prepared ahead asking his Dad how long the company itself had been in business.

His Dad said it had been in business since Lee was 5 years old when he realized he needed an income to feed Lee and his siblings and couldn't rely on being a potter for the rest of his life because he had seen people cheat him out of his pottery and sell it at a higher price than he got from them.

Lee had to estimate how much the company drew in from sales for those years taking into account that the first years were slow growth years until his Dad built up regulars to his store.

His Dad still made pottery but had his own store to do so in and that was a portion of the presentation.

As part of the plan was to hire other potters to work for them and pay them a salary for doing so it accounted for future growth.

Another part of the plan was to start bringing in produce and clothing but that was a longer term plan.

All of this was part of the presentation.

One thing Lee didn't know was that some of the regulars owned their own businesses and sold the more unique pottery in their businesses.

Once the presentation was done about the company itself Lee opened the meeting to questions.

the questions ranged from how much one share would be to how many shares were already sold and how many were available for sale.

Lee told the interested parties (henceforth called investors) that the shares would cost 4 dollars at first as a ground floor price but would be negotiable after 5000 were sold to investors this is so that the money could be used shortly and plans could be acted upon.

as for how many were already sold Lee told the investors that 100 were already sold but a total of 20,000 were available at that point in time.

5 of the 20 people decided to invest in the company (this included the aide to the King), the other 15 decided to try to wait for a later date and talked amongst themselves and left the meeting.

As for the rest they arranged meetings with Lee and his father (except for the Aide) so that they could have the money on hand to invest they also arranged the exact amount of shares they wanted ranging from 500 to 2,000 shares that they would buy totalling 4,500 at a total price of 18,000 drawn in for the corporation.

The King's aide bought another 5,000 outright bringing in 20,000 dollars that night.

total raised from the meeting totaled 38,000 dollars with 18,000 promised and 20,000 actually available that night.

That left 10,500 available for sell.

What no one in the meeting except for Lee and his father knew was that there was another 9,900 that was currently not available to the public but would transfer to Lee if he could bring in over 20,000 dollars with the presentation.

With that being accomplish the shares were transferred to Lee the next day.

Lee's Dad was to hold over 50% of the company in owner's equity. thus giving him veto power if someone wanted to vote someone into the board of directors and take over the corporation otherwise Lee's Dad would abstain from voting until then.

As word spread amongst the upper class and the person who took a leap and bought 100 shares told others that more shares were available for purchase the price slowly started to rise because more people wanted in on the action.

While that was happening Lee's father set up a second location and bought the land for the corporation's headquarters.

Doing this showed the investors that Lee and his father were straight in the presentation as it was all part of the plan that was given to expand the corporation.

Once a President was hired for the board of directors the dad could step away from that position and focus on hiring more potters who were also good salesmen.

Once a Secretary was hired for the board Lee could step away and focus on bringing in more money for the corporation until all of the 10,500 shares were sold bringing in more than 50,000 dollars on top of the 38,000 already raised.