Week 25 - Sunday
Sunday night. Another strong weekend finish for Maria's, consistently high sales, smooth operations. Theo arrived just before closing to help with the final cleanup and review the week's numbers with Henry. The shop was undeniably a success, generating substantial, reliable profit.
After Henry, Olivia, and Jenny left, Theo sat alone in the quiet shop, the smell of cooked chicken and clean surfaces mingling. He pulled up the online reviews for 'Something Fishy'. It was a graveyard. More one-star reviews, complaints about closures, bad food, weird noises. A local community Facebook group had a post actively warning people away.
Checkmate, Theo thought, a slow, cold smile spreading across his face. The owner was broken. It was only a matter of time before the 'For Sale' sign went up, likely advertising a desperate, bargain-basement price.
He opened a new document on his laptop, titling it: "Project Neptune - Something Fishy Acquisition & Optimization Plan." He started sketching out the steps:
Monitor for sale listing / Make discreet inquiry via proxy/broker.Negotiate rock-bottom price leveraging owner's desperation.Acquire assets (lease, equipment).Immediate shutdown for "Major Renovation."Gut and deep clean. Repair essential non-enhanceable infrastructure (plumbing, electrics as needed).Permanently +1 Enhance core equipment (fryers, freezers, POS, ventilation).Rebrand Required – Something Fishy's brand is completely dead now, whatever good will they had would have been destroyed in the last couple of weeksDevelop simple, high-quality fish & chips menu.Hire new, competent staff – potentially leverage Henry, Olivia or Jenny.Relaunch.
He looked at the plan. Acquiring his rival, optimizing the operation with his power, turning it into another cash cow right next to Maria's… it felt inevitable now. Ruthless, perhaps, but entirely justified in his mind as proportionate retribution and smart business.
As he mapped out the potential financials, his thoughts drifted briefly to Sarah. Her sharp mind, her marketing savvy, her tech skills… they'd be invaluable assets as he scaled. Running one shop was manageable with Henry stepping up. Running two? Three? Expanding into different types of businesses needing process optimization? That required a different level of support. He needed someone smart, reliable, and ideally, someone who wouldn't ask too many questions about how his 'optimized' businesses achieved such consistent, market-beating results. Sarah wasn't ready to jump from Meta yet, but he needed to keep cultivating that connection, find the right, compelling opportunity to eventually bring her into the fold, under his terms. Her skills were too valuable to leave untapped in his climb towards the billion-dollar summit. The foundation was laid. Now, it was time to build the empire, one optimized asset, one calculated act of revenge, at a time.
Theodore Sterling - Financial Ledger (End of Week 25)
Starting Balance (Beginning Week 25): $53,754.00 (Carried over from End of Week 24)
Income (Week 25):
Chicken Sales (1200 Units @ $16 avg): +$19,200.00
Dessert Sales (700 Units @ $8 avg): +$5,600.00
Total Income (Week 25): +$24,800.00
Expenses (Week 25):
Personal Rent Paid (Week 25): -$450.00
Personal Living Expenses (Week 25): -$500.00
Business Lease Payment (Week 25): -$700.00
Food Stock/Supplies (Est.): -$5500.00
Shop Utilities (Est.): -$250.00
Wages - Henry (Mgr Rate: 70hrs @ $25): -$1750.00
Wages - Olivia (New Rate: 70hrs @ $20): -$1400.00
Wages - Jenny (New Rate: 70hrs @ $20): -$1400.00
Security Camera System Purchase & Install (Est.): -$600.00 (Paid this week)
Misc Shop Expenses (Fees, etc.): -$250.00
Provision for Estimated Taxes (Est. @ ~30% of Profit): ~$4000.00
Provision for 5% profit share (Est. @ ~30% of Profit after tax): ~$478
Total Expenses:-$16,678.00Net Change (Week 25): +$24,800.00 (Income) - $16,678.00 (Expenses) = +$8,122.00
Ending Balance (End of Sunday, Week 25):$61,876.00($53,754.00 + $8,122.00 = $61,876.00)
Assets:
Maria's Charcoal Chicken (Business Purchase Price): $38,000.00Avg weekly income - $24,800.00Avg weekly expenses - $15,728.00Avg weekly profit - $9,072Moving forward, we will just use Avg weekly profit for Maria's as Theo's focus moves to other ventures
Status: Transition Complete, Revenge Succeeding. Security cameras successfully installed and team briefed. Theo successfully tested team's autonomy by taking a full day off, operation ran smoothly under Henry. New pay structure implemented. Olivia handling social media basics well. Jenny showing strong initiative and growth. Continued subtle sabotage campaign against 'Something Fishy' showing clear negative impact on rival business. Acquisition planning underway. Shop maintaining high profitability (~$9k net gain). Financial reserves rebuilt to ~$61.9k cash + business asset. Theo fully transitioning to oversight role for chicken shop, freeing up focus for revenge endgame and planning next major venture.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Author: Hi All, thanks for reading and hope you are all enjoying the story.
I'm hoping the novel gets a bit more traction this week, please vote some power stones! I'll try and increase the release speed if the novel gets a bigger audience!
Help leave a review, or comments on how you think the story is going. In particular how the +1 could be used by Theo in smarter ways to achieve what he wants. Would love to see all the great ideas people can think of! It would be great to incorporate people's idea into the novel.
Finally, a lot of advanced chapters are already available on patreon. If you want to read ahead, please join my patreon, it would really mean a lot to authors like me. Thanks everyone.
www.patreon.com/coffeetimewriting