Make a Wish (Spark House #3)(19)
“That’s where the Mills brothers come in. They’re setting up a core team who will train and oversee the franchise candidates.”
“But how are they going to do that if we’re here?” I ask, still not understanding. I really should’ve asked more questions before, but it’s all just hitting me now.
“The core team will come out and shadow us during events over the next few months,” Declan explains.
“So we’ll be teaching them how to run the hotel while we run the hotel?” London asks. The lilt in her voice tells me I’m not the only one with anxiety now.
“Yes and no,” Declan says. “We’re going to teach their core team, and they in turn will train the employees at each new site. All of that will be overseen by the project manager hired by Mills Hotels. And that’s if we like their proposal and they agree to our terms.”
“What are our terms?” We’ve all been spending weeks pull ing data and financials, reviewing proposals, creating systems, but I’m still unsure of the nitty-gritty details. It’s like all of these big decisions are being made around me, and I’m running to catch up. My focus until now had been on wrapping up the final birthday party and keeping up with coursework, on top of adding event-specific content to our social media. Maybe I spent a little too much time trying to figure out a way to keep the birthday parties. And it seems to have been for nothing, since they’ve been cut regardless.
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.