Mr. Kim came to Canada; he had dreams; did he realize them?

 Joseph H Chung (정희수), Ph.D.

Professor of economics Quebec State University in Montreal (UQAM)

(지난 호에 이어)

 2. Look for stores to sell through real estate agents, newspaper ads or go to the area and look for “signs” for sale.

 3.  Once you picked up the store you like to buy, make a market study for a month or two. Count the number of people who come to the store. See what sorts of goods they buy. This will give you some idea of the sales amount.

4.  Go inside the store and examine how much dust is on merchandises.

This will give an idea the quality of management and the rate of turnover, that is, the speed of restocking.

5. Examine the owner; see if he or she has a good manner with the clients; see if you can trust the owner. The personality of the owner has some bearing on the negotiation.

6. Meet with the owner and talk such things as the story of his or her immigration, the quality of clients and the neighborhood area before talking about possible negotiation.

7. Find out if the store owner is also the building owner.

B. Negotiation

-Find out if the sale includes the building.

-If the store space is rented, ask about the lease condition including monthly rent and options.

-Ask about the weekly sales amount.

-See if the statement is realistic

-Ask about the stock.

-Ask about the suppliers: the price, timely delivery, kickback arrangement

-Ask about the rent or franchise value (kwonli-gum). In most cases, the buyer pays the seller the franchise value and the value of stock. In most cases, the seller does not sell the space; he sells the value of intangibles such as “good will”, the number and the quality of clients.

The value of franchise is seven to ten times the weekly sales amount. For example, in good stores, the weekly sale is $10,000. In this case, the kwonli-gum would ne $100,000. Therefore, the buyer should be very careful about the weekly sales.

-Compare the price of the stock which you observed before the negotiation with that you see at the moment of negotiation. It is likely that the seller increased the price. This information will allow you to have a better position for the negotiation. Include in the negotiation one month of training by the Seller of the store.

Mr. Kim finally signed the contract and he started the training with the seller. His wife Sookja joined the training. They learned the hard way; they had to work more than 15 hours a day; they had various facilities and equipment to look after; they learned how and to order cigarettes, beer, milk, bread and hundreds of other things. Sometimes, Kim had to go to whole sales stores to buy things.

The training was over. It was the first day of running the store as the owner. In fact, he could not sleep much the previous night. He was thinking about the store; he was not sure of his ability to run alone. He was thinking about catastrophic consequence on his family, if he fails.

He got up at six o’clock in the morning of a September day. Sookja had already prepared hot Korean soup and cooked rice with kimchi along with side dishes (ban-chan).

“Yobo, have you slept well?” asked Sookja with worried face.

“No, but don’t worry. I will be all right”, answered tenderly Kim.

Kim knelt and prayed:

“Dear God, I know that you are with me and my family. I know that you will guide me this first day of my business. I know that you have a purpose of sending us to this land. I thought I knew your intention, but I am not sure. Please, dear God, tell me what to do. I am going to meet the clients myself. Please tell me how I should interact with them. To be frank with you, I am a little scared; please give me strength; please give me patience; please give the courage; please give me a big heart to love my clients. Amen!”.

After the prayer, Kim felt good, encouraged. He felt the presence of God in him, around him, above him. Kim was now ready to encounter his first day behind the counter.

The store was a walking distance from home. He arrived at the store at 7 o’clock in the morning, opened the door and inspected the stock of merchandises. He was nervous; he was worried to encounter hostile clients; he was wondering how he could handle the language police. Mr. Lee talked about; he was not sure about his reaction to shop lifters.

At about 7:30, the first client opened the door; he was a man of about 50 years old. He said nothing. Kim said.

“Good morning Sir!”

“Good morning! I am glad you speak English! I do speak French but I came from Italy.  You know, it is easier for me to speak in English!”. Kim felt relieved.  “So it is a good start of the day”, thought Kim.

Kim does not remember how many clients came, but he thought may be two hundred or little more. Sookja came in the afternoon to help Kim.

She had prepared the meals for kid before she joined her husband. All sorts of people came: black, white, Asians, Latinos, fat, thin, beautiful, less beautiful. One thing Kim realized was that he felt close to them; in his eyes, they were all alike, they all looked vulnerable; they all looked worried, they all looked preoccupied.

Kim had the feeling that he was looking at the very nature of humanity. Kim knew then that he could become friend with each one of them. And he thanked God.

Days have passed and Kim and Sookja worked hard. They had to sell hundreds of things for a few dollars, a work far from what Kim did in the past. Kim pitted himself at times for his current status; he thought that what he was doing was an insult to his intelligence.

But he thought of Jesus who did manual work with his father. He realized that there should no differentiation in jobs.

He was sure that God provided all sorts of jobs so that the human society can function. He came to the conclusion that he should be proud of being depanneur owner.

He thought of his high school buddies many of whom became lawyers, accountants, judges, professors, large firm’s CEO. At first, Kim felt a little inferior because of what he was doing.

Now, he did no longer have such unproductive feeling; he was proud of his job. Later, he saw that his new way of thinking gave a very positive influence on his kids. 다음 호에 계속)

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