Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Gun-Ho’s sister quickly covered her mouth with her hand realizing that she shouldn’t have said the word basement to Jae-Sik’s face.

“I’m so sorry. It just came out of my mouth. Hahaha, you are Jae-Sik!”

“It’s okay, sister.”

“You’ve changed a lot. I wouldn’t have been able to recognize you if you didn’t say anything.”

“I knew it was you right away, Gun-Sook sister. You used to scold me for reading cartoon books in Gun-Ho’s room without studying.”

“Yeah, I remember that. You love reading cartoons. How are your parents doing?”

When Jae-Sik was hesitating to respond to Gun-Ho’s sister’s question about his parents, his workers came to Jae-Sik and let him know that they would be back after lunch.

“Sir, we will have lunch now. We will be back soon.”

“Oh, sure. Bon appetit.”

Jae-Sik showed Gun-Ho’s sister and her husband to his office. He then prepared green tea for them.

“Gun-Ho invested in this company from the day of the establishment. We currently have 27 vehicles. I’ve prepared an Excel document to show you the status of this company.”

Jae-Sik brought a chart in an A4 paper. It had all the information about the types of the company’s vehicles, their license plate numbers, the names of drivers assigned to each truck, the names of service companies and the service expiration dates, service charges, payment dates, etc. The chart laid out all the information in a way that a reader could easily see all at a glance.

“Wow. This is very well done.”

Jae-Sik gave another chart to Gun-Ho’s brother-in-law. It was about each service company that GH Logistics was currently using. The chart showed each service company’s address, the name of each company’s president, its business registration number, the person’s name who is in charge of dealing with GH Logistics, its sales revenues, the number of their workers, etc.

“Hmm. There will be no problem issuing a tax invoice with this information.”

Gun-Ho’s sister said as she was impressed by Jae-Sik’s meticulous work.

“Haha. I guess I underestimated you as a boy who only loves reading cartoon books.”

Gun-Ho wanted to formally introduce Jae-Sik to his sister and brother-in-law with his qualification.

“Jae-Sik majored in creative writing in college. He is an award-winning author of a full-length novel.”

“Is that right?”

“He was working as a chief editor in a publishing company until I asked him to help me with running this company.”

“Oh, I see. You guys had a hard time when we all lived in Juan Town, Incheon City. Now, you two are all grown up and became successful businessmen. Your parents must be proud of you, Jae-Sik. You are married, right?”

“I live with someone without having a wedding ceremony, and we don’t have a kid yet.”

“So, you are leaving for China soon?”

Gun-Ho, who was sitting next to Jae-Sik, answered the question on behalf of Jae-Sik, “He will be running a business there—a terminal project and an intercity bus service company. He will be in Antang City, Guizhou Province. That’s why we placed this 5,000 pyung large land on the market for sale. I need that money to invest in the business in China. We are also working on getting a new place through the public auction for GH Logistics. Once we lease that land, you can take over this company, brother.”

Gun-Ho’s brother-in-law asked Jae-Sik, “President Moon, I’ve noticed that there are three trucks and one heavy equipment parked in the yard. Are those only ones without work right now?”

“Actually, one truck and one heavy equipment are available for a new assignment. The other trucks’ drivers visited me today to give me a service contract.”

“Since there are vehicles that need work, I guess I need to start with some sales work.”

“I believe that those two will start working next week. We just received an inquiry about the availability and price through our website.”

“Are you getting a lot of inquiries through the website?”

“Not frequently, but sometimes we do. We currently have a long-term contract with a logistics company in Paju City and Dyeon Korea in Asan City—a joint venture company that Gun-Ho is running. And, we have a three-year contract with a company in Eumseong Town and a roadwork site. We started working with them less than a year ago, so you don’t have to worry about procuring more work for the next couple of years.”

“Do you mind if I ask you how much its sales revenue is?”

“No, not at all. We are making around 100 million won per month.”

“The labor cost is the largest expense among others?”

“Yes, it is. Labor cost takes up a large portion of our entire operating expense. We are spending 60 million won on a monthly basis to pay our drivers. Also, we take care of their Four Major Public Insurance as well.”

“What about gas? You don’t pay for the gas, right?”

“The service company pays for the gas, and we provide auto insurance. If you take over this business, you will need to add an additional expense for the premises since you will be leasing a place. Since the new place is owned by the government, I’m sure the rent will be very reasonable. I haven’t incurred any loss yet by running this business so far.”

“How much do you pay for those office workers?”

“We only have two workers in the office—the ones who just went out for lunch. The male worker is our office manager. He is taking care of administrative work and vehicle maintenance. He gets paid 2.5 million won per month. The female worker is our bookkeeper, and her monthly salary is 2 million won. We pay for their lunch though. And, I take 3.2 million won per month.”

“Hmm.”

“After saving for the depreciation reserve, we are maintaining the current status without loss.”

“What do you mean by saving for the depreciation reserve?”

“You should do the same. Once vehicles reach certain ages, you need to replace them with new vehicles. You need the reserve for that purpose.”

“I’ve heard that this company is 100% owned by President Gun-Ho Goo. Do you pay him as well, like a salary?”

“Of course, we should have, but President Goo has refused to take any salary so far. He said that he didn’t want to get paid until the company became stabilized. Once you move to the Siheung City location and once the business gets settled, you probably want to start paying him.”

“Are those workers moving with the company to Siheung City, aren’t they?”

“No, they wouldn’t. They are living in this area, and Siheung City is too far to commute daily.”

At that moment, Gun-Ho’s sister chipped in.

“Once the company moves to Siheung City, maybe I will handle the bookkeeping.”

“You, sister? Why not? If you have work experience in bookkeeping, that would be very nice. It’s not easy to just watch others do bookkeeping for you. You sometimes feel the urge that you want to do it yourself. We have a tax accountant who we have been working with, so you don’t have to worry about any complicated accounting work. If you think you can handle it on your own, I would say you should go for it.”

Gun-Ho’s brother-in-law asked Jae-Sik, “About the office manager here who you mentioned. How well is he handling the vehicle maintenance work?”

“Nothing major. He just adds air to the trucks’ tires and changes their oils; that’s about it. For more complicated maintenance work, you should go to an auto repair shop. We don’t even have the proper equipment to handle any further maintenance work. You can find one good auto repair shop and make a service contract with them. But, one thing that you should consider is that since all of our trucks work far from this location, it’s rare that they come to the office to receive maintenance service. They usually go to an auto repair shop nearby the worksite. For simple work like changing windshields, the truck drivers take care of it.”

“You are receiving any traffic fines and things like that to this location, right?”

“That’s correct. We receive them here since the company’s official address is here. However, we don’t pay for it. Each truck driver must pay for the fines that they incurred. We take off the fines from their monthly salary before paying them.”

Gun-Ho’s brother-in-law nodded his head.