[Hyde POV]
"So, the roll goes in here." I held up the film container and slapped a sticker onto it. "Name, date, phone number. That's reference one."
Leo squinted at it like it was a magic trick.
"Then the same sticker goes on the envelope." I tapped the manila packet. "But this one also gets a unit number. That's reference two."
I flipped open the ledger on the counter. Every line had a number, a name, and a date.
"If the envelope gets lost, we still have the roll. If the roll gets separated, we still have the envelope. If both get mixed up, we trace the unit number back here."
I slid the roll into the package and sealed it.
"We send everything to the lab in pre-labeled envelopes. All they have to do is develop the film and drop the photos back into the same packet. No guessing. No handwriting. No 'maybe this belongs to a guy named Mike.'"
Leo blinked slowly, knowing I was targeting him. His shaky fingers peeled one of the stickers off the counter and stuck it onto his hand.
"…That's a lot of stickers, man," he complained.
"That's a lot fewer refund claims," I said casually. "You owe seventeen hundred bucks in refunds already. Let's settle that in one week."
I closed the book. "From now on, nothing leaves this hut without being written down twice."
Leo nodded like he understood. He didn't.
But that was fine. The system didn't need him to understand it. It would work whether he did or not.
I hired people in just one weekend. Unlike the café, the autoshop, or the print shop, the Fotohut job was simple. All they had to do was watch the book and take orders.
I printed around a thousand flyers for the Fotohuts and ran a Buy Two, Get One Free promotion on the rolls people dropped off.
It cut into the margin, but it was necessary. The huts had a bad reputation. Lost rolls. Long waits. Excuses.
The only way to fix that was to bring people back in and prove things were different now.
'I should build my own darkroom.'
I checked the cost, and it was pretty cheap. I could do it with just 5000 dollars, 2025 money. It would cost me like 1000 bucks to get the equipment here in 1977.
But if I wanted to run the lab, I might need 4-5 people, a rented space, chemical bath hookups, and storage.
I needed a lot of space, and thankfully, this was a dying town. I could find space to turn into the lab in just one day since we have a lot of properties.
I found one at the strip mall where my cafe was. It was on top of the first shop, where there used to be an office space there.
But since Bruce wasn't staying in the town, the space was unused. I got it for 90 bucks per month since it was only 500 square feet.
At the original hut, the one closest to my house, I hired someone familiar to work full time.
It was Linda. The girl who used to scream at the sky. The one who looked like Linda Cardellini.
She'd cut her hair short and was done with junior college. Her final exams were in two weeks, and she only needed three days off to finish them.
She'd stopped smoking weed and stopped showing up at protests since the last time I saw her. She'd even fixed things with Bonnie and Nicole, who recommended her for the job after they finished cleaning the huts.
Linda was here today, wearing a plain t-shirt tucked into her jeans. I was training her on the new system.
"What about the studio?" she asked after I explained the logistics. "Do I shoot whatever?"
"No," I said. "I'll handle the studio. At least at first. The backdrops and lighting aren't here yet. I'm probably hiring an art student for that."
"Oh." Her shoulders dropped a little. "I took art courses," she said, quieter now.
I raised an eyebrow. "Yeah?"
She nodded.
"Alright," I said. "When the props come in, I'll test you. If you can do it right, you can handle it."
"Yes!" She pumped her fist. "If I get that job too, that's like a thousand bucks a month."
Her eyes lit up. For someone just out of college, that kind of paycheck was a dream.
The doorbell rang. Linda glanced through the glass and opened it.
It was Amy. She took the part-time slot at the hut. It was easier work than flyer distribution, and better pay too.
Part-timers got three dollars an hour.
Full-timers got three twenty.
The delivery guy got 2.7 dollars an hour.
"Oh, I hired two delivery guys. They'll pick up at noon and evening. They'll send the pictures in the morning and afternoon."
Linda and Amy jotted down what I told them.
Leo laughed and said, "This feels like a business man."
"This is a business?" Linda was confused.
I waved her off to stop her and said, "Don't mind Leo. If he takes money from the register, just write it down how much."
Amy grabbed my hand and pulled me to the side. "Hyde, is it possible for me to get a week's advance? I have to make rent or the landlord will kick me out."
This wasn't a strange thing here. A lot of the workers here would ask the boss for advance if they were in a bad position.
It was quite different from the 2025 work atmosphere where people separate work and life. Especially in a small town like this.
"I know this seems too much since I didn't actually work yet. But I need to have the money after Easter." She said meekly.
Easter was tomorrow, so she only had one day left to get the money for rent. Her rent was 120 dollars, and she only has 80 dollars right now.
Her pay would be around $430 per month if she worked 20 hours weekdays, and 16 hours weekends. If she took a break like one day per week, it would be much lower.
She could make rent easily, but the utilities, clothing, gas, and everything else she needed to live would be hard.
"Alright. I'll help you this time." I muttered casually and gave her some cash.
She squealed in excitement and hugged me slightly. "Thanks Hyde!"
I pushed her face away with my right hand and said, "Don't do that. I'm your boss. People will have strange ideas if you hug me, especially after you get some money."
"What–" Amy turned to Linda and Leo, both who had similar expressions.
"That's true man." Leo agreed with me. Linda said, "It does seem a bit weird. Are you two close?"
The problem was we weren't close. We barely knew each other. Even I was confused as to why she was being so touchy.
She covered her face in embarrassment and changed her tune immediately. "Alright. Thanks boss! I'll make sure to pay it back."
"I'll just take it out of your paycheck. 20% a week till you have paid the advance." I said casually.
"That's… fair."
I went outside after teaching Linda and Amy everything. As I started the car, Amy leaned in by the window, scaring me as she appeared abruptly and had a creepy face because of the angle she was leaning in.
"Jesus!"
"So-Sorry. I didn't mean to surprise you." Amy said apologetically. "Hyde, can I talk to you about something else?"
"Sure, but keep your boundaries." I said and unlocked the door.
As she entered, she said something which made me quite excited.
"I'm… broke. So I want to follow you. Don't– Don't get me wrong, not like, be with you, but follow you. I want to see how you make all the money."
"You want to see me hustle?" I smirked.
"Hustle? Is that what you call that? Then, I want to know how to do it too! I want to know how to hustle!" She turned to me and said with a determined face.
"It's the first time someone actually wants to learn. I like it. I'll teach you, so let's go!"
I drove the car to the cafe. There was a long line at the counter, and all of the tables were full.
I went to the reserved table and sat there casually, earning dirty looks from the people on the line.
Harris came to my table and asked, "The lunch set and black coffee, right?"
"Yup. Amy, you can order too."
"Um… I want a latte and a turkey sandwich." She ordered shyly.
"Coming right up." Harris went to get the order for us.
Some girls came to the table and asked me, "Hey. Are you the guy from the TV show? Um.. Rev something up?"
"Yeah." I said casually. They squealed and asked, "Can you sign our magazines?"
"Sure. But only you, okay?"
They nodded vigorously. The other people who didn't come felt disappointed since I already said I wasn't going to entertain them.
Amy drank her latte and said, "Wow. You're really famous."
"I know. It's exhausting." I grabbed the drink and food from Harris.
They served chicken wrap for lunch today. It was my idea to put it on the menu after seeing how much my friends love it.
"So, about that hustling thing?" Amy asked carefully.
"Hmm. That's why I brought you here." I told her. "There's four main things you need to figure out before you start your venture. Skill. Idea. Cost. People. What skills do you have?"
"Um…" She was taken aback. "I can sew? I can… um… I don't really have a lot of skills."
"Sewing is already good. Now, you have a skill. What are the ideas you can use for that sewing skill?"
"Um… I can. Um, fix rips? Let out the waist?"
She was confused. "I thought you're teaching me how to make a lot of money!" She said, annoyed.
I laughed and said, "You can't immediately get big. You'll have to start small, grasshopper."
"Don't Mr Miyagi me." She retorted. "Now, how do I make money with sewing skill?!"
"I won't teach you if you're not patient." I said flatly.
"Sorry." She apologized and said, "Please. Go on."
"Alright. Sewing is also a good side hustle. Like you said, fixing rips and letting out waist. How are you going to do it?"
"Um… I open up a sewing shop?"
I shook my head and said, "Smaller. This is actually something a lot of housewives do. You don't need to create a new path here."
"Um…" She thought hard and said, "Oh. Sewing service, right? People drop the clothes at my house, and I do it in my spare time."
"That's good. Your mind gear is turning. Now, what about the cost?"
"Um. Cost? You mean threads? It's like 1 bucks a spool."
"It's cheap. Do you have your own sewing machine?" I asked.
She nodded, "Yeah. I brought one from my house. My dad gave it to me for my 14th birthday."
"That's good. Low cost, high return, flexible hours. That's one hustle you can make. Now, the last part. People. It actually meant market, but I chose the word people because the people are the market."
Amy nodded and listened intently.
"Now that you have a business, you need people to come to you. Now, is there a lot of competition in the town?"
Amy widened her eyes slightly. "I think so… even in my apartment building, there's someone who does this."
"So, do you think you can compete with them?"
She shook her head quietly. I nodded and said, "So, you can do it, but it might take a long time before you actually have consistent profit."
"Damn it." She cursed.
"I checked, if you did this as a side gig, maybe you can get around 30-50 dollars a week. 200 a month."
"That's good money." She mumbled. Then, she realized something. "Wait, where did you check it? When?!"
"Just now. In my mind." I chuckled.
I actually used GPT for this to find the historical records. I didn't know if it was true, but it was a good reference.
"So, what's next? Try to do it like I told you. What other ideas do you have? And for the skills part, it didn't really need to be something you're already good at."
I sipped on my coffee as I watched her furrow her eyebrows, trying hard to think.
"I don't know." She gave up after five minutes.
"If you don't know. Then, I'll share with you the final part of the hustle."
"You said there's only 4!?" She was taken aback.
"I'm making this up as I go. Catch up." I said after swallowing a mouthful. "The last part is opportunity."
"What?" She was confused.
"To be successful, you need to learn how to find the weak spot and attack it. Listen to the people around you. What are their complaints? See if you can solve that. That's how you do business."
She realized I was telling the truth. "Hm…" She actually began eavesdropping on the other table's conversations.
"How do we get beers?" One teenage boy asked.
"My car is at the shop again man." another one sighed.
"There's nothing to do in this town. There's not even a movie place. We have to go to Sheboygan for that." A girl muttered. "And my dad won't let me drive there."
"I love your necklace, where did you get it?" A girl at another table muttered.
I interrupted Amy and asked, "So. Have you figured it out yet?"
"Yes! I should sell beers to underage kids."
I was taken aback slightly. "Good approach, but keep it legal this time."
"Um… Necklaces! I can make homemade necklaces!" She almost stood up from excitement.
"Now you're thinking." I said with a proud smile. I checked GPT and said, "If you make 100 beaded necklaces a week, the cost will be around 20-30 cents per necklace. That's 30 bucks for 100 necklaces."
I added, "You sell it directly for 2-4 dollars. That will be 200-400 dollars a week. If you sold it wholesale, which is the best choice since you don't have to sell it yourself, that will be for 1.2-1.5 dollars per necklace. It's 120 to 150 a week. 480-600 a month."
She nodded and breathed heavily. "If I add the money from the part time job–" She gasped, that'll be over 1000 per month. I'll be rich!"
"Yeah, and exhausted too." I said casually. "And you need time to do homework."
She waved it off, saying, "It's fine. Who needs to study when I have that much money?" She turned to me and asked excitedly, "Is this why you always sleep in class?"
I was taken aback for a few seconds. "Calm down will ya. This is just an idea. You need to figure out distribution, material, processing, and designs too. The money won't magically come to you without some true work."
She pouted slightly, yet was still excited.
I checked online while she drank her coffee. It would take her around 5-10 bucks to get the kit for around 200 necklaces or 500 bracelets.
Making beaded necklaces was pretty cheap in the future.
After paying rent, she'll have around 60 bucks left. I took 10 bucks and bought her a kit for 300 necklaces. It would arrive in just one day.
The designs were also pretty good in that kit, so she could sell them for 2.5 to 3.5 bucks wholesale. Maybe 5-6 dollars if she sold them herself.
"I can sell them at a flea market on weekends, right?" She asked.
"Sure. Figure out the permit yourself. It's best if you go to the flea market first and check if there's people selling it, and make different necklaces from them."
She nodded and grinned. "This is so great. I'm so excited to start!"
Once she started, her excitement would deflate greatly. She might even cry when she tries to reach her target.
When she got her first payment, she would be excited again. And the circle would continue for a while until she finally saved enough money to expand or move to another business.
But I'll let her experience all the fun parts.
…
The next day. It was Easter, so most people were having a day off. But my print shop and autoshop were still open.
I entered the print shop and saw Randy teaching three other college grads to design the flyers.
Randy wanted to lead the Chicago branch, so he was pretty excited.
At the autoshop, Tyrell was teaching ten new hires on the way the company worked. Two of them would be stationed at Red's shop.
I hired two salesmen, two accountants and two office girls to handle the shop's logistics and sell the cars. It was a true dealership now, the biggest one in town.
But now, I have a major problem.
"Cash. I need a large cashflow for this to work."
I had spent all of my 75,000 Vegas winnings, and the 40,000 cash I have in hand, which I put into the bank as part of the Vegas win to launder it.
In the past two days, I had asked the office girls to do only one thing. To organize everything.
I went to the Green Bay area secretly as everyone in Point Place was working hard.
It was a big office with over 8 people inside.
"Sir Hyde. I found two more shops in Michigan that want the bulbs. They have ordered 2000 of the bulbs each." The pretty office lady with a thick body figure told me as I entered the temporary office.
"Thank you Joan." I said to my secretary. "In total, how many orders do we have in Michigan?"
"Around 20 thousand sir. Our cost is one dollar. We're selling it at 3.50. Expected profit will be around 50,000 in one trip sir." Joan said excitedly. "That's only in Michigan."
"In Iowa, the cumulative orders are twenty-five thousand bulbs," the redhead said, flipping through her notes. "Illinois is at thirty thousand. Indiana eighteen. Ohio thirty-two."
"Hello Janet." I smiled at her. Then, I let out a slow breath.
One hundred and twenty-five thousand units. At thirty cents a bulb, that was thirty-seven thousand five hundred dollars just to load the trucks.
Bob had already renewed his Wisconsin order. Twenty thousand units before I went to Arizona.
Twenty-four thousand were already sitting in my account, cleared and usable. I rolled it straight back into inventory.
Wisconsin was his since I promised him. The rest of the Midwest wasn't promised to anyone.
The bulb plan had been building for a month now.
If I wanted to do this right, I'd need a company under my name, truckers on payroll, salesmen on commission, and a clean split that kept everyone hungry.
The salesmen were paid 2 cents per bulb they sold. I would have to pay more than 2500 in commission, but it was still barely negligible.
The top salesmen in a month would get 3 cents per bulb, which they were desperately competing for.
Every out-of-state order required a forty percent deposit to lock inventory. Checks came in by mail, some hand-delivered by reps. Most of them cleared within a few days.
Enough cash to move without selling my gold. The accountant handled the company account for now, but he'll need my approval for anything.
Even after fuel, wages, and losses, this run alone would generate hundreds of thousands in revenue.
I stocked the warehouse with 200,000 bulbs using the money from the deposits.
Two trucks rolled out on Easter night, packed tight. Midwest routes. Two-day turnaround.
The balance payments would come back with the drivers in either company check or cashier's checks , deposited once they returned.
Clearing those would take time since it was out of state cheques. But the money was already locked in.
I also made the truckers to get the appliance store owners to sign for the bulbs, and even took pictures of the delivery in case someone tried something.
I leaned back in my chair after Joan and Janet
"Four hundred thousand in receivables… one hundred and twenty in gold… half a million parked in the student loan foundation…"
I laughed under my breath. On paper, I was a millionaire.
In reality, my money was scattered across too many moving parts.
While I was thinking hard, Joan entered my office and immediately massaged my shoulder. "You must be so stressed out sir."
I laughed and said, "What do you want, Joan?"
"I want nothing sir. Just a chance to show you my loyalty." She said flirtingly.
While she was massaging me, a glasses wearing man entered the office. He was slightly overweight, and had a kind facial feature.
He pretended to be hurt and said, "Joan. I thought we had something."
"You're married, idiot." Joan said teasingly.
"Jeb." I called. It was short for Jebediah. "What do you have for me?"
"Yes sir. I think I won the top salesmen spot." He muttered proudly.
"Hmm? What did you do?" Joan asked in shock. She was also competing for the top salesmen spot so she was skeptical.
Jeb smirked and said, "My contact in K-mart just called me. K-Mart is ordering 200,000 of those bulbs."
I froze in shock.
Jeb added coyly, "Just for… New York."
That means, K-Mart might order more for other states.
I laughed hard and shook his hand. "Great job Jeb. Joan, tell everyone this. I'll give a bonus of 1000 bucks to everyone once this deal is all set."
Jeb and Joan hissed in shock.
For 1977 people, it might seem like a lot of bonus. But for me who lived in the 2025 corporate life hellscape, it really wasn't.
I went back to the company storage and filled it up with 300,000 bulbs.
Once I was done, I left to go back to Point Place and pretended I didn't have an empire behind me.
"Now, I should make a photo lab. I already ordered everything. I just need people."
So I decided to hire 5 people for the lab. One lead technician would act as supervisor and was paid 4 dollars an hour.
Four recently graduated college students that would be paid 3 dollars an hour.
The lab was set up in just three days. Now, the Fotohut business is finally ready to open.