Dinner time…

  Was even crazier than lunch time had been!

  But, for Lily, she was able to take a step back and just look at what was going on.

  It started as the market stalls closed.

  Some stalls take longer to close than others do!

  So the stalls that closed fastest…

  Rushed to get in line and order their Lilyburgers!

  At lunch time, a lot of the stall workers had already brought their own food from home.

  Packed lunches!

  Home cooking was Lilyburgers’ only real competition in the food market.

  And at lunch time, lots of people had had packed lunches!

  They weren’t going to waste the food they had woken up early to prepare, or that their loved ones had made for them.

  Not a chance!

  So a lot of the stall workers hadn’t gotten Lilyburgers for lunch.

  However!

  Things were different now!

  For most of the people, their dinner plans were to go home and cook for themselves!

  Now, they had another option!

  They could buy Lilyburgers and fries instead!

  The workers who had more to put away at their stalls cried and jeered!

  “Don’t go eating all the burgers up before we get a chance!”

  “Save some fries for the rest of us!”

  “Mrow! Meow meow mrow!”

  Mr. Cat couldn’t help but join in!

  Even though he had gotten plenty of fries at lunch time…

  Becky handled the money and the orders, while Alice and Ron were able to split up the work evenly. Alice handled the fries and all the little tasks, with a keen sense for what needed to be done when.

  She was a real team player!

  Ron handled the burgers, and he was a master burger flipper!

  Flip flip flip flip flip flip…

  He got in a rhythm and kept up with the demand!

  Lily…

  Just stood off to the side, with her three ghosts, watching the business handle itself.

  “Good job, Lily!” Mac praised her.

  “Yeah, you did it! Now you have the cart at the mine, and a location in the city square!” Rich said.

  “Look at all that money flowing in! Just imagine, Lily, ten, twenty, a hundred Lilyburgers locations, all bringing in money every single day…!” Ray added.

  The vision of a restaurant providing cheap and fast food that people liked…

  The vision of a chain of identical businesses, bringing in lots of money…

  A young girl who wanted to help her parents…

  And the Gods and Goddesses who loved her very much, and wanted to help!

  It all came together to produce the scene before Lily: stall workers rushing to finish up and get in line for food, her employees rushing to provide the customers with their food, and the sun sinking towards the horizon, the time changing from afternoon to evening…

  Lily said a prayer of gratitude.

  To the God of Death, who had haunted her.

  To the God of Literature, though she didn’t really get what his words of power actually did…

  To the Gods of Business and Golf, who had helped her in getting her first investor and such good employees…

  And to all the other Gods and Goddesses, for always looking out for her.

  “Mr. Ghosts… do you think I still need to open up more restaurants? This one’s doing better than expected…”

  “Yes, you do.”

  Ghostly Ray Croc’s answer was definitive and immediate.

  He had his eyes on a bigger prize!

  Rich and Mac explained further.

  “Yes, sometimes you’ll get rushes like this, especially when a new location opens and people want to try something new.”

  “But the rushes don’t last, and sometimes business dwindles over time. If you want to make a certain amount of money every month, without fail, then you need to make more than that on average. A lot more.”

  “Twice more, at least,” Ray added.

  “So I need two more restaurants?” Lily asked.

  “That’s the safest option. It’s a lot to manage, but if you visit one per day to check in on things, that’s reasonable.” Mac said.

  “Of course, if you franchise, you don’t need to watch so closely, but then you’ll make less money from each restaurant…” Ray said.

  “But Lily needs to make money as fast as possible right now. It’s not time to franchise yet!” Rich countered.

  “And this restaurant is still only on its first day,” Mac said. “We’ll need to monitor it closely for at least a few days to make sure things are running smoothly: that they keep it clean, that ingredients are ordered properly, and so on.”

  That evening, they totaled up the evening sales.

  Eighty-four Lilyburger sets!

  Buying more ingredients after lunch had been the right call!

  They had also ordered extra ingredients, for both locations, which had really pleased all their suppliers!

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  More work meant more money!

  Economic activity was increasing!

  The gross profit from the evening sales was $125.16!

  Wow!

  And they had sold seventy-two sets at lunchtime, and the gross profit from that was $107.28.

  And the cart had sold fifty-five sets, and the gross profit from that was $82.25.

  All together, Lily had made $314.69 in gross profits today, after deducting the cost of ingredients!

  But now, there was rent and labor costs!

  There was no rent for the cart, but Lily had paid Hazel and Zoey a total of $22.

  Becky had worked all day at the restaurant, and her pay was $30.

  And then Eric, Alice, and Ron had all worked a half-shift today, at $10 each, and that came out to $30 as well.

  Alice and Ron had worked together today, since it was a training day, and that had been a good idea!

  Because things had gotten busy, and having an extra person in the back had been super helpful!

  Lily had helped at lunch, but having bigger, longer arms was really useful…

  She was only eight years old!

  There were some things she wouldn’t be really good at until she grew up some more!

  Finally, there was the rent.

  It was $900 per month, which was about $30 per day.

  The mayor was handling the rent payment on Lilyburgers’ behalf, as an investor, for the current month, and the next month.

  So all the labor today added up to $82, although normally it would be $72.

  Adding the rent, that meant that rent and labor together were $112 today, and normally would be $102 per day.

  According to the ghosts, that was called ‘overhead’ costs, and it was a different category than material costs!

  Lily was learning a lot about business!

  She said another prayer of thanks for such good teachers!

  This really was way better than chores.

  Since gross profits already took material costs into account, she could just subtract the overhead from the gross profits, and…

  Lily was a good-at-math girl!

  Her net profits for the day were…

  Drumroll…

  $202.69!

  “Now, don’t go counting your chickens before they hatch,” said Mac.

  “Remember, you got a bit of a boost today from your first day of being open,” said Rich. “And five percent of that will go to the mayor, because he owns five percent of the business.”

  “Don’t go assuming you’ll be able to make that much money every day you’re open.” said Ray. “Which is why franchising…”

  “Yeah yeah, we already know, Ray!” Mac cut in.

  “Still…” Lily said. “This is really good!”

  Two hundred dollars!

  That was almost as much as she made in three weeks doing chores all day around the village!

  Lily’s Papa made about fifty dollars a day at the mine, and her Mama made about thirty dollars doing her own work.

  She had more than doubled that!

  Once the debt was paid off…

  She could do it!

  She could pay for her parents’ retirement!

  That night, she ate a delicious dinner of chicken soup with her Mama and Papa.

  Her Mama was so proud of her!

  But her Papa looked like he was in pain…

  He still needed more rest, so he could get better!

  “Don’t worry, Lily. I’m getting plenty of rest,” her Papa assured her. “I just wish there was something I could do…”

  “Meow!” said Mr. Cat. “What about that John kid? The gamer? He’s got loads of free time. I bet he’d love to play games with you.”

  “Oh yeah!” Lily exclaimed. “We didn’t hire him because his genre… I mean, he wasn’t a good fit!”

  But John would make a good playmate for her Papa, since boardgames could be played while sitting down!

  “Good idea, Mr. Cat!”

  Lily pet the cat!

  Mr. Cat purred!

  She tried to give him a bite of chicken…

  “Lily, Mr. Cat’s already eaten more than enough! Look at how big he’s getting!”

  Lily’s Mama scolded her!

  “Mew, mew!”

  “But Mama! He’s a big fluffy boy!”

  But Lily’s Mama wasn’t having it!

  Lily and Mr. Cat both got lectured for a long time about proper eating habits and the importance of exercise for pets.

  “But I’m not a pet! I’m my own cat! I don’t have to listen to this, I’m going to my room!”

  Mr. Cat ran off, to his bed in Lily’s room!

  He was throwing a tantrum!

  Although, he was more waddling than running…

  Lily watched him go.

  “You know, Mama, I think you have a point. I’m going to have to tell everyone not to feed him so many french fries…”

  Mr. Cat’s favorite food supply was in danger!

  But that was the least of anyone’s problems…

  And so, for the rest of the next three days, Lily monitored her two restaurants.

  The mining cart went well, and Zoey did get really good at cooking french fries!

  Hazel’s Dad couldn’t help but buy his daughter’s food every day, but he was also eating his wife’s prepared lunch, too…

  But he also worked even harder!

  He became a top performer in the mine!

  He was getting kind of buff, actually…

  As for Zoey, she’d caught the eye of two of the younger miners!

  She was developing her own romance sub-plot!

  Aphrodite was watching her with great interest!

  Lots of the Goddesses were watching over Zoey and the cart, in fact!

  Lily was too young for romance…

  “Make sure you’re saying your prayers!” Lily advised.

  “Bet!” Zoey replied.

  …

  But she did pray more.

  That was good!

  Her Piety Points were rising!

  The two young women were also doing a really good job of running the cart, even without Lily there all day.

  They were responsible!

  The cart steadily sold fifty to sixty sets a day, six days a week.

  And the miners’ extra energy meant the mine was more productive!

  Mr. Foreman was really happy!

  Economic activity was increasing!

  Becky was a great manager, and Eric, Alice, and Ron were all good workers as well.

  Everything was going smoothly…

  Sales declined after the first big opening day.

  Some people preferred home cooking to Lilyburgers!

  Some people didn’t want to eat the same thing every day!

  But, that was expected.

  And the restaurant sold, on average, a hundred and twenty Lilyburger sets per day over the next three days.

  Even visitors from other towns and villages gave it a try!

  The mayor would often have ‘business lunches’ with his visitors, bringing them to his village’s sole restaurant.

  Which he happened to be invested in!

  This was, uh, perfectly legal, of course.

  Money came in, money went out.

  Lily was making, on average, roughly one hundred and twenty-two dollars a day from the City Square Location, after the mayor’s cut.

  A little better than expected!

  Plus the money from the mine cart, which had lower overhead costs and she owned 100% of that business.

  That was about sixty dollars a day.

  So a hundred and eighty-two dollars per day, six days a week…

  “Well, it looks like things are running smoothly,” Rich commented.

  “So now…” Mac said.

  “It’s time!” Ray said joyously!

  “The time hath come!” Mr. Cat intoned ominously!

  Lily nodded.

  “It’s time to expand to another village!”