When I moved to Indianapolis (from Bloomington) on October 18th 2013, I was under the impression that I would be the first employee of a brand new transportation company run by two individuals, 50/50. I would be paid $10 an hour and have mostly airport runs. There were two Suburbans and I would be driving one. Easy money and a lot of time to start writing and filming. Living in a motel for a week before moving into a French themed apartment complex I was in love with. This was my opportunity to move forward in a large city. I needed to start working toward my degree.

The problem I faced immediately was my anxiety. We got extremely lucky and got a two-room “family suite” the friday night before a Colts game. But having to cohabitate with someone I barely knew is more mentally taxing than anything else. I was willing to push through it, though, because in a week (or maybe two), I would be in a new apartment with my own room and get to have my cat with me. I felt awkward, I felt sad, I felt worried, and then I got to enjoy my job and tip money. I was always nervous before a run, but by the end of it, I was on top of the world. Seemed promising.

The next problem I noticed came from the half of the company I did not live with. My Roommate was the 49% business owner of this personal/luxury car service and took care of all the numbers. Budget, rates, assets, bills; he made sure everything added up. The 51% business owner (codename Big D) was in charge of marketing. He was the people person and sold the brand. He was the one to bring in and keep customers from the hotels and nicer establishments.

However, I noticed Big D talked a lot. Not inherently a bad thing, but he would repeat things we had just talked about. Or ask about it again when we already resolved the issue. Really, this was just more annoying than anything else. Plus he’s technically my boss, so I can’t really complain too much. It was liveable.

Then Roommate voiced concern about Big D. “I’m almost sure this company isn’t his priority.” Evidently, when Roommate signed the contract to start the company, he thought Big D was as ambitious as he was; the business was priority. Turns out, Big D was planning to get married and buy a house, too - completely unbeknownst to Roommate (hey, they had once been roommates, too, but Roommate couldn’t stand the living situation). Red flags. The reason Roommate kept going and not just drop the business right there was because I was moving in and I needed this opportunity.

A week after I had moved to Indy, Big D stopped marketing. Instead of pushing the name, he was focused on set hours to work. At this point, I am just starting to get a hang of being on call at odd hours of the day. I was willing to do it because most of the time I could relax and do what I want. Only a few hours a day would I have to do any real work. I wasn’t exactly busy. At all. It was still the beginning, but marketing was still very much needed in order for our customer base to to expand and solve this problem.

Big D wanted Sunday off and to work 5am to 7pm everyday, sticking us with night shift all the time. I enjoy seeing the sun and being able to sleep normally, thank you. Besides, we did not have enough calls coming in to be able to NOT constantly be on call - each of us needed to make enough to cover our share of gas/salary/etc before the next person could take over in order to evenly distribute work and hours. It was a system Roommate and I were operating smoothly on.

As a result, Big D started showing up to scheduled fares late, causing the customers to cancel and take a cab instead. Not only that, but he would lie about the reason for the cancellation. Or lie about the reason he was late. Or lie about the amounts deposited in his account from the company’s Square transactions. Or lie about having already started drinking that day.

Then this comes out: Roommate was trying to work with Big D and basically give him another chance - because his business model was genius. Big D had gotten into wrecks on three separate occasions while driving a taxi drunk. Roommate was hoping this was behind him and that his new wife and home would help straighten that out. But Big D admitted to me himself, “I usually start the day with a couple beers.” He had a cooler of beer inside the Suburban he used for the company. Yes, it can be used as a marketing ploy, letting your passengers crack open a few (as limos and taxis alike are allowed open container alcohol for passengers), but the number of times that opportunity comes up at the end of summer party season is very slim.

Big D becomes complacent. Not motivated to do more marketing and just wants time at home. Business stagnates. Big D was too preoccupied with married life to put the necessary amount of time and effort into the three month old company in order to make it even work. Something was going to give. This was my livelihood….

To be continued. The conclusion next time. Happy Thanksgiving.