Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Gun-Ho and Jong-Suk Park went into the office.

"Hey, come here," Jong-Suk said to the workers in the office.

The two young men, who were looking at their computer monitors, stood up from their seats.

"This is the major shareholder of our company— Mr. President Gun-Ho Goo."

"Hello, sir?"

"You all look very smart. My name is Gun-Ho Goo."

Gun-Ho extended his hand to the office workers for a handshake. While looking at the two young workers in the small office at GH Machines, Gun-Ho thought about the old days when he had worked for Bangil Gas in Yangju City. He worked as a bookkeeper.

'I was about the same age as these young men at that time…'

Bangil Gas' owner referred to Gun-Ho as Goo Jooim as it was his job title, and Gun-Ho thought that it sounded so obsolete that it was probably used during the Japanese colonial period. Gun-Ho was the only employee in its container office. A few years back, Gun-Ho once tried to visit Bangil Gas only to find out that the business was closed. The owner was running a hardware store instead.

Gun-Ho said to the two young workers while having a handshake with them, "As the company grows, you will be considered as the founding members of this company. President Jong-Suk Park is direct, blunt, and sometimes rough, but he is actually warmhearted, and I'm sure that he will look after you. I hope you enjoy working with us."

The two young workers seemed to be feeling honored to have an opportunity to meet with the major shareholder of the company that they just started working for.

Gun-Ho then went into GH Machines' president's office. The lady worker, who was handling accounting work, brought a cup of green tea for Gun-Ho.

"Bro, please have a seat," Jong-Suk said.

"So, for this month, you have 4 Dyeon Korea's machines to build, and you need to make small parts for GH Mobile using those die casting machines, right?"

"It doesn't sound much, but it's already 800 million won. Say, I will do the same work every month for 1 year, then our annual sales revenue would be almost 10 billion won which is huge. We have only 12 people working here, and we could generate 10 billion won per year. President Song said that is amazing."

"That's true."

"The last time when Director Kim was here, he introduced me to several factories around the area. Those factories are in need of someone who could visit their factories on a regular basis maybe once or twice per month, and check their machines.

"Do you think you will have time for it?"

"If those factories are large ones, I'm interested in the work. Checking their machines won't pay me much, but it could lead to a lucrative business of repairing machines since I would be the first person who would find a broken machine."

"I thought that factories usually take care of their own machines themselves."

"They could, but they might not have the right parts to fix a machine, or it takes too long to fix it. If that happens, they would prefer someone else to fix their machines for them. That sort of job is commonplace in this industry. I've been previously offered a job to fix a few machines from a couple of factories, but I turned it down."

"Hmm, I see. It's like an auto repair shop, huh? Like a maintenance service for production machinery."

"Exactly. Haha."

"You seem to have a lot of paperwork piled up on your desk."

"I have to review and approve them. GH Mobile's Accounting Director Min-Hwa Kim sent their assistant manager in the accounting department to us the other day and showed us how to handle the accounting work. She recommended that we use an accounting program, given the number of employees and monthly sales revenue of our company. So, I installed the program, and it cost me 2 million won."

"That's good."

"So, most of these papers here are the documents printed from that accounting program. All the receipts are attached to these documents. You probably know what these are since you used to work in the accounting field."

"Yup. I can see the overall picture of this company by looking at these documents," Gun-Ho said as he was briefly reviewing the papers. He then said, "You are doing great. I'm proud of you."

"Bro, also, I sent you 100 million won to your bank account. I took out funds from my stock account, and paid off the loan of 160 million won that I borrowed from Kukmin Bank using my condo as collateral, and sent you the 100 million won as well."

"Oh, really. That's nice."

"I have 550 million won left, and I was thinking of buying a condo in Seoul with that money."

"A condo in Seoul? You are living in Cheonan City. Why do you want a condo in Seoul?"

"It's for investment. As you know, my father-in-law is a realtor. He strongly suggested that I should buy a condo in Seoul since that's the area where I can expect to see an acute increase in price for a real estate property. He told me that I could just rent it out."

"You know that you have to pay the property tax, right? The tax amount wouldn't be insignificant."

"My father-in-law told me that even though I have to pay the property tax, it's worth buying a condo if it's in Seoul. He particularly recommended Gangnam District. But, I don't think I can buy a condo in Gangnam District."

"Why not?"

"The condos in Gangnam District are too expensive for me."

"Hmm, in fact, people say that the price of a condo in Gangnam District is insanely high."

"Bro, your condo in TowerPalace Condo Complex in Dogok Town, its price increased substantially already, right?"

"I don't know. I haven't checked its current price," Gun-Ho replied as he smiled.

'Of course, I don't check the price of my condo in Dogok Town, because it's a small amount of money compared to the price increase with my building in Sinsa Town. I acquired GH building for 205 billion won even though I have a mortgage loan of 160 billion won for that building. The loan interest is being paid by GH Development, and that's why I don't really make profits from GH Development right now. However, I'm certain that GH Building's price has increased substantially by now.'

"Bro, why are you smiling? Did I do something stupid again?"

"Huh? Oh, no, no. I'm just happy for you that you make money."

"So, instead of a condo in Gangnam District, I acquired land in Pyeongtaek City. I was told that the real estate market in Pyeongtaek City is hot lately. The land that I purchased is on a two-lane road. I paid 600 million won for it with a mortgage loan of 50 million won. The interest rate was low."

"How large is it?"

"It's 120 pyung large. The land has been approved for a commercial building. For now, I leased it to a realtor who is using the land for his business with a container office."

"I guess you can pay for the loan interest with the rent, huh?"

"Haha. That's the plan. Now, I am a landowner too. My mom and dad were so happy and excited when I took them to the land. My mom even danced. She said that I'm making way more money than her who ran a Seolleongtang (an ox bone soup) restaurant for 20 years."

"Haha, she said that?"

Gun-Ho stood up from his seat getting ready to head out to Dyeon Korea.

"President Park, I'd better get going now. I have to go to Dyeon Korea. GH Machines is located in the area between GH Mobile in the east and Dyeon Korea in the west. These two good companies will support your business. If I didn't have GH Mobile and Dyeon Korea, I wouldn't have recommended that you should open your own business. Keep up the good work."

"I know that. Thank you, bro."