The sales staff at IDPromotions.com closed on nearly a third of their new potential advertisers and sponsors, and went to a two-week ad rate of $1,200 to replace their monthly rate of roughly $1,700. The sponsorship rates rose from $1,500 a month to $2,000. Jeff and Paul added four new web pages: the “San Diego Auto Dealership” page, the “Medicine, Health, and Diet” page, the “Law Services” page, and the “Pet Care” page.

The added web pages, combined with the two-week rates, increased their advertisement and sponsor capacity from eighty businesses each month to two hundred, and increased their potential revenue to $240,000 a month. With Ivan pulling in roughly half of the revenue, minus an estimated $25,000 in monthly expenses, IDPromotions.com was set to earn close to $100,000 a month and would make him a first-time millionaire by the end of the year.

The increased revenue would earn Jeff and Paul more than a quarter of a million a year each as creative executives, and as the veteran sales manager, Eddie K. was set to earn more than a third of a million. So they all had plenty to celebrate.

Nevertheless, their progress was not made without hard decisions.

Eddie called up Ivan excitedly and explained to him, “Our U.S. military officer is offering us a one-hundred-thousand-dollar sponsorship for the year to design a recruiting and military news page to incorporate all of their divisions: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, the U.S. Coast Guard, ROTC, you name it.”

Ivan, however, was not as excited about it.

He said, “Yeah, well, we can’t take all of this money, man. I don’t necessarily agree with sending kids off to the military. What if it was your son?”

“Actually, my son thought about going into the Air Force at one time,” Eddie revealed to him. “But who are we to determine their choices, Ivan? All we’re doing is posting up their page on our site, and then we update their information for them. We’re not actively involved in recruiting kids just because we agree to host a page.” He said, “Do you know how many ads the newspapers would turn down if they made specific judgment calls? I mean, this is the American military we’re talking about. What could be more patriotic of us?”

It was another occasion where Ivan’s personal opinion conflicted with his business decisions. He didn’t agree with training kids for war. He always imagined college and trade school as better options. But someone had to serve and protect the country.

Then again, I’ve been taking this liquor sponsorship money for these parties until the cows come home, he reminded himself. I’m training these kids to drink. That’s hypocritical. Yet he was hesitant to budge on it.