lemonis: i'm marcus. nice to meet you. adelo: mr. lemonis, i mean. lemonis: no, marcus. adelo: oh, marcus, okay. lemonis: nice meeting you, adelo. adelo: nice meeting you. lemonis: this is a big place. adelo: it is. lemonis: what's all the wood for? adelo: we actually cook carne asada ribs and chicken. this is the wood oven. lemonis: oh, so you literally do it like a straight-up campfire. adelo: yeah. and this is it. this is our kitchen. i have this passion to cook. and i've been in the cooking business since i was 14 years old. i love it. you know, we're -- we're not the tex-mex kind of place. lemonis: yeah. adelo: we're more authentic. and we want to keep it that way. lemonis: yeah. adelo: the articles always talk about how authentic it is. this. this is when we first opened. lemonis: where did you get the money to open this? adelo: i worked 3 years. lemonis: saved up money. adelo: and saved all that money. i used to sleep for 4 hours. i had my route at 18, my produce route. lemonis: so you were delivery. adelo: yes. then i also had a full-time job as a deli clerk from

i could have just walked away completely at that point, marcus. lemonis are leaving here today because nobody is paying your bills. thank you for coming. mike: i wish you the best. lemonis: yeah. good luck to you. ♪ mike is now gone for good, and so is paul, by the way. he hung around for awhile and tried to work on little things, but in the end, it didn't work out, and candidly, it's probably for the best. now, they're still technically investors and my partners, but that's in the name only, not the operations. ♪ travis: so this is where we're standing here. this is gone now. lemonis: in an effort to drive more traffic to farrell's, we are redoing the entire floor plan to allow customers that just want to enjoy ice cream without food to come. we're expanding the entire candy store to improve the retail area, and we're adding a candy-making space, and we're also extending the ice cream bar. ♪ if everything goes according to plan, we'll be open in the next two weeks. ♪ hey, guys. how are you? shauna: hey. shauna: good. how are you? lemonis: good to see you

want you to meet marcus lemonis. lemonis: hi. how are you? i'm marcus. shauna: i'm shauna. lemonis: nice to meet you. father daughter working together? shauna: yeah, yeah. it's fun. lemonis: and have you been in the business a while? shauna: i have. i started right out of college. so, i'm the director of marketing now. lemonis: you're the person that gets everybody in the front door. shauna: yes, that's my goal. lemonis: what's it like working with your dad? shauna: i love working with him. i mean, my dad has always said that he started all of his businesses because he wanted to be able to pass something down to his kids, and, of course, i want to make him proud. mike: she's a huge inspiration for me and a motivation for me. lemonis: you can feel the affection between you guys. -shauna: yeah. -mike: oh, yeah. i'd like to have you meet my business partner, paul kramer. lemonis: okay. mike: want you to meet marcus lemonis. lemonis: how are you? i'm marcus. nice to meet you. paul: thank you for joining us here. lemonis: absolutely. how do you share roles and responsibilities? p

marcus. kate harper. very nice to meet you. sam: sam. lemonis: i'm marcus. sam: sam murray. nice to meet you. rs. sam: well, first of all, welcome to brooklyn and welcome to mouth. we're excited to go through the whole thing. lemonis: mouth.com is a huge, food-subscription business, and i think if they like the product, well, it's a pretty good indication of what the whole marketplace is gonna think. erica: i'm erica, and this is... lamarinette: i'm mama. sam: mama? lamarinette: mama. erica: mother-and-daughter team. we're business partners, and our company is southern culture. we have three lines within our brand. sam: i have to say, from our perspective, we think southern food so long has become somewhat commercialized and become somewhat of a joke in american cuisine. it's overly sweet or overly spicy. erica: you know, our ideals are similar to you all's because we believe in really reinventing southern food and really updating that and adding a new twist and making it fun again. lamarinette: and erica loves quality, and today, when you taste this food, one thing i know for sure, what's in

lemonis: i'm marcus. stephanie: nice to meet you. stephanie. lemonis: stephanie, nice to meet you. how are you? dave: hi, marcus. i'm dave. lemonis: hey, dave. how are you? dave: great to meet you. lemonis: nice to meet you. jill: hi, i'm dave's wife -- jill. lemonis: how are you, jill? nice to meet you. so, are you both in the business? jill: no, i work awm in athletics. lemonis: oh, you do? dave: but she has worked farmers markets for us. lemonis: okay. well, i've never been in a place like this, so i wanted to kind of get a feel for it. dave: all right. so, the line where they serve people. lemonis: what's the most number of soups you have in one day, offered available? dave: we do up to nine. so, we have soup, salad, sandwich. lemonis: what's going on on that board? dave: i bought a new one, but it's too big. so that's gonna be the new look, assuming it's not all faded like that. lemonis: i want to taste what you're known for. dave: okay, well, i would start with the african-peanut and chicken. lemonis: it does have peanuts in it? dave: yes, peanut butter. lemonis: peanut butter

my name is marcus lemonis, and i risk my own money to save struggling businesses. we're not gonna wake up every morning wondering if we have a job. we're gonna wake up every morning wondering how many jobs we have to do. it's not always pretty. everything is gonna change. everything. but i do it to save jobs, and i do it to make money. this... let's go to work. ...is "the profit." cory nieves started mr. cory's cookies when he wanted to buy his mother a car. i put this in here when i was 6, and i said i wanted to get this for you. lemonis: only 6 at the time, cory worked with his mother, lisa... cory: they will go in the oven once this is ready. lemonis: ...to develop a recipe for an all-natural cookie. cory: perfect. lemonis: then he packed up his red wagon and started selling to local businesses in his new jersey neighborhood. woman: thank you. cory: thank you. lemonis: soon the world took notice. lisa: you know, tomorrow we're gonna go to this increasing your chance of getting more clients. cory: of course.

lemonis: how you doing guys? marcus. jack: jack hays. nice to meet you. onis: jack, how are you? -jeremy: jeremy felt. jed: jed hays. nice to meet you. lemonis: how are you? father-son? -together: yes. -lemonis: very good. and so, what's the plan here? maybe you guys could give us a summary and we could walk it? jed: yes. those buildings there, that's t.j. maxx. they're gonna open in the next few months. lemonis: let's walk the space. it's a construction site. what are they asking a foot? -jed: $777. lemonis: that's pretty strong. how many square feet? jed: 3,000. lemonis: so, over $230,000 a year? divide that by 12, you're talking about 18 grand a month? a good rule of thumb is that a restaurant's rent shouldn't exceed more than 8% of its total revenue. with an $18,000 rent factor, the restaurant would have to do at least $225,000 a month in sales. standard's current restaurant does about $100,000 a month in sales. if we were to open up a new location like this one, we would have to more than double our business. how many people live within 1 mile, 5 mile

lemonis: how are you? i'm marcus. megan: hi, marcus. it's a pleasure to meet you. ice to meet you. matt: here you go. megan: thank you so much. lemonis: why do you choose delivery as opposed to going to a dispensary? megan: i choose it for convenience. i'm a parent. i can't always go to a dispensary. if a kid's with me, that's impossible. lemonis: right. megan: i also like the fact that it's discreet if it needs to be. lemonis: megan dooley fisher told me she uses cannabis to treat the pain she suffers from her auto-immune disease. and she uses a lot. how long will this last you? megan: okay. well, i'm probably a far heavier user than almost anybody out there. lemonis: okay. megan: this is 250 milligrams. i could eat this right now and go on with my day. you would never know anything. lemonis: 250 milligrams? megan: i'll eat that whole bag. lemonis: okay. so, i've never used. how much could i have? megan: i would say that you wouldn't even have one of these. you would have to start with a 2.5 milligram. lemonis: and you could eat this whole bag? megan: yeah, i could

lemonis: how you doing, my man? i'm marcus. -j.d.: j.d. -lemonis: nice to meet you.nd so, what do you do? you come in, and you take product, and you shoot it on the street? j.d.: uh-huh. i do that part and also, like, the web site. lemonis: so let's go -- i want to see how this process works. giordano: yeah, let's do it. let's do it. aeneas also does some modeling for us. ♪ lemonis: the shirt that he has on, what's the name of that shirt? -giordano: i don't have a name. lemonis: what's the name of that shirt? giordano: chic gas station. it's like mechanic chic. lemonis: what was the name of this shirt? short-sleeve polo zip-on. giordano: i don't have all the names of everything. lemonis: you don't have any names. i don't think that rocco knows who his customer is. it's probably anybody that walks in that he can sell something to. lemonis: so why -- in a nutshell, why did you call me? giordano: the company has a lot of potential, but it's not doing well. it's not all about money. it's about contacts. it's about that i'm entering my 40s without a paycheck, even though

lemonis: are you proud of her? michael: very proud. very proud. marcuscoming into our business and helping us go to the next level was the single best thing that's ever happened to us at pro-fit. lemonis: michael and tina are gonna make a lot more money with the pro-fit bars than they do with the pro-fit gym, and over the next year, we plan on selling about a million bars, generating $900,000 in revenue and $200,000 in profit. and we're gonna launch a number of new product extensions. tina: oh, my god! michael: good job, honey. you did great. tina: oh, i can't believe this! -michael: [ smooches ] -tina: ah! -michael: well done. -tina: amazing. lemonis: i believe in the three pillars in business -- people, process, and product -- and it's been my mantra in life and on the show. improving the product is rarely an issue. noemi: voilà. lemonis: at courage. b, we took a woman's-clothing line that was all over the place... noemi: i never approved this design. -nicolas: you approved this. -stephanie: are you kidding? lemonis: ...and often poorly made. it's dist

-katie: bye, marcus. -lemonis: bye. ♪ is it warmer in here than it was in there even? eah. the thing is the press runs at 390 degrees, so it's always hot. lemonis: yeah, but, i mean, they could pump some cool air in here. marci: it would be a little more enjoyable. lemonis: it's odd to me that marci is out in the warehouse standing and working with this very hot machine -- i mean, really hot. and right on the other side of the wall are a bunch of guys sitting in cubicles with plenty of light and plenty of air conditioning. so what is -- is this printed on paper? marci: yeah. so, this is printed on special paper. lemonis: okay. the girls inside were telling me that the business is somewhat disorganized. marci: it is a little frustrating, though, to know that they're out fishing and then we might not be able to make payroll. lemonis: as opposed to getting on the phone, -selling, making money. -marci: mm-hmm. fishing is more important. i actually have a video on my phone of a friday afternoon i think you would probably find pretty interesting. so this is just me. it's a qu

lemonis: we'll go with "athletic." lady: [ laughs ] marcus, how you doing? lemonis: these feel -- so, the problem with these -- they feel big on me. lady: i like the leg shape on you. lemonis: no, i can't fit in 34s. lady: do we have the size 36? amy: we don't have them anymore. lemonis: these have too much stretch in them. i feel like i'm in, like, grandma pants -or something with leg stretch. -lady: yoga pants. lemonis: same issue. so these actually got even wider. lady: yeah, those are actually way too wide. you got to take those off. [ laughs ] lemonis: you want me to take them off right here? -just like -- -lady: well -- lemonis: they didn't have my size in most instances, and they didn't have much inventory for me to choose from. i felt like i was being given the leftovers. why is it called blujean bar as opposed to blue jean bar? lady: i'm from new orleans, and so i came up with this idea that it was gonna be, like, a blues bar, like a new orleans blues bar. lemonis: does it feel like a blues bar in here? lady: it does not feel like a blues bar. lemoni

lemonis: i'm marcus. caity: thanks for coming. lemonis: so you're really the person that runs this business? caity: yes. lemonis: okay. caity: but with the help of an amazing team. lemonis: do you guys sell online? jessica: we do. lemonis: how much does the web do? caity: it varies. we're really trying to increase web sales, but right now, year to date, our average is about $2,700 a week, and our goal is more like $5,000 a week. lemonis: oh! jessica: speak of the devil. monica: you guys, i am so sorry. hi. lemonis: how are you? monica: you're really cute. lemonis: nice -- thank you. but you're really late. monica: i said i was sorry. lemonis: i'm kidding. jessica: [ laughs ] lemonis: talk to me about the store. what are you thinking about? monica: this store and the website are both extensions of my home. lemonis: everybody said you don't spend much time here. monica: i don't. lemonis: why? monica: because my job and my kids are in los angeles. lemonis: makes sense. hello, ladies. welcome to monica potter. monica: hi. lemonis: come

i'm marcus lemonis. ♪ ♪ ♪ lemonis: tonight, on a special edition of "the profit," i'll take you to puertoparadise crippled by a perfect storm. reporter: hurricane maria slammed ashore, with torrential rain as much as two feet, turning roads into raging rivers. reporter 2: the situation here is dire. maria, the worst hurricane to strike the island in more than 80 years. i'm marcus lemonis. i had to see it myself. i have friends here, and i wanted to help them get out. thank you for your service. it was chaos, crowds of people just waiting for help. governor, how are you? how are you?

lemonis: i'm marcus. lisa: how are you doing? lemonis: nice to meet you. tell me what's going on here. cory: okay, so today we actually have a pop-up shop and customers come, they get a cookie. they sit down and wait for their car. lemonis: are we generating revenue? or are you giving them away? cory: the company buys them and then we give them. lemonis: very smart. whose idea was that? cory: both of our ideas. lemonis: okay. now more importantly, i love cookies. cory: so you got to try them. lemonis: so i'm a really tough judge, though. cory: okay. okay. i got you. lemonis: okay. cory: okay, this is the chocolate chip. they're all natural, and they have no preservatives added. lemonis: the chocolate chip was amazing. cory: thank you. second, this is a double dark. this is like the brownie. nice and soft in the middle. lemonis: it's delicious. cory: and sugar cookies. lemonis: is there orange in this cookie? orange peel? cory: it's a secret recipe. lemonis: okay. let me just tell you right now. lisa: oh, no. lemonis: if we do a deal, i'm gonna need to know

i'm marcus lemonis. i had to see it myself. i have friends here, and i wanted to help them get out.hank you for your service. it was chaos, crowds of people just waiting for help. governor, how are you? how are you? i met the governor. we surveyed the damage. it was staggering. the width of the hurricane was 35 miles. puerto rico is 30 miles. a third of the island still without power. you guys know you're american citizens, right? yes. do you feel like it? yes, but we've been abandoned by our government of the united states, as well as the government of puerto rico. a bridge washed out, a community cut off. it's horrible because this is our only entrance and exit. there's nowhere in and nowhere out. for you, this is the end of the world right here. doctors saving the injured and the sick. also, the ptsd, post-traumatic stress disorder. from the hurricane. yes. they don't have food. they don't have water. they don't have jobs. this would never happen on the mainland. you'd see trucks everywhere. you'd see military deployment. thousands making the wrenching decision. i feel like a cow

my name is marcus lemonis. and i fix failing businesses.business last year did $50 million of business. unfortunately, we didn't make any money. you guys sell a lot, but there's one thing that you don't do very well. what is that? >> collect. >> collect money. so last night at dinner, i made a deal with alan and howard. and i'm putting in a million dollars. but you know what they forgot to do last night? they forgot to ask me for my money. it's a theme, but it's not funny. because your paychecks and the rent, all get paid when we collect the money, not when the stuff leaves on the truck. there's the money. >> thank you. >> thank you. [applause] >> from this point forward, i'm in charge. the first thing we're gonna do is fix the accounts receivable process, so that i know for sure what meats coming in and what meat's going out. i wanna know how much we're selling, how much we're collecting, and who owes what. we're gonna start by getting on the phone, and calling these customers that owe us money. we need to be paid. and from now on, when we

my name is marcus lemonis and i risk my own money to save struggling businesses. lemonis: we're not going to wake up every morning wondering if we have a job, we're going to wake up every morning wondering how many jobs we have to do. it's not always pretty... everything's going to change. everything. ...but i do it to save jobs and i do it to make money. this... -let's go to work. ...is "the profit." ♪ you know, i've been traveling this country and investing in small business for -- for more than four years now. and i've met hundreds of entrepreneurs, their employees, their families. and what i'm reminded of time and time again, is that everyone has a story. they're complex, they have their own passion, their own motivation, and their own reasons for doing what they do. it's something i always try to appreciate. but all that being said, i've met some real jerks, a lot of them. and so, my first rule when it comes to success in business, don't be an ass. that's really the number 1 take-away, how to treat people. and i've met some people that just don't know how to t

my name is marcus lemonis, and i fix failing businesses. this business will never function well under the "green tea" name. i make tough decisions... >> it was a mistake. >> this is never gonna happen again. and back them up with my own cash. that's a real check, by the way. it's not always pretty... >> do you want to come over here? >> no. >> but this is business. i do it to save jobs, and i do it to make money. this the profit. [upbeat music] ♪ this week, i'm going to keyport, new jersey, a town that was devastated by hurricane sandy in 2012. i'm going to meet the owners of mr. green tea, a gourmet ice cream company. for nearly 50 years, mr. green tea has been hand-crafting exotic ice cream flavors and supplying the asian restaurant trade in new york city. >> so delicious. >> way ahead of their time, mr. green tea was producing flavors like green tea, ginger, and red bean. this family business was founded by richard's dad, santo emanuele, in 1968, who ran it with richard's older brother, james. richard's dad passed away, and then his brot

my name is marcus lemonis, and i risk my own money to save struggling businesses. we are not going to wake up every morning wondering if we have a job. we are going to wake up every morning wondering how many jobs we have to do. it's not always pretty... everything is going to change. everything. ...but i do it to save jobs and i do it to make money. this... let's go to work! ...is "the profit." ♪ -i'd really like to do a manufactured by detroit denim. -in 2010, eric yelsma founded detroit denim, a maker of high-end men's jeans. -they're unhemmed. so we will mark them and get you the fit that you want. -every component from the buttons to the thread is sourced in the u.s. and every pair is sewn right here in the heart of motor city. -danke. -tired of the corporate rat race, eric noticed an opportunity to help revitalize his city by tapping into local designers and fabricators. -when you are done with those leather straps, marguerite, i want to get started on these jeans. -soon after he launched, he partnered with a production manager, brenna lane. and from there, t