-lemonis: i'm marcus. -gary: i'm gary. lemonis: gary, nice to meet you. this is an unbelievable location. how long have you been here? -gary: 41 years. -lemonis: wow. -and who started the business? -gary: it was my dad. lemonis: and do you guys rent this property? gary: no, we own this property. lemonis: how much did you buy this property for? gary: way back when, it was $450,000, and i bought it from my dad for $600,000. lemonis: it's a really nice building. gary: well, it didn't look quite like this, 'cause it burned down. lemonis: remind me a little bit -- when did this fire happen? gary: 4th of july, 2009. it was 100% loss. lemonis: and how much was the total loss? gary: over $1 million. lemonis: how much did the insurance pay? gary: about $1.2 million. lemonis: so the loss was $1 million, but they paid $1.2 million? -gary: yeah. -lemonis: okay. -do you mind if i come around? -gary: oh, no. you're welcome. lemonis: do you have a mortgage on the property? gary: i do. lemonis: how much is that payment a month? gary: about $3,800. lemonis: so, those peop

jeff: thanks, marcus. lemonis: you got it. taylor: thank you, marcus. lemonis: when i write this check, i really am 100% in charge. jeff: thank you, sir. taylor: thank you. lemonis: congratulations. jeff: thank you. lemonis: so i'll see you back at the shop, okay? taylor: okay. jeff: sounds good. lemonis: all right, everybody. ernie: good to see you again. lemonis: i thought we could get some of your staff together, and let's give everybody a summary of what's happening so that people aren't in the dark. for me, the first order of business is gathering the franchisees and letting them know exactly what's happening because if they're not on board, we might as well shut the door. jeff, where is -- where's taylor? jeff: that, i have no idea. lemonis: okay, okay. so, i wanted to let everybody know, jeff and i made a deal for me to invest $350,000. that money will be used to develop a one-store, singular concept that we can all say, "okay, this is what the model is supposed to look like." new product offerings, and we're gonna change the name. tea 2 go feels

my name is marcus lemonis, and this is "inside look." man: is the feeding roller on? man #2: audio speed. lemonis: who am i with? amber: oh, please! we don't have to introduce me every time. lemonis: i'm tired of introducing you. amber: i'm tired of being introduced. lemonis: why don't you introduce me for a change. amber: so... [ laughs ] i'm here with the profit, marcus lemonis. lemonis: thank you. and tonight, we're gonna take an "inside look" from our favorite -- high-five -- our favorite episode from season three... amber: standard burger. lemonis: standard burger. buckle up! okay, let's just play. new york city has a ton of energy, and it's always been a place for dreamers. but when you get on the ferry and you land on staten island, it may be less hectic, but there's still a real sense of possibility. it's one reason that i'm excited about today. for two years, sammy lazoja has been bombarding me with e-mails asking for my help. he's been hyping this restaurant and how unique it is... and how it sets the standard. but to be honest with you, it's kind of ordinary

jennifer: that's my baby, marcus. lemonis your baby. [ both laugh ] chandler: depends on the day. lemonis: i love the passion and the commitment that she has to what she makes with her hands. you want to invest in people, you invest in people that have passion like that. chandler: i guess my position is, i'm just trying to find a way to do that super high quality responsibly as we grow. lemonis: but what do you mean, as you grow? chandler: i mean, we need more locations. lemonis: why? chandler: because we've got to achieve some sort of scale, because even though it is a little riskier to go to another store, it creates cash flow stability. i think about 100 stores in more densely populated areas. i don't think we can do enough in sales out of here to support two families. lemonis: i'm seeing the first conflict, with chandler wanting to open up stores all over the world, and mom falling in love with what she's making in lexington, kentucky. i don't know how those two worlds could actually come together. how are you, sir? i'm m

mike: hey, marcus. lemonis: how does this store do? hitting the numbers that we thought we would. lemonis: what did you forecast for this store? john: a million a year. we're doing -- lemonis: half of that. john: half of that. lemonis: how much is the rent here? john: about $10,000 a month. where it's about $6,500 in seal beach. lemonis: when's your lease run out? mike: next month. john: next month. lemonis: did you bring your financials? john: we did. lemonis: let's sit down and go over 'em. john: okay. so this is tankfarm seal beach. lemonis: seal beach, $530,000, and the store made $16,000. 56% margins. 56% for a store is slightly less than average. you got huntington, $539,000 in business. this store shows that it made 13 grand. very little return. anderson brothers. $1,742,000 of revenue. 40% margins. total expenses are $544,000. business made 155,000 bucks. between all the entities, $2.7 million in total revenue, $184,000 of profit, $530,000 of real, tangible assets, $511,000 of liabilities between payables and loans. so you're no

marcus. kate harper. very nice to meet you. sam: sam. lemonis: i'm marcus. sam: sam murray. nice to meet you. e'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 the box we stand behind our name. sam: speaking of which, we'd love to t

lemonis: hi, michael. marcus. michael: hey, marcus. so i wanted to give michael a call and find out what the heck's going on. the e-mail that i'm reading says that you specifically are making changes to the package that is slowing the process down. michael: we have to have the back of the container correct. lemonis: michael, i cannot believe that this product is not ready yet. i cannot believe it. it's got to be ready by sunday. i asked michael to make sure that the bottles were done and ready and produced for bronner. but now i'm hearing that he's making changes to them, slowing down the process and putting the process at risk. and this is a good example of him not being focused on one task. this is a big deal. it's a big deal for you. it's a big deal for me. you're confident that this stuff will be done for the event? michael: oh, yeah. i'm very confident it will be done for the event. lemonis: okay, buddy. i'm looking forward to seeing it. i'm excited. michael: yes. lemonis: see you there. michael: all right. thanks. ♪♪ lemonis: i j

vinny: thanks, marcus. lemonis: see you in a few weeks. vinny: okay. whoo! ou, brother. i'm taking vinny to beyond green, which is a biodegradable company that makes things like storage and shopping bags, and i want to see if they could actually make a biodegradable tap so that when the coconut gets thrown in the garbage, it actually totally biodegrades. so what is this? is this it? veejay: yes. lemonis: and how does it happen? do you melt it? and what does it cost to manufacture this? veejay: at maximum, for 25 cents apiece. lemonis: and what do you currently buy your taps for? vinny: we're in that same range. lemonis: to make a smart environmental business decision that has a price difference of essentially nothing, well, there's no question about it. we're moving forward with the biodegradable one. so you and i are gonna work on how the presentation of the product is going to work, how a licensee would understand, what's the steps to actually get somebody to actually buy off on, okay? let's go. vinny: alright. sounds good. ♪♪ lemonis: i'm gonna give you a

petros: nice to meet you, marcus. lemonisou've been in the chocolate business for how many years? george: almost 40 years. lemonis: and how long ago did you meet? eleni: 39 years ago. he was in greece. lemonis: oh, you were in greece. george: i got in love with my wife, and i came here. lemonis: who are these pictures of? zoe: that's my mom's parents. petros: yeah, and a little push cart in baltimore. zoe: in baltimore, where they were hand-rolling chocolates, and my dad came over. he learned the trade. george: i love to work for my kids. lemonis: it's nice to have your children support you. george: oh, yes. i think that's the most important, to love each other. amber: i love family businesses. i mean, especially a good family like zoe's. do you find them hard to do? lemonis: if i look back at our track record of 100 episodes, in almost every case, a true family business, the bigger the family, the greater the success. there's history, there's legacy, there's purpose. they seem to be better governors for the behavior. there's

good morning, marcus. lemonis: what's happening? new version of the duster with the different type of trim. lemonis: okay. nicolas: you talked about the trim was fraying. -lemonis: can i see it? -nicolas: yeah. let me get it. lemonis: noemi, can you come on down? nicolas: the weaving is a little tighter, so it feels slightly different. lemonis: who's the one that actually changed this? nicolas: i did. lemonis: nicolas, why are you working on the duster? nicolas: because i had the resources to do it. lemonis: but you didn't include your mom? noemi: no, because we went through that. lemonis: it sounds like you have a problem with that. nicolas: i don't have a problem with that. noemi: it's the control. i told you. this is another problem we have. nicolas: so, are we talking about the past or the future or -- i don't understand. noemi: future. -nicolas: okay, so -- -noemi: we already decide. why are we going back and talking about it? nicolas: so, if we're talking about the future, what happened in the past is irrelevant. lemonis: nicol

lemonis: hey, robin. marcus. robin: hi. st spent an hour with jenn at the strand hotel at an appointment that i got set up. we went upstairs to one of the rooms, we cleaned it, and then i gave constructive criticism. she became unglued. robin: mm-hmm. lemonis: how do we best move forward so that it works for everybody? robin: everything's changing, but jenn really knows the brand and the industry. and i think she's committed to this company, and we're committed to getting this going, so... lemonis: yeah. why are you so upset? jenn: because this is my livelihood, marcus. lemonis: yeah, but i'm not trying to take your livelihood. i'm trying to save it. jenn: you seem like you are without me in mind. you seem like you have an agenda, and that's why -- lemonis: here's what my agenda is -- my agenda is to save your business. jenn: i understand. lemonis: you haven't gotten a paycheck in how long? two years? three years? jenn: yeah. okay, you've got to let me help. jenn: i want you to help. lemonis: okay, i'm here. jenn: but i want

lemonis: all right? ♪♪ hello. i'm marcus. niva: hi. niva. lemonis: nice to meet you. ou feel about that situation, marcus? all of a sudden, you're in business with someone that you don't even know you were in business with. lemonis: it didn't really bother me because she was a straight-up individual. it was the first time that i was open-minded to a renegotiation because i felt like one of the interested parties, his ex-wife, wasn't able to have her day in court, her seat at the table. and i felt like it would be disingenuous of me not to respect that process. niva, just so you know, i just learned about an hour ago that you are a 25% owner in the business. how do you feel about what's happening? niva: financially ignorant, basically, and not kind of knowing what's going on. lemonis: so you're not comfortable with the deal that's on the table today. we need to resolve this issue, or we need to shake hands and i need to move on. so where -- where are we? tony: i feel good at 35%. lemonis: for me to have 35%? that's too low for me. i can't go down by 15% 'cause you had a

chris: hey, marcus. lemonis: so, the raw materials come in here. who schedules the workflow that happens? chris: i schedule every order that comes through. lemonis: so who's in charge of sales? -mike: me. -lemonis: who generates the actual sale order, the quote? mike: i do. lemonis: and who makes sure that it's priced properly? chris: i created the pricing tool, and mike said, "these prices are too high." mike: i'm trying to be competitive to -- to get sales in the door. lemonis: so you're inefficient, and you're priced below market, which means you have high costs and no margin. death spiral. the guy who's manufacturing the product and knows all the numbers isn't allowed to price the product? we're gonna let the salesman price it? not a good idea. are these organized in a way or would you say it's a little jacked-up right now? chris: it's not too bad. lemonis: it doesn't look super-organized to me. disorganized materials equals loss of time, which equals loss of labor, which means money is leaking out the door. i see boxes everywhere. i see piles o

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

lemonis: how are you doing? i'm marcus. keith: marcus. keith lyden. lemonis: nice to meet you, keith. how you doing? dean: i'm good. dean lyden. -nice to meet you. -lemonis: dean, how are you? keith: my brother. lemonis: oh, this is your brother? okay. when did you start the business? keith: 2004. lemonis: and who put in all the money? keith: all the finance came from me. think we're up to about $160,000. lemonis: $160,000? dean: originally, i had some screening equipment and some sign software, but not much. he primarily got us going financially. lemonis: and what is the equity split? 70/30? -keith: 50/50. -lemonis: 50/50. dean: i had a graphics background and i had been doing this. i didn't have the financing to do it, so it was a perfect match. lemonis: so, you have a good brother, right? dean: if you can't trust your family, -who can you trust, right? -lemonis: well... while i appreciate keith recognizing his brother's experience, i'm not quite sure that 50/50 is exactly the right formula. if i asked most of the employees here who is in charge, wha

my name is marcus lemonis, and some of you have seen me around.e to help fix this business, so people don't lose their job. there are 32 employees relying on this business for their livelihood. and ever since jacob's passing, they're starving for leadership. for the next week, i'm in charge. so what we're gonna do is we're gonna make some massive changes, and, at the end of this week, we're gonna have a grand reopening. we're gonna let our customers tell us if we've gotten it right. i need to get rid of excess inventory, make time-saving changes, and i need to organize what's left. in order for that to happen, i need to put in the right system, like a bar-coding system. this building looks terrible. maarse has a viable product here, but, in order to make it good, we need to display it to the customers in a way that's appealing. they need to see it, and it needs to be presented in a less-cluttered, less-disorganized manner. the entire store needs to be re-merchandised. we're gonna become profitable together. so, marina, you have something you'd lik

lemonis: my name is marcus lemonis,