Transcripts For CNBC The Profit 20240714

I make the tough decisions. Were closing the store. Were done. Im not talking to you about it anymore. I back them up, spending my own money. Its not always pretty. Man perfect flavor. Lemonis . But this is business. You got to trust the process. I do it to save jobs, and i do it to make money. Thanks for your business. This is the profit. Things move slowly in the small town of latta, South Carolina. But when shulers barbque opens its doors, people near and far come rushing in with some traveling hundreds of miles to eat their legendary barbecue. Lynn hi. How are yall . Welcome to shulers. Lemonis its an allyoucaneat barbecue buffet, and their speciality is pulled pork and ribs. Their biscuits are always one of the biggest draws. Woman excellent barbecue, some of the best i have ever had. Norton thank you, maam. Lemonis married couple lynn and Norton Hughes struggled to have a family until late in life. They were blessed when they adopted their young son and named him after nortons father, shuler. Lynn and norton opened up shulers barbque restaurant in 1996 without any prior restaurant experience. Theyve relied on timetested family recipes. Norton i can remember my daddy putting meat on the coals. That shows you were cooking right. Lemonis . And traditional cooking practices passed down by nortons father. This business has grown bigger than they ever expected, forcing them to work around the clock just to keep up. Lynn [ sighs ] lemonis lynn and nortons goal is to build a successful business for the future of their son, but i know that secondgeneration businesses have a high failure rate. So, if i cant put the right processes and infrastructure in place, this business may not make it to the next generation. Shulers barbque smells of great comfort food, and the place is jammed. Lynn hi lemonis how are you . Im marcus. Lynn lynn hughes. Nice to meet you. Lemonis nice to meet you. Are you norton . Norton i am norton. Lemonis nice to meet you, sir. Norton nice to meet you. Lemonis what a great place. Norton thank you. Lynn thank you. Lemonis theres some people in here. Lynn yeah isnt this great . Lemonis and so, i noticed that on the sign, that youre only open lynn thursday, friday, and saturdays. Lemonis how many seats in the entire place . Lynn about 200. Lemonis and is there ever a time where its jampacked, out the door, down the street . Norton actually, we have pictures of it at about halfway in the parking lot. That is not real unusual. We can feed as many as 500 people in a night. Lemonis do you guys ever run out of seats in the dining area and then have to turn customers away . Norton yeah. Lemonis how many acres is the whole complex . Norton on this side of the road, we got about 30 acres. Lemonis okay. So, theres more expansion land. Norton as long as we keep getting business, we can keep adding on. Lemonis how much is lunch . Norton 8. 95. Lemonis and dinner . Norton 12. 70 for an adult. Lynn plus tax. Lemonis all you can eat, 13. 95 . Norton yeah, that includes drinks and dessert. Lemonis i mean, thats a heck of a deal. 13. 95 for an adult price on a buffet with chicken and ribs . Thats a great price, but i dont know how they make that work. Can we take a look at the kitchen . Lynn yeah, come on. Lets show you the kitchen. This is lynns world. Lemonis what is in lynns world . Lynn we make the biscuits, the dessert. Lemonis when do you make the biscuits . Can we make them together . Lynn yeah, we can make them together. Theyre a lot of fun. Lemonis how much time a day does this take you to make . Lynn well, 30 minutes a batch. That includes the prep time. But were doing eight batches. Lemonis four hours a day, almost. Lynn yep. Lemonis who makes the biscuits here . And nobody else . Woman no. [ chuckles ] lemonis not a chance . Woman no, not really. Lemonis so, how come you dont let other people make these . Lynn i grew up, my mom catered. And mom always taught us, whatever we do, we do it at our best. Lemonis people come from far and wide to get these biscuits . Lynn they do. We cant keep biscuits on the buffet. All right. Lemonis and so, this is what they look like when they come out . Lynn thats what they look like when they come out. Lemonis i love it. Lynn oh, good. Great. Lemonis these biscuits are amazing. I can see why they fly off the buffet. This may be the thing that i can take national. Norton out in the pit is where the real magic happens. Lynn yes. Lemonis okay. Lynn this is the pit. Norton mark is my pit man. Lemonis how you doing, sir . Nice to meet you. Mark thats my rotisserie, and i cook my ribs and my chicken on it. Norton im an old purist. We believe if the fat aint dripping on the coals, its not barbecue. Lemonis okay. And so, the ribs are in here . [ chuckles ] mark theres nothing better. Im telling you. Lemonis youre proud of that, arent you . Mark yes, sir. Theres nothing better. Youre gonna have some tonight, right . Lemonis im gonna have some. How profitable is the Business Today . Norton itll run 12 , 15 . This year, we shouldnt have a problem doing 1 million. Lemonis so, the business will make 120,000, 150,000. Norton yeah. You know, were still momandpop. We actually dont pay ourself a salary. Lynn we would love to get setup that we can afford to pay a manager because this is overwhelming. Lemonis while shulers barbques only open three days a week, its overwhelming because it isnt just about serving the food three days a week. Theres a lot of things that go into running a restaurant, and three days a week really turns into seven days worth of work. Lynn my brotherinlaw ewell has stepped in, and its just been a joy having him here. Ewell has been in managerial positions. Lemonis okay. Norton he is a genius with marketing. Lynn see, hes been working with us on that, and weve just seen a continual growth. Lemonis it seems to me that they need some help. They need a manager. And if ewells that answer, well, id like to meet him. I need bigger plates. How you doing . Im marcus. Ewell marcus . Ewell. Good to see you. Lemonis nice to meet you. Jenny hi. Jenny. Lemonis jenny, nice to meet you. Jenny my sister. Lemonis shes your sister . Okay. Lemonis and you all are married . Both yes. Jenny we live in new orleans. Ewell seafood. I did all the promotions for the state. Lemonis are you still in the seafood Business Today . Ewell no, im not. I resigned, and ive been helping with them. Lemonis oh, okay. Ewell we see a gold mine here. And for a marketer, this is nirvana. You know . Its a lot of fun. So, i started playing with their facebook page. And word of mouth is spreading faster than they can handle the growth. Lemonis but why do we need more p. R. . We have a line out the door. Ewell we see so much potential that we can build this brand beyond this location. Lemonis now youre changing the secret recipe. Thats what i worry about. This concept of franchising and opening them up all over the country is not always a good idea. Its not ice cream. Its a brand that isnt portable. You guys cant be everywhere. Franchising shulers is a bad idea. Barbecue is regional. There are different styles and there are different flavors. Just 30 minutes away in north carolina, the barbecue could be totally different. If i open up barbecue in texas, its a problem because im competing against that regions barbecue not a battle that im willing to fight. Id much rather take the money and build into the infrastructure here and make this a destination. These ribs are ridiculous. What are you food costs today . Do you know . As a percentage . Norton 41 , 42 . Now, 41 is what the food people tell us. 41 is good. Lemonis the people that sell you the food can tell you that. Norton [ chuckles ] lemonis and, you know, your food costs being high are a function of what . What do you think, ewell . Ewell what do i know about food costs . I dont even cook. [ laughs ] norton how much they eat . Lemonis how much they eat. Thats one. What else . What they pay for it. I couldnt go to wendys. Lynn oh, yeah. Weve been there. Yeah. Lemonis . For this price. Lynn this would be shuler. Lemonis are you the boss . Shuler eh. Lemonis im marcus. Nice to meet you. Did you know that you and i have something in common . Were both adopted. Lynn cool. Lemonis do you know how lucky you are . Norton i know how lucky i am. Lynn he is our life. We spent a long time waiting for that little fella. Lemonis the real goal is to be able to build a beautiful business for your son. Lynn this business is us, and we all been part of it. Lemonis while im impressed by the food. And the watermelon cake, its really good. Woman its really good. Lemonis . I think there are a number of quick fixes that i can put in place to enhance the Customer Experience and improve the economics. Come to dinner, right . Adult, child 8 to 12. This p. O. S. System is overly complicated. [ chuckling ] we have the gastricbypass discount, but we dont have the military discount. And, quite frankly, its causing a traffic jam. Come on in, folks. Two adults . Its kind of a shocker, isnt it . Woman yeah. Lemonis the fact that we dont accept credit cards seems slow and inefficient. We need to simplify the process, and we also need to add another register to speed things up. Im excited to get ewell involved, because i think he could be a huge asset. So, i want to take a minute and find out whats on his mind. Ewell my wife and i, were looking at this as, okay. Lets go make a lot of money. I think theyre at a tipping point. And if the social media alone is starting to take off without them, theres no light at the end of the tunnel. Lemonis so, is it your plan to move here . Ewell if this can work out in a way where we can work with them, work with you, and it makes sense lemonis are you interested in being a partner in the deal . Ewell i think that would be exciting. With you as a partner. Lemonis yeah. Ewell . We see the sky as the limit. Lemonis when you saw we, do you have equity in the Business Today . Ewell no, i dont. Lemonis okay. Is that a goal . Ewell its a possibility, absolutely. Lemonis im not really sure what ewells angle is here. If he wants to be a partner, thats fantastic. But all im hear him talking about is p. R. I thought maybe we could go over some of the numbers. Look at your profitability. 723,000 in sales, making 145,000. Its got a lot of potential. Norton yes. Lemonis how many days a week are you open . Norton three days. Lemonis pretty good. Of this 145,000 that you made last year, you did not pay yourself a salary. Norton we take probably 100,000 or so out of it to live off of. Lemonis you just take your profits from your business. Youre almost doing 1 million a year. You aint so momandpop anymore. Doesnt it bother you that your food costs are 42 . And so, who orders all the food . Norton i do. Lemonis food costs as a percentage of sales tells me one of three things youre paying too much for it, right . Were not charging enough, or theres a lot of waste. The only way we grow profitability, right, is to either lower food costs or grow revenue. Norton mm. Lemonis do you owe anybody any money . Norton we owe 86,000 total on that mortgage on the property. Lemonis what about vendors . Why do i see merchant account fees bank card . I thought i saw a sign downstairs that says cash only . Norton we do credit cards for catering. Lemonis you do take credit cards in half your business but not downstairs . Norton not downstairs. Lemonis how come . Norton by the time you put all the fees together and back it out at the end, youre looking at 1. 5 . Lemonis id rather you spend more time figuring how to get your food costs down 3. 5 and then worry about the credit card thats 1. 5 . Lemonis norton is so fixed on the fact that a credit card charges 1. 5 . On a single customer, 1. 5 of a 13. 95 adult meal equals 20 cents. What id rather him be focused on is the fact that hes turning away customers because they dont accept credit cards. On a given night, if he turns away 5 customers across 156 nights, the number of nights hes open, he would be losing out on 10,881 of revenue. Thats a much bigger number. Wouldnt you rather collect 10,000 than worry about 20 cents . Come on, norton. Hi, guys. Lynn hi. Norton hello. How are you . Lemonis well, ive enjoyed my time here. Its a great family atmosphere for a business. While your food is amazing, i think whats here is more than food. It feels like its an experience. Lynn mmhmm. Lemonis and it seems like youve had good success using your gut, and i commend you for it. You guys have built a milliondollar business that happens to be open three days a week. But the food costs are the problem that i see more than anything. Ewell mmhmm. Lemonis and, ewell, its not my decision whether youre involved in the business or not. Ewell we understand that. Lemonis but, with all due respect, its still cloudy for me what your role is. Maybe you can help clean that up for me. Ewell my goal all along is just to help them building the business here and then going out. Lemonis what do you plan to do here . Do you see yourself working in the kitchen . Ewell a it depends on what the deal is that you all do. Lemonis why would the deal that we make determine what your roles gonna be . Ewell it has to make sense for myself and my wife to uproot our lives and come over to South Carolina. We need to be able to know that we can grow with it. Lemonis okay. The Business Today, before you paid yourself, made 145,000. After you took your salary, it really only made 45,000. Any salary that you give out to anybody, family or not, could take that number from 45,000plus to 45,000negative. What im really buying into is the potential of whats there. So, my vision, really, is to have it feel like a real destination. People in the dining room, they come from a decent distance 30, 40, 50 miles. And the better the destination, the further theyll come from. I want to build a general store, putting products in that general store that are within our scope. And so, im willing to put up a half a Million Dollars into the business. And well use that half a Million Dollars to have working capital, to build out the general store, to build a deck along the back so that we can have overflow seating. But the property that this building sits on has to be inside the business because making an investment in the restaurant business, as you guys know is lynn its risky. Lemonis its risky. And so, im gonna want 40 of the business. In addition to that, i want the distribution rights for the biscuits. I really want to take them to the next level. I want to get that thing in as many Grocery Stores as i can, as fast as i can cause i think the biscuit is actually the moneymaker. The profits would work the same as our other deal, you have 60 , i have 40 . I just want to control the process. Lynn im sorry. Lemonis . 100 . Im gonna help you ultimately leave something for shuler. Ewell you had a number in your head where you wanted to be. Norton we honestly had talked about on the percentages as 35 being kind of a place wed like to stop. Lemonis my first offer is always my best offer. Norton ive read that about you. Can i have about two minutes with her outside the door, just a second . Lemonis okay. Norton [ grunts ] my knee got stiff. Ewell you know, its a big leap for my wife and i to come back here. I cant come back till it just makes sense for us. Its got to. We know where our salaries are together. Lemonis and how much is that . Ewell its over 200,000. Lemonis wait a second. A little while ago, ewell told me that he was willing to be a partner. But now hes asking for a salary of 200,000 . Didnt see that coming. Here are evenonere reasons to join tmobile. Do you like Stranger Things . Sure you do. Thats why netflix is on us. Two unlimited data. Use as much as you want, when you want. Three no surprises on your bill. Taxes and fees included. Still think you have a better deal . Bring in your discount, and well match it. Thats right. Tmobile will match your discount. Still nervous about buying uhoh, la new house. Meones is it that obvious . Yes it is. You know, maybe youd worry less if you got geico to help with your homeowners insurance. I didnt know geico could helps with homeowners insurance. Yep, theyve been doing it for years. What are you doing . Big steve . Thanks, man. There he is. Get to know geico and see how much you could save on homeowners and renters insurance. For a restless nights sleep. Pain settle theres a better choice. Aleve pm. The only one to combine a safe sleep aid and the 12hour painrelieving strength of aleve that dares to last into the morning. So you feel refreshed. Aleve pm. Theres a better choice. With the Capital One Savor card you earn 4 cash back on dining and 4 on entertainment. So when you go out, you cash in. Whats in your wallet . Ewell you know, its a big leap for my wife and i to come back here. We know where our salaries are together. Lemonis and how much is that . Ewell its over 200,000. Norton its always hard giving up a percentage of something you built. All right. Lets go for it. Lemonis all right. You got a deal. Norton you got a deal. Lemonis my 500,000 offer is gonna go towards paying off the 86,000 mortgage that exists. The remaining 414,000 is gonna go directly towards the expansion of the facility, enhancing the amount of seating by building a deck, and a general store. Lynn im relieved because i feel like now we can really take this place and go with it. Lemonis you worked hard for it. Both of you did, worked hard for it. I say its time to get to work. What do you say . Lynn i think so, too. Norton all right. Lemonis well, hi, folks. I wanted to get everybody together. Norton and lynn and i made a deal for me to become a partner in shulers barbque. I wrote a check for 500,000. That 500,000 will give me 40 of the business. Lynn and norton will still own 60 of the business. When i invest in a business, i look for three things people, process, and product. In this particular business, i absolutely love the people. I love the product. I dont think ive had better barbecue ever. But what i dont love is the process. Most people would think that the Obvious Solutions to shulers making more money would be to open up another day. But im not willing to do that until i know that the three days that were operating are perfect. I want to improve high food costs, not processing the customers quick enough, not having the seating be right. I want to add a manager to lessen the burden on lynn and norton. When we go through this process, im 100 in charge. Norton id like to thank all of yall for what you do. It is because of yall that we get where we are. Lemonis lets bring it all in the middle, South Carolina style. All one, two, three, shulers lemonis lets go to work [ applause ] the first order of business is understanding what shulers food costs actually are right now. I want to lower the food costs to improve margins. Were gonna build a plate, were gonna get a scale. Lynn okay. Okay. Lemonis . And were gonna figure it out. Norton thats a womans plate. [ laughs ] lemonis all right. Lets start calculating it. So, two pieces of chicken. Norton about 37 cents apiece, not counting frying. Lemonis so, 40 cents apiece. So, thats 80 cents. 30 cents for the corn. Lynn biscuits are 6 cents apiece. Lemonis okay. So, thats 12 cents. 83 cents for the barbecue. 1. 50 for the vegetables. 10 cents for the tea. Norton okay. Lemonis 75 cents for the desserts. Whats that equal . Norton 4. 40. Lemonis 4. 40. How many times will people go back . Norton average is one and a half. Lynn yeah. Lemonis even if i took one and a quarter, so 5. 50 is what it costs us for somebody to come through here on lunch. How much do you charge for this . 8. 95 for lunch . Norton 8. 95. Lemonis so, your food costs are actually closer to 61 . I think youre gonna find out dinners even worse because they eat more dessert, theres ribs. Ewell ive had concerns for awhile. So, weve got to know what these food costs are so we can lemonis is this something youve talked to norton about . Ewell we have. Ive been wanting to do the promotions and marketing, help them. I can put together a Real Marketing budget. Lemonis no, lets stay on this. Lets stay on this. We know the food costs were 60 . What do you think it should be . Ewell id say food costs should be 20 to 30 . Norton 40 is about the lowest you ever find from a restaurant if you talk to restaurateurs. Lemonis even if hes right at 40 . Ewell yeah. Lemonis okay . 20 on 1 million is 200,000 in profit. Thats just gone. If shulers food costs are 61 , then we have a problem. I want to raise the price of an adult dinner to 15 from 13. 95. Thats an increase of 1. 05. And if were open three nights a week, thats 1,575 per week or 75,600 in additional Gross Revenue per year. But thats only half the problem. We also have to deal with the cost of the actual food. You need one person in this business managing food costs. What do you think, ewell . Ewell i spoke to a couple chefs who are consultants to come in and do this kind of things. And they 1,000 a day, 1,200 a day for them to consult. Lemonis we dont need a consultant. None of us are consultants. Were sitting here with a scale in the middle of a restaurant and we figured it out. Ewell i know. I know. Lemonis we need somebody that has a vested interest in the business, that wants to see it succeed, that gets the margins right, and thats keeping you guys on point. I know that lynn and norton want ewell to be part of this business. And i feel like ive given him plenty of opportunities. But i havent seen him do a thing except talk about marketing strategies. Im not sure i understand what ewell does and what he wants to do, and its unclear to me. He told me that their combined income between him and his wife is like 200 grand. Do you see yourself giving away 200,000 . Norton no. Well, its lynn. She wants her sister up here so bad. I have to be very, very touchy with that cause she loves her family. And nothing makes me happier than to see her smile and be happy. But i dont see any way that we can just bring him in. Lemonis does she know that you feel that way . Norton no. Lemonis thats dangerous territory. Norton it is. Very. Lemonis once you make that commitment and they move here, theres no turning back. Norton yeah. Lemonis one of the problems with mixing family and business is that oftentimes, the owner feels obligated to hire a family member, even if its not a good fit. Lynn, this is kenny. Lynn hi, kenny. Kenny hey, lynn. So nice to meet you. Lynn nice to meet you, too. Lemonis kenny and i, we own a large commercial bakery in chicago, and hes been doing this for almost gosh, almost kenny 22. Lemonis 22 years. Lemonis makes stuff for whole foods and costco. Kenny marcus shared with me your formula and your process, and i love it, and ive had the biscuits. The kids have had them. They think theyre great. Ive heard rave reviews about the watermelon cake, also. Lemonis i just wanted him to come down and spend some time with you. Lynn okay. That sounds good. Lemonis any time you mass produce a product, you have to make changes not only for the size of the batch, but the amount of shelf life the product will have. Kenny in the restaurant here, are they generally not uniform shape . Lynn right. Kenny which is okay. Lemonis well, heres a bag of them. And, see, theyre all different. Kenny because, certainly, when we go to commercialization, one of the keys is that its consistent size, shape, and weight every single time. So they fit in the packages, so the nutritional data matches. Ill walk you through what we did. Instead of selfrising, we used allpurpose flour. We find commercially is that everybodys selfrising flour is different. Allpurpose flour generally has a standard of identity. I know a lot of people use shortening. Were gonna go with butter this time. Lynn no. No, no, no. It doesnt make it lumpy. Kenny theres definitely been a move away from eating shortening for heart health. Lemonis one thing people will look at on the back of a bag is the ingredients, right . I dont particularly like shortening. It feels artificial to me. Lynn im just concerned about the customers here. Theyre used to my biscuits. When you start adding something different, and youre used to my recipe. Lemonis im a little concerned that lynns pushing back on what kennys suggesting. The only thing we want to do is make the adjustments so the biscuit can be massproduced. Lynn this is crazy. You know, it is a family recipe. Im trying to adjust, but this is not us. Kenny my grandfather used to always say to me, if youre not changing, youre stuck. And if youre stuck, youre not going forward. Ewell you need to open your eyes a little bit. Lemonis i need to open my eyes . Have you worked the register since ive been here . Have you worked in the kitchen since ive been here . Im open. What am i missing . Hey, who are you . Oh, hey jeff, im a car thief. What . im here to steal your car because, well, thats my job. What . What . . What . laughing what . . What . what . [crash] what . haha, it happens. And if youve got cutrate car insurance, paying for this could feel like getting robbed twice. So get allstate. And be better protected from mayhem. Like me. Wireless Network Claims are americas most reliable network. The nations largest and most reliable network. The best network is even better . Best, fastest, best. Enough. Sprints doing things differently. Theyre offering a new 100 total satisfaction guarantee. I mean i think Sprints Network and savings are great, but dont just take my word for it. Try it out and decide for yourself. Switch to sprint and get both an unlimited plan and one of the newest phones included for just 35 a month. Hebut im kindai want tehhhhhhhhhhhh about buying one. Youre ehhhhhhhhhhhh . Well, its more like a aaaiiiiiihhh. Well, good news. Carmax will buy your car even if you dont buy one from them. Ahhhhaaaaaa. Mmmmmhmmm. Oooh. Ahhh. Ahahaha. Mmmm. For a restless nights sleep. Pain settle theres a better choice. Aleve pm. The only one to combine a safe sleep aid and the 12hour painrelieving strength of aleve that dares to last into the morning. So you feel refreshed. Aleve pm. Theres a better choice. Lemonis ive learned your facial expressions. So, lets talk about it. Lynn yeah. Okay. Lemonis i can tell from the tone in your voice how youre really feeling, so just tell me. Lynn we knew that there was a possibility that it was gonna have to change to mass produce it. We deal with that every day. We see a recipe, we try it, and theres got to be some change to go from feeding 6 people to feeding 1,000 people. Thats gonna happen. So, im taking the step back, and im looking at it. And i want to see how it turns out. And then well go with it. Lemonis is this done . Kenny these are done. Lemonis what do you think . Lynn i think i like mine a little bit sweeter. Lemonis so, we can add a little more sugar to it . Kenny correct. Exactly. Lemonis the bones of your biscuit are fantastic. So, i think what we need to do is continue to work on the recipe and come up with something that works for both. Lynn okay. Lemonis im happy to see that lynn sees the value in all these changes were making. At the end of the day, its gonna make both of us a lot of money. Since we already fixed half of the equation by raising the price of dinner, i now want to tackle the biggest challenge the cost of meat. Norton historically has been dealing with national suppliers. And i want to get out and research our ability to buy meat locally at a better price. Im marcus. This is my partner norton. Do you have any fresh pig that we could see . Dont get too excited. So, what part do we like . Norton we like ribs. Lemonis how much do we use a year in ribs . Norton 25,000 pounds. Lemonis 25,000 pounds a year. Norton thats a lot. Lemonis and what do we pay a pound today . Norton 3. 89, 3. 98, in that range. Lemonis but you can do better than that if we buy that much from you, right . I mean, if were buying it 25,000 pounds a year, im thinking that number needs to be much lower. 2. 65 a pound . Tom mmhmm. For the ribs . Tom mmhmm. Lemonis shulers currently buys 25,000 pounds of ribs per year at 3. 89 per pound. We just negotiated a rate of 2. 65 per pound for an annual savings of 31,000. This is why its important for norton to constantly be monitoring his food prices. In a matter of hours, we saved tens of thousands of dollars. One of the things that excites me about shulers is the number of people that come there on a given night. But what frustrates me is how slow the line moves. Today they only have one register. I call it a toll booth. If we add another register and we allow people to eat on both sides of the buffet, opening up another lane, i believe we could dramatically increase the speed at which people stand in line. Since we plan on moving customers through the line faster, well also need to expand our seating so that we can accommodate them. How are you, sir . Im marcus. Ben ben hayes. Lemonis so, you built this building . Ben yes, sir. Lemonis you did a good job. Ben thank you. Lemonis i know if we could spend about 100,000 to expand the deck and add 100 seats, well be able to get our money back pretty quickly. Norton people love sitting over the water. Lemonis yeah. Norton people love water. Lemonis if tables, on average, turn two times a night, then i know i can take their average customers per night from 500 to 700. Conservatively, if the decks only open 100 nights per year, at an average price of 15, thats 300,000 additional Gross Revenue per year. Thats a lot. Man this is 5,000 square feet. Lemonis now that the deck is underway, i want to meet with an architect to design the plans for the general store. And then i was envisioning the bakery half drywall, half glass. So, like, you know when you go to an aquarium . Lynn thats great. Lemonis thank you, sir, very much. Appreciate it. Lemonis ewell texted me this morning and told me that he wanted to discuss his role in the company. Now, i havent seen him get involved in anything related to the daytoday operations, so im curious at what he has to say. Ewell well, i was just gonna go over how this all might work for me. Lemonis you mean about your role here . Ewell yeah. Lemonis just talk to me. I dont think its a bad thing that you want to be involved. Ewell [ chuckling ] okay. Lemonis the only thing that im kind of thinking about is, i feel like youre waiting for me to give you something to do. Ewell no, no. No. No, no. What were doing were trying to help them create opportunities. Lemonis we being ewell my wife and i. We want to do the outreach to build the business. Lemonis dont you think they need hein the business, not out of the business . Ewell i understand where youre going. Lemonis im not trying to go anywhere. Im not seeing you helping them put food out or clean up. Ewell no, im a p. R. Guy. Just doing that simple facebook thing boosted their business. Lemonis but they only have 3,000 likes on facebook. The real help they need is in their daily operation. Expansion is great, but they have to get this one right first. You want them to run a profitable business. Ewell i want to see them get their systems in order. Lemonis are you gonna help do that . Ewell like you play to your strengths, i want to play to my strength. Lemonis once i can get comfortable that the processes are right, then im fine with opening up the floodgates for you to do some marketing. But first things first. Ewell i have a different vision than you. Lemonis you do . My vision is that somebody needs to manage the place. Ewell you need to open your eyes a little bit. Lemonis i need to open my eyes . Ewell yes. Lemonis im open. What am i missing . Ewell i spend my time on the phone, with the internet, and reaching out to my friends through facebook and getting the word out. Ive been doing all the social media for them. Lemonis please dont say facebook to me again. Please. I can get shuler to do facebook. Ewells having trouble describing what he really wants. And thats because the job that he wants doesnt actually exist. I get the feeling that he wants to collect a sixfigure salary without doing the hard work. Have you worked the register since ive been here . Have you worked in the kitchen since ive been here . When im in, im all in. Ewell okay. I agree. Lemonis and thats very different than what ive seen from you. I dont think youve been all in. As your life grows, so do your needs. And with bank of america and merrill, the benefits you get can grow, too. As a preferred rewards member, you can enjoy Priority Service and exclusive discounts. So your growing life can be more rewarding, too. What would you like the power to do . 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Lemonis you told me when i first got here you were interested in being involved, you were interested in being a partner. Im interested in hearing how to make that happen. And so, whats the perfect scenario for you . Ewell its this business lemonis right here, right now. Whats the perfect scenario right now . Ewell i come in here, lead the team. Thats used to leading. Lemonis lead, okay, manage. Ewell yep. Lemonis good words lead and manage. What if i suggested to them that you be the manager here, and youd be in charge . I think they need a leader here. I think that leader would be good if it was you. Ewell wants in, but i think he sees himself more as a consultant. The real need here is someone thats willing to jump in on the daytoday operations. I dont want to disrespect you, but i also dont want to be disrespected. I did not come here to be told that i dont have my eyes open. Ewell hes wanting to see me all the time, running around, working, cleaning, and bussing the tables, which lemonis well, thats not what i said. Ewell well, in so many words. Lemonis no, i dont want to do so many words. I want to do what the words really were. Lynn all right sit down. Everybody, lets sit down. Im sorry. Lets can we sit down . Lemonis okay. All right. Lynn thank you. All right. Lemonis ewell, what do you want your role to be or not to be . Ewell my vision goes beyond this. And i want to know how you see okay. cause i dont want to. Lynn im. Lemonis lynn, what are you thinking . Lynn i just want it to work out. Lemonis did you think that this was gonna be the solution to the puzzle of getting your sister back to town . Lynn no. I want to see this business grow. [ voice breaking ] i feel like things are finally working out, and i just dont want it to blow up. Lemonis its not gonna blow up. Not a chance. Heres the idea that i had. Ewell okay. Lemonis we dont have a lot of extra money laying around. Id like you to be involved. Ewell theres no doubt i want to be involved. Lemonis so, then lets go. Lets get to work. It would be a good idea to have you general manage the place. And that means that you have to be responsible for the staff, the kitchen, the food costs. Somebody has to relieve them of the burden. Ewell let me ask you this. How do you see their roles . Lemonis theyre the boss. We work for them. Ewell okay. Lemonis my eyes are open, and theyre looking at you. Youre the general manager. Ewell ill do that. I agree with you 100 and being all in. Lemonis from this point forward, the success or failure of this place is not only on the three of us, but it involves you, as well. Ewell okay. Lynn okay. Lemonis all right. Lets go to work. Ewell was i wrong . Yes. 100 . Marcus, he may have seen me as a slacker, but thats not me. If youre gonna lead, youre gonna lead by example. And that means getting in the trenches and doing every single job. Lemonis its been just a few weeks since i stepped foot into shulers, and already were making progress. The expansion of the deck is going really well. Im excited to see everybody pitching in. Ewell i guess ill bring this to the back . Lynn yeah. Lemonis got the packaging mockups for lynns biscuits, and im excited to show her. I also asked that lynn bring her mother, lorraine, who came up with the original recipe. I was hoping ewell could join us, but im surprised hes a noshow. I wanted to show you some artwork. Lynn okay. Wow. [ chuckles ] it is amazing. Lorraine i love this. Thats fine. Lemonis and then i wanted you to see what the packaging would actually look like on the shelf. Lynn oh, me. Lemonis theres a couple different versions. Lynn homestyle and southern. Lemonis this is actually an important thing. Born at shulers barbque. Lynn shulers barbque. Lemonis i know you had some hesitations at first and recipe changing, and im glad that you trusted the process. The biscuits, including packaging, will cost us about 1. 14 to make. In turn, were gonna sell them at 100 markup, 2. 28 per bag. With lynn and norton owning 60 of the distribution, theyre gonna make 68 cents every time a bag is sold. I expect to sell 10,000 bags per month. That means on an annual basis, theyll make 81,600 per year without having to lift a finger. Lynn im proud of you, mama. Lorraine but im more proud of you. Lynn oh, thank you. [ both chuckle ] lemonis you know what . Now that im getting more comfortable with starting the p. R. Process and starting the marketing process, id like to get ewell to figure out whats the marketing gonna look like. Can we sit down with him . Norton cannot sit down. He cannot make it down here. Lemonis what do you mean, he cant make it down here . Norton hes in new orleans. Lemonis wheres the manager that said he wanted to run the place . Lets get lynn. Can we go upstairs and chat about it in private . Norton yeah. Yeah. Lynn what have i done . [ laughs ] lemonis norton said we cant meet with ewell. Hes not here. When we sat around the table downstairs, he said, all right, im in. And so, i felt like we were heading in the right direction. Lynn iii i dont know. Lemonis have you talked to your sister since he was here . I dont think he really wants to get back in the kitchen and roll his sleeves up. Lynn hes a p. R. Person, and hes great at what he does. Lemonis hes not that great at what he does, by the way. He just posts some things on facebook. Lynn i dont know what happened. Lemonis i think he thought this was gonna be a 150,000 to 200,000ayear marketing job. Lynn we dont know. My mama doesnt know whats going on. Ive lost my sister. Lemonis yall have tried to call her. She will not take your call . Lynn this is upsetting me more because its not supposed to be this way. Norton it really bothers her. Lynn its never been that with us. Lemonis then whats really going on with him . Norton we dont know. Lynn we dont know i mean, really. We dont know. We norton new york city, here we come. Lynn cant even imagine what the surprise is gonna be. Norton well, knowing marcus, there is no telling. Here are evenonere reasons to join tmobile. Do you like Stranger Things . Sure you do. Thats why netflix is on us. Two unlimited data. Use as much as you want, when you want. Three no surprises on your bill. Taxes and fees included. Still think you have a better deal . Bring in your discount, and well match it. Thats right. Tmobile will match your discount. Hey, who are you . Oh, hey jeff, im a car thief. What . im here to steal your car because, well, thats my job. What . What . . What . laughing what . . What . what . [crash] what . haha, it happens. And if youve got cutrate car insurance, paying for this could feel like getting robbed twice. So get allstate. And be better protected from mayhem. Like me. E something you want me to read . Lynn mmhmm. Lemonis lynn and norton. As you know, over the past year, in addition to the pro bono work that ive been doing for you. Why does he think hes been doing pro bono work . What is he, like, a lawyer . Lynn i guess just, you know, hes just been helping us out. Lemonis thats what family does. I didnt know you had to qualify for pro bono work. My time has become and will remain much more limited and unpredictable. Okay. I dont like that he just disappeared. I gave him a responsibility, and then i come back, and you guys are working your fanny off and hes not here. Im angry. But heres the thing that could be the golden goose in this whole thing. Its better that you learn now. Lynn oh, yeah. Lemonis . Than having them sell their house and them get here and it not work out. Lynn i know. I know. Lemonis all right . You okay . Lynn yeah. Lemonis you sure . Okay. Look at this norton how you like it . Lemonis this look unbelievable. Norton it is massive. Lemonis after three weeks of construction, the deck is finally complete. I didnt think it was gonna go out this far. Norton we just kept going. Lemonis unreal. Look at this. Norton it brings out the whole restaurant. [ truck beeping ] lemonis now that weve fixed the process and added additional seating, im ready to start with some marketing. Good oldfashioned barbecue is about as american as you can get. I had 130foot flagpole built, one of the largest in South Carolina and better than any billboard you can buy. You ready . Its almost as big as half the parking lot. Young man right here . Lemonis dont let it touch the ground. Norton go, shuler lynn this is amazing. Look at that. Lemonis i want everybody to know what this business stands for hard work, good food, and this great country. Norton all right lets go lynn go whoo lemonis youll be able to see this flagpole from miles away. Its the best advertising. Norton you always amaze us. Lemonis norton and lynn havent taken a vacation in years and rarely leave South Carolina. So, i invited them to new york city as my guests. Lynn all right norton new york city, here we come. Lynn look at all this traffic and all these people. I love the architecture. Lemonis i actually have one more surprise for them. Lynn this is so exciting, shuler. I cant even imagine what the surprise is gonna be. Norton knowing marcus, there is no telling. It will be probably be the furthest thing away from my mind. Lemonis if your business is in trouble and you need my help, log on to. Whoa. Travis in it made it. Its amazing. Oh is that traviss app . Its pretty cool, isnt it . Theres two of them. Theyre multiplying. No, guys, its me. See, im real. Im real he thinks hes real. Geico. Over 75 years of savings and service. Well you can always i thibring it backy it. Within seven days for a full refund for any reason. Like, if i become allergic to yellow . Sure. Or my turtle hates it . Okay. That is good to know because reggie is very opinionated. Im sure he is. [ car horn honks ] lynn this is a trip of a lifetime. Norton it is. Lynn i cant even imagine what the surprise is gonna be. Thats whats so exciting. Lemonis today is the grand reopening of crumbs bake shop, an iconic bakery chain that i saved from closing its doors months ago. I brought lynn and norton to share in this exciting moment. And being that new york city is one of the biggest stages of all, i wanted them to see how theyre a part of something much bigger. How are you . Lynn hey such a big surprise im so excited. Lemonis its just like South Carolina . Lynn no. Its not. Lemonis the two of you look like city dwellers. Lynn well, thank you. Wow. Crumbs. Ive heard about this. This is amazing. Lemonis look at all these flavors. Lynn total blackout. Ooh. Norton you see any names you like . Lynn oh, my gosh look at that [ laughs ] that is amazing shuler [ laughs ] lynn whats that . Norton biscuits. Lynn look norton this is the cool thing. That is cool. Lynn i never would have dreamed. Never would have dreamed this. Never. Mmm. Thats good. Shuler pretty good. Lemonis and this is your moms recipe. We didnt change a thing. So, these cupcakes will be in all 26 stores. The biscuits will not only be here, but theyll be in Grocery Stores like the packaging i showed you, so it will be everywhere. Its about driving people back to latta, South Carolina. Lynn and eat at shulers barbque. Lemonis . To the best barbecue place with the biggest flag. Hows it feel . Lynn to be in new york and see the watermelon cupcakes and the biscuits, its my moms. Thats whats exciting. And i cant wait till she finds out. Norton thats whats important right there. Lynn [ chuckles ] norton shes happy, im happy. Lemonis thank you for everything. Lynn thank you, marcus. Lemonis i was always very focused at not messing with the charm of the shulers location. But i do like the fact that i could take a piece of shulers and spread it across the country. When i first went to shulers, i saw lines out the door. A great product with great demand but small profits. The good news about this business is that the storys been great. But its not over. Were breaking ground on a brandnew building thatll have a general store and an expanded bake shop for lynn. That should get done in the next six to eight months. While i fixed the flow up front and i added another register, customers are moving through the line much faster. And more customers through the line means more money. I know the additional seating on the deck will provide a significant increase to our revenue. And doing this to leave something sustainable for little shuler to take over one day has a special meaning to me. You were very comfortable with a stranger coming into your business and suggesting and forcing changes. Norton it amazes me what we have built, and it overwhelms me to realize where were going. Lemonis this is a place that i can come and be myself and be with people that i enjoy and i trust and now i feel like im part of your family. Lynn and were glad to have you in the family. Norton youre part of the family. You got to go with us and have fun. Lemonis i now believe this is the best barbecue in the united states. Lynn oh, great. Thank you. Norton it is. Lynn [ chuckles ] it is. Lsammy this is where the magic is. Lemonis . A burger business in new york city. Tranchina dont be shy with the sauce. Lemonis . Built by four best friends. Sammy we had a dream. We had a [bleep] passion. I dont know where the [bleep] it went. Lemonis . Who now cant get along. Sammy so, why the [bleep] wouldnt you open up the restaurant on time . Thats [bleep] tranchina hey thats enough lemonis its a dire situation. Sammy i build it for my brother, for my family. [ voice breaking ] i feel i failed them. I really do. [ sniffles ] lemonis . Compounded by lagging sales and mounting debt. How much are you losing . Covello 5,000, 6,000 a month. Lemonis if these guys cant get on the same page, its just a matter of weeks before this business goes belly up. Todd if we dont fix the problem, were gonna have to close the doors