Transcripts For CNBC The Profit 20240714

Lemonis my name is marcus lemonis, and i risk my own money to save struggling businesses. Were not gonna wake up every morning wondering if we have a job. Were gonna wake up every morning wondering how many jobs we have to do. Its not always pretty. Everythings gonna change. Everything. But i do it to save jobs, and i do it to make money. This. Lets go to work. Is the profit. Chuck lets take a look at this because this fits well. Mary ellen yeah, this looks great. Lemonis swim by chuck handy is a familyrun Swimwear Company focusing on plus sizes. Mary ellen how does that look . Chuck yeah, i like it. Lemonis chuck founded the company in 2010 when his wife, mary lou, complained that plussize swimwear was hard to find. Chuck i love the cut. Its very slenderizing. Lemonis chuck was one of the leading salespeople in the swimsuit industry for decades. But when he started this company, he appointed himself a designer. With his son and daughter at his side, swim got instant traction by focusing on plus sizes. Mary ellen how do you feel . Charlie i feel good. Mary ellen yeah . Lemonis but success was shortlived. Chucks colorful suits werent connecting with consumers. Mary ellen our traditional customer is a lot more conservative. This is just so leftfield. Lemonis . Leaving the business with even fewer dollars for inventory. Charlie im gonna have to tell her that were gonna be able to do business. So what the freak am i going to do . Lemonis today, with debt piling high and their life savings on the line, this Family Business is in danger of evaporating. Mary lou thats piss. Chuck bull[bleep] lemonis the u. S. Swimwear industry generates more than 5 billion. And with their focus on plus sizes, i see a giant opportunity, so im headed to their office in miami to learn more. Chuck how do we have a print like this, and someone is sending us this . Mary ellen i think youre barking up the wrong tree, trying to buy us out. Young male okay. You say, tomato. I say, tomahto. Lemonis whats happening . Im marcus. Mary ellen hi, im mary ellen. Lemonis mary ellen. Mary ellen nice to meet you. Mary lou mary lou. Lemonis mary lou. Chuck call me chuck. Lemonis chuck, nice to meet you. Chuck pleasure to meet you. Charlie charlie. Lemonis okay, so you guys are brother and sister. Mary ellen yes. Lemonis is this your dad . Charlie correct. Chuck c. E. O. , designer. Charlie when i go home, at the dinner table, hes my old man. Hes my dad. I love him to death. In business, its chuck because im going to get a little emotional. Lemonis and whos in charge . Charlie i kind of run the show. Mary ellen i mean, the loudest person usually does. Lemonis the loudest person. Charlie i think everyone can agree. Mary lou no. Mary ellen [ scoffs ] charlie everyone comes to me. Im the one person that you all communicate to. Lemonis and whose names on the door . Chuck oh, my name. Lemonis okay. Just wanted to clarify that. It doesnt say, swim by charlie handy. Chuck no. Lemonis do you have a Business Card . Charlie yes. Lemonis Vice President , thats you. And then. Mary ellen fit, tech production, and sometimes sales at the trade shows. Lemonis how about yourself . Mary lou im a teacher. Lemonis okay. Mary lou fulltime teacher. Lemonis this is a side job. Mary lou this is nights. Lemonis and so how did you get into the swim business . Chuck great question. Mary lou chuck got a job with another company to do their sale. They wanted to expand to their swimwear. He was there 20 years. He made a lot of money doing really well in sales, so he came up with a concept thats a swimwear with a matching coverup. And they didnt want that, so hes always had this dream to have his own company with his children working with him. Im overweight, and i always used to lament, theres not fashion suits for larger women. Chuck recognized that, so he said, lets focus on this because our idea, everything has a matching coverup. Chuck ive always been designing for her. Lemonis very cool. So is this everything . Charlie this is it pretty much, this is the office. Lemonis and what happens in here . Who works here . Mary ellen i live in new jersey. My dad, my mom live in new jersey. Lemonis were in miami. Mary lou were from miami. Chuck and i met in high school. Were high school sweethearts. Lemonis okay. Mary lou chuck, in 1976, went to new york because his family had a swimwear business, and then, i moved to new york. And we always thought we would come back here. Lemonis and why havent you . Mary lou because i have the job. I have the income. I have the health insurance. Lemonis so why doesnt the business move to new jersey if you guys cant move . Mary ellen my brother was here. He went to college here. He stayed here. It just was convenient at the time. Mary lou and we just kept it here. Chuck yes. Lemonis okay. Any time you split the operations in different cities, youre potentially gonna have a high level of inefficiency. Also, typically, the fashion world is either east coast, based in new york, or west coast, based in los angeles. And so one of those two choices isnt miami. Can i see the product . Is there a warehouse or something . Mary ellen yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. This is the warehouse. Charlie this is where we bring all the merchandise in from china. Lemonis and then, in new jersey, are there offices . Mary lou in our home. Lemonis so this is the only office. Mary lou correct. One of the things we set up here is a trade show booth. Charlie you see this tradeshow booth . This guy does it. I do it with oneday laborer. I bought it all at ikea. I picked it out myself. Lemonis okay. One of the ways that you can differentiate yourself from your competitors is by having a tradeshow booth that really elevates the brand. It creates an environment for the buyers to visualize it in their store. But when i see lawn furniture and lattices and poor lighting, well, its no wonder why theyve struggled. Lemonis do you guys have anybody that could try this stuff on . Id like to see how it fits. Charlie were gonna show you this one sample. Lemonis how are you, maam . Chuck the nice thing about this suit is that its more towards atleisure wear. Lemonis how comfortable is it . Be honest. Woman oh, i like it. Its very sporty. Lemonis theres two things that i wanted to think about when i looked at the swimsuits what the fit and the shape and the material was gonna be like. Mary lou were very proud of our fit. Lemonis is it comfortable . Model yes, very. Lemonis . And then what the prints and the colors would look like. Do you like this suit . Model i like that its highwaisted. Lemonis the prints, in my opinion, they were hideous. The Color Palettes seem somewhat outdated, and when you look at current designs, it looks like these prints are from 10 years ago. Honestly, the beautiful model saved the bathing suit. Which one of you determines the print . Mary ellen dad. Lemonis and which one determines the Color Palette . Mary ellen dad. Lemonis and what do you use to determine your Color Palette . Chuck i do a lot of shopping. We shop neiman marcus. We shop bloomingdales. We shop nordstroms. Lemonis but youre a season late because those trends are now. Chuck gets inspiration by visiting a retail store. Well, whats on the shelf now is from a year ago. Colors change, styles change. Whos going to want to buy last years print . Nobody. This is a traditional swimsuit. All right . What does this cost to make . Chuck now, thats cost us 9 landed. Lemonis 9 landed wholesaling for . Mary ellen 23. 50. Lemonis what does Something Like this sell for retail . Chuck 109 . Lemonis 109 . Are you selling for too little . Mary lou he sells it too cheap. He gives them a deal. Lemonis if a retailer sells a bathing suit like this one for 100, they would expect to buy it wholesale for around 50. Instead, chuck is trying to create this firesale atmosphere, luring them to the product by selling it for 23. 50, essentially walking away from an additional 26. 50 of gross profit on every single unit he sells. While im in favor of the retailer making more money, im also in favor of the company that im considering investing in being profitable as well. So where is the rest of the inventory . Charlie right over through here. Lemonis but its in this warehouse. Charlie yes, everything is kept here. Lemonis so that, on the wall, is the entire Company Inventory . Charlie mmhmm. Lemonis so how much should be in here . Mary lou oh, a lot more. Lemonis how much should be in your inventory . Chuck normally, 25,000 pieces. Lemonis 25,000 minimum. Chuck normally, yeah. Lemonis and how many pieces are in here . Charlie 800 pieces. Lemonis and you cant afford the inventory to make it work. Charlie correct. Lemonis if you want to clearly see the consequences of poor margins, just look around this room. This company has virtually no inventory. This scares me. Why are you here, ultimately . Mary ellen im here to help my dad, and i want to be cuttingedge in design. Lemonis whats your professional background prior to here . Mary ellen i was a tech associate, technical designer for dressbarn. Lemonis you were designing. Mary ellen yep. And i went to school to be a designer, and thats kind of where my heart is. It was sad it was sad to leave that because i really did want to try and lemonis why did you leave . Mary ellen i wanted it for him. Im the one thats in new jersey. I see my parents struggle. Financially, my parents have no money left to put into the company. Its really hard. Lemonis it is hard. Mary ellen you can ask any of my family members. My dad always picks up the tab. Hes the most generous person youll ever meet. Like, i dont want that stress on them anymore, you know . Its hard on me because i just. I want it to work so bad. Lemonis yeah. Mary ellen brings a high level of process and understanding of what it takes to be in the fashion world. Chuck doesnt have a process. His idea is that hes gonna go to a Department Store and copy ideas that are hanging on the rack and then go try to peddle them to the same buyers that bought the product six months ago . Wrong process. Your brother seems like hes got some energy. Mary ellen [ laughs ] thats a way to put it. Lemonis how do you guys communicate . Mary ellen not as effectively as id like. He doesnt understand how much work goes into what we did. I mean, hes in miami, in south beach. I dont know. Lemonis maybe going back home would be, not only good for business, but it would be good for him, potentially. I want to sit down and go over the financials. Okay . Mary ellen yep. Lemonis so lets look over 2015 first. Lemonis 2015, you made 759,000 in sales, 253,000 of gross profit, which is 33 , which is terrible. The total expenses are 289,000, which leaves net income of negative 36,000. 2016, you made 777,000 and lost 40,000. I mean, you guys are essentially out of business right now. Chuck its immeasurably hard, and it isnt that its hard on me. I know its hard on her. Mary lou no, its not. Chuck and thats what hurts me the most is that i know im letting her down. Mary lou no, its not. Chuck it is, and thats what hurts me the most. Mary lou its very hard for a man not to be the main provider. You know, he does everything for us, and im just very upset about that. If he didnt work, then itd be one thing, but he works 24 7. Lemonis i just need to dig into the numbers. Im going to take the numbers with me. Mary ellen of course. Lemonis it clearly is a family effort. I leave here inspired by your story. Chuck thank you. Mary lou thank you so much. Lemonis nice meeting you. Very nice meeting you. Thank you. The Financial Health of the company is definitely a red flag, but i love the space that theyve identified in the void in the market, and you cant buy or teach passion. What i have to determine is what do i think the business is really worth and what do i want to get for it because the risk here is high. But if it works, the payoff is huge. I was originally attracted to this business because i saw a company that is familyowned that decided to enter the plussize market. But the business doesnt have any working capital to speak of. Its done 3 4 of a Million Dollars two years in a row, and its lost about 40,000 each year. Theres no inventory. Theres no real design process. What is here other than a fantastic idea with a proof of concept . Mary lou [ sighs ] this has been his dream. It is very hard. Chuck its not easy for me taking you down. Believe me. Mary lou youre not taking me down. I took myself down. Chuck no. Mary lou i made choices. I made decisions. Mary ellen they have put their finances into running this company, and im not gonna stop until something finally breaks. You cant just put everything and then have nothing to show for it at the end. I dont want to see you guys lose everything. Mary lou i dont want you to worry about me. Mary ellen it just cant all be for nothing. Chuck its a struggle just to survive to pay bills. Lemonis thats a lot of pressure on you. Chuck oh, its insurmountable. Lemonis its not insurmountable. Its overwhelming. I do think the Business Needs structure. Who is the boss of the Business Today . Chuck well, thats its really me. Lemonis you are . Charlie i think so. Mary lou [ laughs ] mary ellen i respectfully disagree. Charlie i have to. I bear the brunt of a lot. Mary ellen i respectfully disagree. Charlie you mary ellen no. Sorry. Charlie okay. You can respectfully disagree. Mary ellen the boss is the person whose name is on the door. Charlie that, luckily, its my name, as well. Lemonis coming up. What do you thinks gonna go wrong . Mary lou i dont want them to screw up so much. And im afraid. Im afraid. Lemonis listen, listen. Listen. Mary lou and im afraid. They dont understand. Im afraid. And now for their service to the community, charlie okay. Mary ellen all right. We present limu emu doug with this key to the city. [ applause ] its an honor to tell you that Liberty Mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. And now we need to get back to work. [ applause and band playing ] only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Number one in Overall Network performance. Full of awards. Highest in Wireless Network Quality Performance. Highest in Wireless Network Quality Performance in the North Central region. Its hard to know what to think. Thats why sprints doing things differently and offering a new one hundred percent total satisfaction guarantee. 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Howd he get out . a camera might figure it out. That was easy glad i could help. At xfinity, were here to make life simple. Easy. Awesome. So come ask, shop, discover at your xfinity store today. Charlie you can respectfully disagree. Mary ellen the boss is the person whose name is on the door. Charlie that, luckily, is my name as well. Mary lou [ laughs ] chuck i disagree. Lemonis whos the boss . Chuck me. Lemonis okay. I want to, kind of, get to the point, okay . The business doesnt exist today other than a fantastic idea with a proof of concept. Im intrigued by serving a market that i think is underserved. I want to do business with you guys. Mary lou you do . Chuck im listening. Lemonis my offer is 650,000 for 55 of the business. And, to be crystal clear, ill be the boss. Charlie im okay with that. Lemonis . Not you. Charlie thats fine. Lemonis . cause i have no problem firing your ass. Charlie thats fine. Go for it. I would love it all day. Lemonis and i may even give your sister permission to fire your ass. Charlie hustle me as hard as you can with this. Lemonis so i see the 650,000 making the company debtfree and making sure the company has access to capital to buy inventory. And we want to make sure we have a good amount of money for Product Development cause this business cannot solely be in the womens bathing suit business. I think the company also needs to have an office not in miami, not in your home with a showroom of some kind, and you can show people things. Mary lou like you always did, honey. Lemonis you can have designers. Mary lou youre right on target. Lemonis so. We have a deal . Chuck we have a deal. Mary lou i do the hug. Lemonis okay. Mary lou mama hug. Lemonis okay. Mary lou thank you. Lemonis we have a deal . Charlie we have a deal. Mary ellen absolutely. Lemonis thank you. Chuck thank you. We wont let you down. Chuck, this is great. Lemonis ill see you guys in a little bit. Mary lou okay, thank you. Lemonis hi, guys. Mary ellen how are you . Lemonis how are you . Mary ellen good. Lemonis fashion happens both on the east coast and the west coast, so i wanted the family to come out to my l. A. Showroom where some of my fashion brands are. Its clear to me that theres a real flaw in chucks design process. His idea of roaming the aisles of a Department Store isnt exactly research and development. So the first step in getting this done is to have a focus group. Charlie hey, guys. Stephanie hello. Lemonis so this is really all about doing research. I brought in the president of my entire fashion group. Her name is stephanie menkin. Were gonna get some feedback from all of our participants. What i want to hear from these ladies is what they think of the colors and the fabrics and the sizes and the patterns. And then, i want to take that information and actually put it into action. All right, were going to bring the model. If the model can come in, that would be great. Chuck so this is a suit i designed. It has adjustable straps. Its a scoop front. It has a matching coverup that we ship with it. Lemonis what do we think of the print . Woman 2 for me, i would totally love that pattern with a full black suit. Woman 2 . Or that suit with a full black exterior. Lemonis do you like the fact that its sold as a set, or would you prefer it individual . Woman 2 i dont dig buying anything as a set, personally. I dont know. I like the option of being able to mix and match. Woman 2 i think you have an opportunity to make more money by offering mix and match. Chuck see, i would tend to disagree with you. Many major labels that are currently being sold right now on one website, were just killing them all because of the set. Lemonis lets bring in the next model, please. Woman 2 i have to say one thing about the matching prints. They dont really match perfectly. Its a little off. Woman 3 the color blocking, just a little hint of the blue right in, you know, that area. [ laughter ] stephanie yes. Lemonis so that, to me, is a design issue. Lets bring in the last model. How are you . Woman 4 good. How are you . Lemonis how does the bathing suit feel . Woman it actually feels really good, and it has full coverage in the back, which i do appreciate. Lemonis is there anything you dont like about it . Woman 4 the biggest thing would be maybe, like, the pattern because its just a little much. Lemonis who doesnt like the print . Woman 1 i think, right now, that the patterns are speaking to an older crowd. Woman 5 i agree. Maybe not a grandmother, but in someone in that age range, i agree, might like that. Woman 1 i agree. Woman 5 they like the brighter patterns. But someone younger. Lemonis on a scale of 1 to 10, how do you feel about the prints . Woman 6 im at a 3. Woman 1 5. 5. Woman 5 im agreeing 5. Lemonis 5 . Woman 7 4 or 5 for me. Woman 2 2. Stephanie im with you. 2. Woman 8 you said, swim by chuck, right . Lemonis chuck handy. Woman 8 so if i hear swim by a guys name, i might start thinking, why is he creating swimsuits . Mary lou what about michael kors . Woman 8 but michael kors is a purse versus a swimsuit. It just do you get what im do you see where im going towards . Stephanie you buy spanx cause its made by a woman for a woman, right, because she understands. Woman 1 exactly. Lemonis look, the focus group didnt hate everything they saw. What they do like is the fit of the suit, the fabric, and the coverage it gives. But they thought the designs fell flat, and they didnt love the name. I need something thats gonna wow people, something that the buyers, both retail and wholesale, will say, ive never seen this before. How do i get it on my shelf . Thank you, ladies, very much. Mary ellen thank you so much. Lemonis how are you . We are here to see lisa and kate. Theyre expecting us. I had one more stop for the family while we were in los angeles. I wanted to take them to nydj, a very Large Manufacturer of womens apparel. They specialize in plus sizes. In order for the handys to understand how to move their business forward, i want to introduce them to a company who has had real success in the plussize market, not only how to develop the product, but how to market to a very specific customer. This is the start of having you understand what im looking for. Take a minute to look at the images. Everything has a purpose, and weve got to put a story together. Kate this is part of our fit to be campaign, which really is rooted in customer intimacy. Lisa i think women want to, maybe, imagine themselves on vacation where, maybe, theyre with their family or their with their girlfriends so that theyre actually with other people around them, as well, so that it doesnt feel like the lone model, that shes posing. Mary ellen i think its great to make it more relatable with a mother, daughter or someone whos a little bit overweight and underweight so you have, in one image, two people that are different. These are things that ive seen before and we do need to implement. Charlie weve done group photo shoots, but we didnt concentrate on that because that wasnt really where our target was falling into. We rented a yacht. We rented an r. V. I want women to feel like this model is on their vacation, kind of just lounging. Lemonis charlie did you pick up on what lisa said, though . I didnt sense that you actually listened to it. She was saying that she rarely, if ever, puts somebody by themselves. Did you understand why she said that, though . Charlie i dont understand exactly, no. What do you like to use pairing up . Lemonis well, she told you. You didnt listen to her. Charlie excuse me. Lemonis i want to work on our listening skills. I want to make sure that youre processing these things. Charlie, can you grab a brochure of ours to show them what it would look like . You didnt bring it with you . Mary lou it was a mixup. Lemonis i always love how your mother answers for you. I will never challenge any mother getting involved to defend their son as long as its on the school yard and not the boardroom. I know you have a tendency to always try to mediate the situation and defend. You cant save him all the time. What are you afraid of . What do you mean . Come here. Mary lou [ sniffles ] oh. Lemonis what do you thinks gonna go wrong . Mary lou theyre not perfect. Lemonis what do you. Mary lou theyre not perfect. They make a lot of mistakes. Lemonis what do you thinks gonna go wrong . Mary lou i dont want them to screw up so much, and im afraid. Im afraid. Lemonis listen, listen. Listen. Mary lou and im afraid. Mary lou they dont understand. Im afraid. Lemonis coming up. Some new and fresh ideas. Chuck its harsh for me. Im not crazy about the print at all. Lemonis my biggest concern with the company is i dont really think of you as a designer. Woman 1 i had no symptoms of hepatitis c. Man 1 mine. Man 1 . Caused liver damage. Vo epclusa treats all main types of chronic hep c. Vo whatever your type, ask your doctor if epclusa is your kind of cure. Woman 2 i had the common type. Man 2 mine was rare. Vo epclusa has a 98 overall cure rate. Man 3 i just found out about my hepatitis c. Woman 3 i knew for years. Vo epclusa is only one pill, once a day, taken with or without food for 12 weeks. Vo before starting epclusa, your doctor will test if you have had hepatitis b, which may flare up, and could cause serious liver problems during and after treatment. Vo tell your doctor if you have had hepatitis b, other liver or kidney problems, hiv, or other medical conditions. Vo . And all medicines you take, including herbal supplements. Vo taking amiodarone with epclusa may cause a serious slowing of your heart rate. Vo common side effects include headache and tiredness. Vo ask your doctor today, if epclusa is your kind of cure. Red lobsters endless shrimp is back for just 15. 99. Get all the shrimp you want, any way you want em. Like new srirachahoney shrimp, savory grilled teriyaki shrimp, classic shrimp scampi and more red lobsters endless shrimp is 15. 99. Hurry in. And this is a real person named mackenzie book. Hi, im mac book. So mac, which laptop lasts longer . Surface laptop lasts longer. Hmm, interesting. And which ones faster . This ones faster. Really . Amazing. Which one has a better touchscreen . The surface has a better touchscreen. Because it actually has a touchscreen. Oh, right. Macs dont have touchscreens. You should get a surface. Trust me, im mac book. Well, there you have it. Mac book says, get a surface. Yeah. Yeah, this is nice. Hmm. How did you make the dip so rich and creamy . Oh its a philadelphia family recipe. Can i see it . No. Philadelphia dips. So good, youll take all the credit. Whoa, thats crisp. Crisp taste. Brewed with no corn syrup. Bud light. Still fresh. Unstopables inwash scent booster downy unstopables mary lou and im afraid. They dont understand. Im afraid. This is so stupid. Lemonis no, no, its not. Mary lou thats not what i wanted to be here. Lemonis listen. Shh, shh, shh, shh. Ultimately, we want them to learn. Mary lou youre right. Youre right. Lemonis and they may get a little bruised, okay . Mary lou thank you. Lemonis yeah. Lets go back in there. Mary lou okay. Kate you have you campaign. Mary ellen yep. Kate you have your sales. You have your ecomm. Mary ellen mmhmm. Kate those all need different types of messages and imagery. Mary ellen i think we need to really set time and develop who our customer is and look at her outside of her swim and what other things that she likes so we can tap into her, maybe, emotionally, a little bit more. Lemonis lisa and kate, thank you very much. Lisa we wish you success. Lemonis good seeing you again. Lemonis today, im meeting charlie down in miami. Its time to consolidate this business and get everybody under one roof. This warehouse needs to close, and you need to go back to new jersey. Charlie me being up there makes more sense. Lemonis now that were out of miami, i want to get the ball rolling meeting new suppliers, new manufacturers and making new contacts in our soontobe new home of new york city. If you made this in china, what would it cost . Chuck that, probably around 15. Rigoberto manufacture here is going to cost 18. Lemonis i think most people would sort of scratch their head and say, why would you spend more to make it here . Ill give you my answer. Chuck yes. Lemonis the minimums are lower. The lead times are quicker. Chuck yes. Lemonis and you can put your hands on the process from start to finish as opposed to send it all over email to china, and it comes back and hope its right. Historically, the company would manufacture its swimsuits overseas. On the surface, it sounds like a good idea because its cheaper. But is it really cheaper . Once you go back and forth across the ocean to make any adjustments and you dont get the product produced in time to meet the market, didnt time just really cost you money . We are gonna go to curve, a trade show. Its in three weeks. So new name, new trade booth, new garments. Curve is one of the largest trade shows in the world that specialize in swimwear and lingerie, and it caters to all shapes and sizes. If there was a Perfect Place to launch a new company and a new brand, this is the place. Lemonis thank you very much. Rigoberto any time. My pleasure. Lemonis thank you so much. Lemonis come on in. Chuck it was locked. Hey. Lemonis come on in. Chuck wow. Lemonis with curve right around the corner, i wanted to take the design process to a worldclass level. And the numberone complaint that everybodys had, including me, is the prints. Ive decided to bring in another company that i have an investment in, printed village. Its a platform that connects Companies Like swim with artists that can create unique designs that can be applied to any fashion garment, changing it and making it revolutionary and cuttingedge. Why wouldnt you want to have a body and a bank of artists from around the world as opposed to one guy . Woman 1 hi. I love to do prints with animals. Birds are always on trend. Mary ellen i like the twin print cause it coordinates with the same colors, but it is not matchymatchy. Lemonis do you like the Color Palette . Chuck no, im not crazy about the suit. Woman 2 so this is a marble design, and marble is super in right now. Chuck youre not gonna convince me. The white on the skin is a tough thing. Woman 3 hi, everyone. This is my first design. Its along that tropical line. Im using minimal color, so i thought id take it in a more, like, simple direction. Lemonis do you like it, mary lou . Mary lou yes, i do like it. I like that. Lemonis charlie . Charlie thats a good one. Chuck im not sure about the yellow and the purple. In some areas, its harsh for me. Woman 4 so this is inspired by moroccan tiles. Charlie oh, wow. Mary ellen i love it, how you have it placed on the towel. Chuck i love the Color Palette. Im not crazy about the print at all. Mary ellen historically, we sell to the buyers needs, and that buyer is a middleaged, older mindset. And youre fantastic at selling them, but if we want to move forward and capture a younger audience, i think what youve done is beautiful. Lemonis what i will tell you, chuck, what does concern me, is you fall back to older a lot. Any designer has to have an open mind about everything because designing is a collaboration, and after seeing the way he reacted to the work, it told me right there and then this guy cant lead the design process. I think my biggest concern with the company is the design process. It really has, historically, just been you coming up with ideas. Chuck without a question of a doubt. Lemonis your talent and your knowledge is impressive, but i dont really think of you as a designer. Chuck listen, if im gonna be the one out there pushing it and selling it, i need to have a reason to do that. I have a problem with giving control up. Lemonis for exclusives, extras and business advice, vi. Com. Chuck listen, if im gonna be the one out there you wanna see something thatamazing . Ing. Go to hilton instead of a travel site and youll experience a whole new range of emotions like. The relaxing feeling of knowing youre getting the best price. Thesell work. The utter delight of free wifi. Oh man this is the best part. Isnt that you . Yeah. And the magic power of unlocking your room with your phone. I can read minds too. Really . Book at hilton. Com. If you find a lower rate, we match it and give you 25 off that stay. Expect better. Expect hilton. Theres one thing you can be sure of. Theyre changing by the nanosecond. Thats why cognizant created a unique engineering approach learn how cognizant softvision designs experiences and engineers outcomes. Cool. gasp singsong budget meeting sweet. If you compare last quarter to this quarter. Various mmm. Its no wonder everything seems a little better with the creamy taste of philly, made with fresh milk and real cream. With the creamy taste of philly, theres so much scent in new gain scent blast detergent. Youll either love it or. Mmm. I guess not. New gain scent blast. Love it or hate it. Its intense. Pushing it and selling it, i need to have a reason to do that. I have a problem with giving control up. Mary lou chuck always had the passion to do design, and i think it was okay. But we didnt sell a [bleep] load of stuff to say, wow, this is awesome. You have to remember. What is your direct focus for the success of this company, which is sales . Mary ellen were so ready to finally, hopefully, have someone with some answers to reorganize, and then, you can start to have those convictions with your sales because, lord knows, if we put a buyer in front of you right now to sell these prints, youd sell the [bleep] out of every single one, whether you liked it or not. Lemonis your wife took a chance on you, and you want to deliver. Chuck completely correct. Lemonis i want us to be successful so that mary lou can be proud of you just like you, ultimately, really want her to be. Chuck i dont want to put this in any type of jeopardy. Having some input, thats all i want. Lemonis chuck, youre in charge of the entire sales organization, top to bottom. I thought todays process was great. We now have a design process that we will follow. Printed village will be our resource for designs. All right . You guys ready to go . Okay. Chuck hey, marcus. Lemonis so i wanted to bring you to your new home. Chuck oh, my gosh. Charlie this is insane. Chuck nice and open. Lemonis and its not done yet. Its a blank canvas, and i wanted you guys to make this your home as opposed to somebody doing it for you. Charlie its just amazing. Mary ellen i didnt expect this. Charlie no, me either. Mary ellen i didnt expect it to be so nice. Lemonis whats wrong, chuck . Chuck im just a little overwhelmed. Thats all. Charlie think of all those long hours you put in. Chuck [ sighs ] its a lot. Believe me. Mary ellen i mean, its a dream come true for dad, everything hes worked for. Chuck well, honey, this is for you, too. Dont forget that. Mary ellen now im just curious what names gonna be on the door. Charlie what were you thinking . Lemonis what was i thinking . Charlie yes. Lemonis okay, you ready . Charlie yes. Mary lou were ready. Charlie oh. Mary ellen reminds me of, like, the sun on the horizon. Lemonis day or night, thats why i split that. Mary ellen oh. Lemonis a woman thinks about her silhouette and wanting to have curve and wanting to have sex appeal, and its a sexy word. Mary ellen mmhmm. Mary lou no, its nice. Lemonis so thats one piece, and this is how i think about the brand today. So this is what exists today, and the goal would be to fill this box with other things that live in the siloett world. The way i want you to think about the business going forward, is the brand in the middle, and were gonna create a pinwheel. A pinwheel is an array of products all focused around one core product. In the case of this company, its a bathing suit. The goal is to design complementary products that can support the bathing suit, like hats, bags, towels, flipflops. Ultimately, that one single customer has more options to buy from this company, dramatically increasing the opportunity, ultimately, increasing the revenue. And, so, well be showing at curve in the next two weeks with our own booth. So mary ellen is in charge of design. And then, obviously, chuck, youre going to work on the entire sales strategy, the pitch, the pricing. Charlie, your role is to build the trade booth. Well have a 10by30 booth. Were gonna work on walls and displays and banners and pointofpurchase material and everything. Charlie no problem. Lemonis everybody has to have their role. I want to give them very clear direction with very clear tasks, put a process in place, and take the design process to the next level. Charlie aw, man. Come hug me. We did so much work. We did it. We did so much work for this. Mary ellen well, i wanted to talk to you about the generation of prints. Jason yes. Today, we can finalize these prints, and if were all good with them, we all sign off, then we can start sending them to sampling. Lemonis hi, guys. I made a special trip to the showroom because with curve being right around the corner, i want to know that theyre making progress on the designs and on the trade booth and on the line extension. Mary ellen i have a presentation to give you on siloett, and i believe, the focus and design. Lemonis great, okay. Lets see what you have. Mary ellen yeah, okay. So i have been thinking a lot about we started as a Swimwear Company, and what does that mean for our customer . Our customer is someone who is wearing a swimsuit who is going somewhere. Shes going to the beach. Shes going to the bar. And what does that mean . What is she packing with her . What is she putting it in . And, you know, how can siloett make her life a little bit easier . So in terms of siloett, a curated collection of getaway musthaves that only looks like you spent all month shopping. I minifocus grouped a lot of my friends and said, listen. Tell me, when you go on vacation, give me things you need and you cant have. So i dont care if its hats, sunglasses. We have bag fees, and people are trying to minimize what theyre bringing. You dont have six shirts. You have one shirt that works, day to night. But now were gonna go somewhere, right . We need a bag that holds it all. Lemonis okay. Mary ellen welcome to our bag, etta, siloetta. Lemonis okay. And shes the musthave travel bag. Lemonis i love that. Mary ellen so in terms of our customers and where shes going and who she is, this is her date night. This is her, you know, to the beach with flipflops, another coverup. So we can do a collaboration. So we do our scarves because, you know, Everyone Needs a scarf. Shes gonna buy the black suit. At least, shed get a little pop here. Lemonis im really impressed with mary ellen. Not only did she start brainstorming new product extensions for siloett. She came to the table with mockups and ideas. And she started working with printed village right away to take their designs and incorporate them into her mockups. I designed everything that i thought i would want to wear and, like, couldnt live without. Lemonis as far as im concerned, she showed true leadership. And more importantly, her ideas, theyre good. Honestly, that encapsulates what i was trying to say and couldnt. Love it. It feels organized. Where is your presentation . Charlie i have it on paper, still. Lemonis so its not done. Charlie correct. Lemonis its been a week, by the way. Charlie dude, how much [bleep] ive been doing, i didnt have the time for this. I just dont feel like i have the opportunity. I just dont have the time. Chuck no, you did. Mary ellen i didnt have the time either. Chuck you did, you absolutely did. Charlie i havent got a chance to sit at a desk. Lemonis i know youre capable of more, but youve got to be honed in, and you cant let him rope you in. Charlie i understand. Lemonis did he rope you in . Charlie i wouldnt say its his fault. Lemonis well, whose fault is it . Charlie its my living situation. Lemonis what does that mean . Charlie i live in the house with my parents. Lemonis but it has to be somebodys fault. Charlie theres something constantly going on. I live in this big circus. Duh, duh, duh. Every morning, everythings going on. Lemonis coming up. Charlie i hired two people for the office. Lemonis i mean, seriously, man. Would the booth have been built if two assistants werent hired . Charlie yes. Lemonis yes. Would the products have been made if the assistants werent here . Charlie i with it sounds that easy. Lemonis is that easy. Lemonis it has to be somebodys fault. Cake in the Conference Room showing em youre ready. To be your own boss. Thats the beauty of your smile. 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Youll either love it or. Mmm. I guess not. New gain scent blast. Love it or hate it. Its intense. Ahh now thats crisp. Crisp taste. Brewed with no corn syrup. Bud light. Charlie its my living situation. Lemonis what does that mean . Charlie i live in the house with my parents. Lemonis it has to be somebodys fault. Charlie theres something constantly going on. I live in this big circus. Duh, duh, duh. Every morning, everythings going on. Lemonis did i just hear this guy right . This is a grown man in his 30s, and hes telling me he couldnt finish his project because his parents were making too much noise . That kind of stuff, honestly, makes me so crazy. Where is your presentation . Can i see it . Charlie this is. Lemonis lets go through it. Charlie this is my competitive advantage, the collaborative lemonis so this is all you brought to the table . Charlie i have booth information. Lemonis lets see it. Charlie of course. Lemonis i know hes capable. I know hes intelligent. This is just [bleep] followthrough. This stuff, the whole trade booth, all the signage, all the tags have to be ready. Charlie correct. Mary ellen swimsuits are tricky. The closer you get to the body, the harder the fit is. Woman yeah. Lemonis im pleased with where mary ellen has started the process, but now the real work begins. Mary ellen when you have a double border running and you want the border to hit the bustline, itll get a better yield. Lemonis shes developing new swimsuit styles with professional pattern makers. Mary ellen so undo that. Lemonis and shes working on the new fabrics and looks with printed village. Mary ellen you know what . I like that because now you flip this way, too, so i think we can change the background color. Lemonis shes also overseeing the sample process as the patterns get made on new fabrics and the products go into production. Mary ellen how you feel . Is it, lengthwise, okay . Woman it feels great, yeah, very comfortable. Mary ellen my callout would be the bra is too big on you. Woman yeah. Lemonis and mary ellen also developed new line extensions, such as coverups, to pair with the new collection. Mary ellen i love both of those. I see them both as swimsuit coverups, and i really do start to see them with, like, a brimmed hat. Lemonis this whole tradeshow project is yours. Meanwhile, charlies designing and producing a new tradeshow booth. Ive given him a budget of 60,000, and this presentation will definitely elevate the brand. And finally, chuck is reaching out to some potential new retail accounts, generating buzz and enthusiasm over the new brand. Curve is one of the largest trade shows in the entire world for swim, resort, and lingerie. I mean, the top vendors and the top buyers come to this. If curve goes bad, my 650,000 in this company is at risk. Now this is a booth. The work that charlie did exceptional. Ive never seen a tradeshow booth look this good. Charlie, you came through, buddy. Charlie thank you. Lemonis it ultimately looks like a real retail store with shelves and racks and real hangers. It may seem like a little detail, but its a difference maker. What i give you a lot of credit for is you thought of every single detail. Charlie the frames and the. Lemonis . All the way down to the chairs. Charlie oh, yeah, the chairs. Lemonis and so youll be able to take this to trade shows all over the country. Lemonis to see the colors and the prints and the patterns of all the different products, from shoes to hats to bathing suits, i was impressed. So can we go through all the product . Id like to see every single thing. Chuck the collection start with the travel bag, etta. Lemonis is this bag available for sale . Chuck absolutely. Lemonis what does it cost . Mary ellen right now, its 18. Lemonis so the cost is 18 . Mary ellen yep. Lemonis the wholesale to the customers wholesale . Chuck 60. Lemonis 60 . So a 70 margin. Chuck there you go. Lemonis historically, swim underpriced their product. What i see now is a product that will retail for more and wholesale for more. Thats how you improve margins. Okay, next product. Show me some bathing suits. Okay. Mary ellen this goes with this. Chuck oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Mary ellen . Coverup. Lemonis oh, my gosh. Mary ellen the feedback we got was they dont want print on print. They want coordination. And so we felt this was a beautiful way to coordinate an element of the print into an allover. Lemonis how beautiful is that . Chuck its very expensive. Thats what one buyers said, i love your fabric. Lemonis because you invested in quality. Chuck made in america. Mary ellen this one is one of my favorites. Lemonis whose body style is this . Mary ellen mine. Lemonis you designed this . Mary ellen yeah. Lemonis god, these fabrics are ridiculous. How much easier is it to sell, chuck, this stuff . Chuck you dont really sell it. You just show it. Lemonis youre saying it sells itself. Chuck yeah. Lemonis okay. Keep taking me through more. Mary ellen all right. So we have this phenomenal print. Chuck which is gorgeous. Lemonis this looks amazing. Mary ellen this is beautiful. And whats nice, this really works well with any of the blue prints. Lemonis wow. Its amazing. You took a good printed village print and made it super simple. What size are you . Woman im a 10. Lemonis 10. Is it comfortable . Woman yes, its beautiful. Lemonis and what does the wrap sell for . Chuck the wrap is selling for 35. Lemonis and what is the cost . Chuck 9. Lemonis thats a 74 margin. So how many different line extensions are there outside of bathing suits now . Mary ellen so we have the bags, the hats, the shoes, the scarves, the towels, swimsuits, and coverups. Lemonis honestly, its mindblowing that youre able to start with nothing, a warehouse in miami, and end up with a full booth that looks amazing. Chuck dont think it was all harmony. No, no, we had some latenight discussion that didnt exactly, you know. Lemonis like what . Mary ellen for instance, my frustration was yesterday. I was told that we running low on catalogs, so i called the printer and said, hey. Can you. How many can you print . I need 100. He says, i only have paper for 80. So i said, okay, fine. I heard from salma, his assistant. We needed more catalogs. Lemonis im sorry. Your what . Charlie i hired two people for the office. Lemonis why . Charlie because these guys are running around, i couldnt get. Not everything can get done. Lemonis okay. Well, let me challenge that for a minute. Would the booth have been built if two assistants werent hired . Charlie yes, yes. Lemonis yes. Would the products have been made if the assistants werent here . Mary ellen yes. Lemonis this is a startup business that, months ago, had no inventory and no cash, and just because hundreds of thousands of dollars went into the bank account doesnt give everybody the liberty to just run wild. Charlie i had a lot on my plate. Lemonis stop saying that. So did everybody. Charlie i understand that lemonis i have a lot on my plate. I dont have an assistant. I mean, dude, seriously, man and two of them . Charlie i wanted to make sure that this was executed and it looked its very best. Lemonis charlie, it wasnt like you were, with a hammer and a nail, building this yourself. Charlie i wish it sounds that easy. Lemonis it is that easy if your business is in trouble and you need my help, log on. Liberty mutual customizes your Car Insurance, so you only pay for it wawhat you need. Were, i wish i could shake your hand. Granted. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Every breath makes you feel closer to nature. 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And people inside from accidentally visiting sites that arent secure. And if someone trys well let you know. Xfi advanced security. If its connected, its protected. Call, click, or visit a store today. With a hammer and a nail, building this yourself. Charlie i wish it sounds that easy. Lemonis it is that easy hiring assistants is not cool with me. Charlie there was a lot to get done there was a lot to get done. Lemonis its just like you saying to me, i run the business. Heres the deal. Somebodys got to be in charge, and it cannot be you. It just cannot be you. The boat has to have one captain, and honestly, you know who should be leading that captain . Mary ellen. Charlie she doesnt have the whole pie. Shes never worked the whole pie. Lemonis she brings a womans touch to a womans product. What do you think . Chuck i realize that its the best for the company, and its the best for the family. Lemonis what do you think of that . Charlie i feel that sure. Thats fine. Lemonis every Business Needs a leader. That doesnt mean that it has to minimize anybody elses role. Mary ellen, who could talk the talk, proved to me that she could walk the walk. And the fact that she was able to get it done in a matter of weeks, it was flawless execution. And make no mistake about it. I see charlie as a real asset for this business. But frankly, hes got some growing up to do, and i want to see more from him because i know hes capable of it. I am proud of you, buddy. Charlie thank you. Lemonis by the way, you see all these people shopping in the booth . Theyre here because you put together an amazing space. Mary lou, i think that you should be able to end today feeling very good about your two children. Mary lou i do. As a parent, you dont want to let go. You dont want to let go, and its time to let go, and you dont have to micromanage. You can give them a task, and theyll do it. [ laughs ] mary ellen just kidding. Im still hugging him. Lemonis were gonna write some orders today. Chuck were going to write it, baby. Chuck first thing we want to provide you with is, you need a bag to pack. Woman this is its really nice. Chuck this is beautiful. I love this. Woman i love that. Yeah. So well do six of those. Chuck six of this . The attention to detail with the crochet is beautiful. Woman this is great. Charlie what do you think of the pelicans here . Chuck thats a great body style. Woman see, i love that. Chuck and this is more classical. Woman that will always sell. I like that. Chuck home run. Lemonis chuck is so good at selling it. He is able to sit people down and write orders. Over 270,000 of orders were written in just 48 hours. That happens to be almost half of what they did all last year. Chuck were gonna do really great things for you, marcus. Im telling you. Lemonis group hug. Good job, everybody. All right. Chuck thank you, mark. Lemonis thank you, guys. Mary ellen thank you for saving our family. Lemonis the handy family proved to me that the investment in them was more important than anything else and that, given the right resources and the right tools, they would deliver a worldclass product in a worldclass environment with worldclass presentation. Okay, guys. Mary lou all righty. Lemonis have fun mary lou thank you. Lemonis sell something. You guys do a lo. Justin as much as we can. Ray yep. [ laughs ] lemonis at a sportsapparel business in illinois, the product is topnotch. Justin sun protection. Ray completely custom shirt. Lemonis but somethings fishy. Why am i here . Katie well, youre here because the business is out of money. Lemonis the facility is quite literally a sweat shop. Katie it gets really hot in here. Lemonis no ac in here. Katie no ac. Lemonis the employees are up in arms. Marci i actually have a video of a friday afternoon i think you would probably find pretty interesting. Lemonis and one of the owners has a troubling side gig. Ray im going to say what every other man wants to say that doesnt have the balls do to it. Lemonis if i cant get them to make some radical changes to their culture. I am a big believer that you are who you do business with. This company will capsize