Transcripts For CNBC The Profit 20240713

Simply slices has two locations, and right now, im on my way to the first. Its in a town called crestwood. I have an idea how to create a successful franchise. The simple greek started with 5 locations and now has 35. Im always looking for the next great fastcasual concept, and drivethrough pizza, it could be just that. Ray thank you for choosing simply slices. How can i help you today . Lemonis ill do tomato, green olives, and jalapeno. Ray perfect. Okay, great. Well, go ahead and pull around then. Lemonis theres drivethrough ice cream. Theres drivethrough coffee, chicken, hamburgers, but ive never seen drivethrough pizza, so its a different idea. Ray here you are, sir. You have a great day. Lemonis thank you. Ray thank you very much. Lemonis the pizza was good. It was hot. It tasted fresh. The sauce didnt have a lot of oomph to it, but it was good enough where the concept had viability. Chris how you doing . Lemonis hey, how are you . Chris pretty good. Lemonis im marcus. Chris hows it going . Chris. Nice to meet you. Lemonis chris, how are you . Nice to meet you. Dino whats up, marcus . Dino. Lemonis dino, nice to meet you. I saw on the window im supposed to call you for franchise opportunities. Dino yes. You need one . Lemonis i was just i mean, i dont know yet. Hows everybody else . Ray hey, marcus. Im ray. Lemonis nice to meet you. Ray nice to meet you. Debbie 1 hi, im debbie. Im dinos wife. Lemonis hi, debbie. How are you . Debbie 2 im also debbie. Im dino and debbies daughter. Lemonis how are you . So, three Family Members. Debbie 2 well, ray is actually my husband. Ray i am family. Lemonis and so all four of you work here . Dino always me, ray or debbie are here all the time. Lemonis okay, thats a good thing. So, dino. Dino yes, sir . Lemonis . Was this your idea . Dino yes. I worked in a pizza place called mangos, and there was a mcdonalds, and im watching cars go through the drivethrough. I got the idea of drivethrough pizza by the slice because nobody had done it. So i was going to revolutionize and pioneer the way people eat fast food. Why is pizza the most popular food on the planet and you cant get it in a drivethrough . Lemonis any time i find somebody with a concept that is different than anything else ive ever seen, the risks are that consumers dont adopt the idea of driving through and getting a slice of pizza and eating it in their car. The rewards are, if youre first to market, i mean, you could be a real trailblazer. Dino but ive mostly spent my life raising my family, so we ended up with seven kids. Lemonis you got seven kids . Dino yeah. Dino he became a cop. Lemonis so, dino. Dino doug now, he runs my burbank store that we opened up two years ago. Debbie. Lemonis okay. Dino derrick, darren, and dana. Dominic he passed away when he was 18. Lemonis im sorry. Dino yeah, it was horrible. My life totally changed, you know, when dom died. So, anyway, we can talk about that later. Lemonis and you have grandkids . Dino yes. Lemonis how many . Dino so, 10. Lemonis and do they all start with a d . Dino no. No, no, no. So, we developed tommy because we wanted somebody irreverent and funny. Lemonis i dont disagree. I dont disagree. I have a character called good sam in my business. Dino yeah. Lemonis we have a big costume. Do you guys have anything like that . Dino yes. Lemonis you do . I love the fact that dino was creative enough in his company to come up with a mascot. Is it on right . [ laughter ] so, what do you normally do . Go out into the street . And whether the mascot is corny, it is good because it gives people a visual, and it gives kids and families something to hang onto, and it actually makes the business feel lighter and more fun. Lets go debbie 1 hes cute, isnt he . Dino thats how you do it, brother, right there. [ horn honks ] debbie 1 there you go dino bring them home thats how you do it lemonis i can barely see you. Come on. Dino thats how you do it. Bringing them in, marcus. Lemonis so, what do you love about the menu . Debbie 1 the slice part. I like the shaved ice part. Lemonis i personally dont like the menu. Maybe its the fonts. Maybe its the layout. cause youre not selling simplicity. What you want to do is simplify the messaging so that the customer knows what you want them to focus on. Theres, like, 35 different flavors of syrup, 14 different sizes of pizzas. Its like sensory overload to me. It didnt feel like something you would franchise. How much revenue do you generate off a 20pound bag of ice . Dino we got an ice machine, and its like people want ice. Lemonis like a liquor store . Dino no, its just. Lemonis i will be honest with you. The setup looked a little carnivallike. How did you pick shaved ice . Dino we do whats called a slice and a ice. People love it. Lemonis good margins . What are they . Dino great margin. Lemonis about 96 dino yeah, good. But i was also concerned about how dated it looked. If youre going for oldschool 1984 called, then you got it. Dino marcus is going to make a pie. Ray uhoh. Lemonis dont say uhoh. Ray clear the kitchen. Dino yeah, thats good. Lemonis whats different that makes your dough so crispy . Ray we make it ourselves. Lemonis from scratch . Ray yep. Dino learned how to make pizza when i was 17 from an old sicilian. Everythings in operations manuals. Everythings set. Lemonis so, you have or have not tried to sell this concept . Dino yes. Wherever you put a mcdonalds, burger king, taco bell or wendys, youre going to see me sandwiched in between them with my little pizza concept. We have a Franchise Company. I had a guy trying to sell them for me, and that was 100 grand of investment. Weve done some franchise expos. We drew a crowd, marcus, but i couldnt get anybody to buy. Lemonis can i taste the sauce . Dino oh, yeah. Yeah. Lemonis do you make the sauce . Dino its from a puree, yes. Lemonis do you make it . Dino so, its puree, puree lemonis so, you open up a can. Dino yep. Lemonis . Of tomato puree. Dino yep. Lemonis and then you doctor it. It didnt have a lot of kick. Thats why i asked about the sauce. Dino ive been doing this for 40 years. Thats the way we do it. Thats the way ive done it. Lemonis and so is your process, ive been doing this 40 years. This is the way i make pizza, and if you dont like it, dont buy my franchise . Dino i well, all i have to say from that is, again, its is all i know, and it works. Lemonis theres no question that dino has been successful for the last 20 years with every Family Member working there. So, the labor costs are low, but a business in one location doesnt necessarily mean that its scalable. When did you start doing this . Debbie 2 i remember being 8 years old making pizzas with my dad. Lemonis and are you at this location all the time . Debbie 2 yes. Lemonis and your brothers at the other one . Debbie 2 yep. My brother runs that on his own. Thats his. You know, this is ours, so. Lemonis and have you ever worked over there . Debbie 2 before the split, i worked there. Lemonis what do you mean, split . Debbie 2 well, before [ chuckles ] before my dad sold it to him. Lemonis when you say split, that means thats how you actually feel. It wasnt just that the business was sold. Debbie 2 yeah. I mean. We were all working together in two different places, but doug and my dad were butting heads a lot. It was toxic, so my dad sold burbank to doug because it was really the only thing that was going to keep our family together, to keep his son close to him. You know, his kids didnt always follow the rules, so he really clamps down and tries to take over. Lemonis is your dad controlling . Debbie 2 yes. Lemonis how does your mom manage that . Debbie 2 theyre just one. Theyre one. Whatever he feels, she feels. Lemonis and how do your brothers and sisters divide who goes with your brother and who is it like a world divided right now . Debbie 2 mmhmm. Yeah. And a lot of that has to do with dom passing away. My parents changed completely after that had happened. Lemonis youre sort of inching your way back in, arent you . Yeah, you are. Can i, just away from everybody, chat with you and your wife, if thats okay . You know, oftentimes people call me to get involved in their business for different reasons, to help them solve money issues, help them scale their business. Im not sure which boxes im checking in this moment, but its clear to me that debbie just checked one for me that theres some family issues here. Debbie gave me the impression that you and doug dont really talk that much anymore. How did things erode with doug . Debbie 1 he asked for burbank. Lemonis he said, i want it, or im out of here . Dino yeah. Debbie 1 yeah. He was going to quit. Lemonis what led to all that . Dino well, basically, for us, it started when dom died. Debbie 1 we buried him on thursday. We were back to work on friday. Lemonis how did your son die, if i may ask . Debbie 1 an overdose of cocaine. Lemonis okay. Dino we were a really tightknit family. We were close. I worked with my kids. We homeschooled. Were gonna keep a tight rein and make sure the world doesnt come and destroy this, what we have. Lemonis and so why is doug gone . Debbie 1 they have different philosophies of business, but dino yeah, we celebrate thanksgiving, christmas, all have a great time, but when it comes to business, theres certain ways you do it, and theres certain ways you dont. If you grow a business, im gonna be the happiest person on the planet. Debbie 1 but its not growing. Lemonis and do you believe doug represents the franchise concept well . Dino we dont know. Lemonis what do you mean, you dont know . You dont go there . Dino i go there a couple times. Ive been there a few times. Lemonis and so what happens if dougs location ends up ruining the entire franchise possibility . Dino we aint gonna get to that point. Debbie 1 he cant make any changes without talking to us. Lemonis why not . Debbie 1 thats in the contract. Lemonis who does he get approval from, you or from. Debbie 1 dino. Lemonis from dino. The leader of the free world. Dino just a little man in a big world trying to survive. Lemonis can you get your financials together . Dino you want to look at these now or. Lemonis no. Well look at them later, but i just want to make sure you have them. Dino yeah, i got them. Lemonis and then i thought itd be a good idea for maybe all of us to go over to dougs place. Dino yeah. Lemonis id like to see it. Can we go do that . Lemonis hi. How you doing . Im marcus. Doug marcus. Im doug. Lemonis oh, hey, doug. How are you . Doug nice to meet you. This is my wife, cristine. Cristine cristine. Lemonis how are you . Nice to meet you. This is a nice place. Doug yeah. Thank you. Cristine thank you. Lemonis is this place pretty busy . Doug its building. Its growing. Cristine its growing. Lemonis i notice that the menus a little different. Cristine yes. Doug we have a smaller version. So, we dont do 20inchers or 18inchers. Lemonis how come . Doug the 12 and 14inch theyre easier to make. They take up less space in the oven. 20inchers are kind of a hassle to then put on your franchisees. Lemonis dino led me to believe that the second location is a total disaster. They dont know what theyre doing. The place is a mess. But i would argue strongly that some of the small tweaks that dougs made, like the menu, actually made the experience better. Lemonis how is this business treating you guys . Cristine good. Doug its good. Lemonis what does it do in sales . Doug last year was 270,000. Lemonis but its new. Cristine its new. Were only a little over two years old. Doug were actually up 11 from last january. Lemonis and contrary to what dino told me, burbank is growing. Maybe dino should spend a little more time here. Your parents are on their way here to meet me. Doug mmhmm. Lemonis did they call and tell you they were coming or. Doug they did, to find out who was here. Cristine so, they have an issue with one of our employees. Lemonis okay. Cristine and so once he knew that he was here, that had to be why hes not coming. Lemonis do you mind if i talk to jeremy . Would that be okay with you guys . Hi, bud. Jeremy how are you doing . Lemonis can i chat with you for just a second . So, my name is marcus, by the way. Nice to meet you. I went over to i think its crestwood. Jeremy yeah. Lemonis yeah. I was there for a while. Jeremy mmhmm. Lemonis and i think theres this notion they dont want to come here cause youre here. Jeremy mmhmm. Lemonis and theres some beef. Whats the story . Jeremy they thought i took somebodys creditcard information. Lemonis and you. Jeremy and i didnt. Lemonis yeah. Jeremy so then he fired me. He was like, i cant have you work here no more. Lemonis so, you used to work over at crestwood . Jeremy mmhmm. I mean, its just, like, tension, like, hes trying to cause, like, between me and doug. Lemonis how long did you know him . Jeremy since i was, like, 14. He was my basketball coach. Lemonis how old are you now . Jeremy im 27. Ill be 28 next month. Lemonis so youve known them half your life. Jeremy right. I used to talk to him about everything. Lemonis and were you hurt by the way he handled it . Jeremy yeah, i was pissed off. Lemonis pissed off or hurt . Jeremy both. Hes having his problems with his own family, so its like lemonis what are his problems with his family . Jeremy hes just a control freak, honestly. You know what i mean . Hell tell you something, and then, like, if maybe you dont listen to exactly what he wants or something, like, he gets mad. Lemonis im starting to see a theme here that dinos got his own perspective on everything. And it is odd to me that dino spends no time here, but he cares about who doug hires. Doug you know, its family and business. I was raised to want to own my own business. So, we have had conversations with my dad. How am i gonna be an owner if im working for you . Like, i want my own place. And then he offered us burbank, this place. Lemonis he offered it to you, or you demanded it . Doug no, he offered it. Lemonis cause it was presented to me that you guys demanded it. Cristine no. Lemonis whats your relationship like with your dad right now . Doug im here. Hes there. Lemonis thats tough. Doug yeah. They were supposed to come here. That would have been their third time here in the 14 months that weve taken over. Cristine once we moved here, it just felt separated, but when we first decided we were going to Work Together and we were going to be this team, and it was, like it was awesome. And then it just didnt happen. Because we believe in this. We want to go forward. We want to make it huge. Lemonis while the concept is really cool, the worry that i have is, if cant dino cant even take feedback or have a discussion with his son or an employee, how is he going to take feedback from a franchisee thats four states away . Im gonna head back over there. Did you mind coming over, just follow me there . Doug our schedule is open, yeah. Lemonis okay, great. Lets head over. Doug all right. Awesome. Cristine thank you. Lemonis yep. What happened to you guys . You just wanted to stay back and make pizza . Dino yeah. Yeah, i was busy. Lemonis you were busy . Debbie 1 we did get really busy right after you left. Lemonis did you get really busy . Debbie 1 we got hammered. Lemonis you just let me drive all the way over there, and you left me hanging. Dino howd it go . Good . Lemonis it was actually nice. If your business is in trouble, and you need my help, log on to theprofitcasting. Com. So how did this happen . I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride. Awwww. Oh, get your birdseed ready. [seagull squawk] oooh [falling thud] run [seagull squawks] [crowd screaming] unitedhealthcare helps connect you to care. Whenever you need it. So im not going to need stitches then . No, just the antibiotic cream. Oh, watch out unitedhealthcare. Asbut when your team is always dealing with device setups, app updates, and support calls. You can never seem to get anywhere. Thats why Dell Technologies created unified workspace, powered by vmware. A revolutionary solution that lets you deploy, manage, support and secure all your devices from the cloud. So you can stop going in circles, and start moving forward. Lemcristine hello. Ys. Lemonis how are you . So, i thought, if you guys werent going to come there, wed just come back here. Dino awesome. Lemonis i already knew there was awkwardness and tension, but i didnt know that it was to this level. Is there tension in the room . Dino do you feel it or. Lemonis well, youre the grand poobah, so you set the tone. Dino what do you want to talk about . Lemonis okay. What are you so upset about . Dino i am not upset. I love my children like i always have, but we have our little disagreements in business. And you can see how it starts, and this is what it is. Lemonis as a business owner, you tend to get a little reactionary. The fact that i drove all the way over there, and you just didnt come it seemed odd to me. Dino all right, dougs got an employee that i dont think should be there. Lemonis so, because you dont think he should be there, you just choose not to go . You just protest . Dino i wont go there when hes there. Thats it. Lemonis but its not his business. Its your sons business. Dino he shouldnt be there, no matter whose business it is. Lemonis we should put the jeremy situation aside. Dino fine. Good. Lemonis okay. You want this thing to be a big deal in this country . This idea . Dino yes. Lemonis because we all believe in you. So, now what do we do . Dino does doug believe in me . Doug yeah. Lemonis jeremy is just an example. Theyd probably argue over whether theyre gonna have chicken or not. It felt like i was at an intervention more than i was at a negotiation. Lets look at the crestwood financials 2015, 475,000, 2016, 519,000, 2017, 597,000. So, nice, steady growth. How much debt does the company have today . Dino we owe on a mortgage here. Lemonis the mortgage is 162,000, but you have the building and the land. Dino the business owes me probably 80 grand. Lemonis and so thats all the debt the company has . Dino thats it. Lemonis all right. Lets go over burbank. In 2017, it did 274,000. Dino burbank is a baby. It needs to be loved, cared, and nurtured. Lemonis whats january look like compared to january of last year . Cristine right now, were up 11 in january. Dino nice. Lemonis youre feeling good about that. Dino oh, i love to hear growth stories. Lemonis theres a Good Foundation here. I want to do a deal with your family to put up 200,000 for 50 of the franchise concept, plus my infrastructure, which is 30 people that do nothing but work on franchise concepts. You keep 100 of the two operating locations. Dino thats not a decision i can make, like, within 10 minutes. You know, youre always big on, im 100 in charge. What if you change the concept too much that i cant be the face of it . Lemonis you live the same way, dont you . Arent you 100 in charge . Dino yeah. Lemonis i think you have a great idea, but the franchise concept its not going anywhere like this, and you havent sold one. So, i want to look at the name. I want to look at the menu offering. I want to look at all of that. Debbie 2 im ready for it. I hope that success will bring us closer together. Lemonis i think its one team, one family, one mission. So, dino, what do we want to do . Dino id be proud for this generation to work with you. I want to work with you, marcus. Lemonis so do we have a deal . Dino yes. Thanks, brother. Lemonis you got it. Okay, and by the way, whos 100 in charge . Christine marcus. Lemonis im sorry . [ laughter ] dino you are, brother. Lemonis okay, buddy. Well see you soon. Bye, guys. Im going to be outside. I want to talk to people, make some notes, and then im also going to do a little timing between when they order and when they pick up so when we talk to a potential franchisee, its like, having a store is great. Having the drivethrough is better. It saves this much time. Dino yes. Lemonis all right . I wanted to spend time outside in the drivethrough area, really understanding the time that it took for customers to order and get their food. Hi, folks. Do you guys come here all the time . Woman yeah. Man we come here, yeah. Lemonis what do you like about it . Man convenient, and its good. Lemonis all right, cause your clocks running. Ray is that all for you . You can go ahead and pull around. Thank you so much. Lemonis 1 40 already. Woman heres the shaved ice, and thatll be right out. [ indistinct conversations ] woman and here you go. Have a nice day. Lemonis bye. 4 35. Thats too long. What do you think can be done to shave off 10 seconds from the drivethrough already here . Ray its the extra ingredients. Lemonis really . I noticed that it was averaging somewhere around four minutes. Its not fast enough if youre trying to sell the drivethrough as the primary feature of this concept. The goal is, can you improve on the average . Youre going to make one thats simple, and youre going to make one thats customized . Is that how were going to compare . Debbie 2 lets do that. One slice of cheese. Lemonis great. They just ordered it, one slice of cheese, boom, in the oven. Could different equipment change the model . Debbie 2 i would love to see that, like a convection or a broiler or Something Like that that could make it faster. Ray and thats our timer to take it out. Drivethrough, one cheese. Okay. Lemonis so thats 2 27. So were going to get a custom. Ray yeah. Lemonis do pepperoni, olives, jalapenos, green peppers, onions. So that really slowed you down. Ray very much so, and then imagine you have to add almost another minute of cooking time to cook through all these refrigerated veggies. Lemonis it took over three minutes. Dino customize when they walk in. Lemonis i dont think you need to say that with that big machete. Dino thats just the way i talk. Ray a little intimidating. Lemonis what i also want to do today is improve the menu, make it simpler, clearer, and more franchisefriendly. Well, you want to get good feedback . Hi, everybody. I am coming to you live from crestwood, illinois. Come on by and see us. Want to get some feedback from you. Ask people that actually give you money and come there. The room full of customers is almost like a mini focus group. Lemonis can i see what a 16inch looks like . Dino aint that beautiful . Lemonis today thats 18 bucks. Whats the most youre willing to pay for that pizza . Man 1 16. 50, somewhere right in there. Man 2 18. Lemonis 18 . Man 3 probably about 20 bucks. Man 4 15. Dino yeah, i agree with 20. Lemonis 15. What do you want to do here . Dino as long as were asking the customers to decide the pricing, i got a question. Lemonis were not asking them to decide the pricing, smartass. Dino im just saying, as long as were taking feedback, everybodys like, ill give you 15 bucks for it. Lemonis no, no, no. People said 20, too. Dino well, i heard 16 and 15. 20s fine. Lemonis what we want to think about is, how do you even make this simpler . Ray sorry about the wait. [ indistinct conversations ] lemonis what ingredients is the company gonna carry Going Forward . Sausage stays. Pepperoni stays. Mushroom, onion, green pepper. Green olives . Ray no. Yeah, green olives can go. Lemonis ground beef . Ground beef . Man no. Dino wait, wait, wait. People dont eat pork. They need an option. Lemonis i know youre getting annoyed. Dino yes, thank you for realizing. Lemonis anybody need a 20pound bag of ice . [ laughter ] sell it . Lemonis vote on yes or no on the shaved ice. [ indistinct shouting ] love it, right . What flavors are gonna go . Man 1 coconut woman vanilla man 2 cotton candy lemonis do you sell vanilla . Ray not a lot. Dino it goes with root beer. Lemonis does root beer sell . Ray i would say no. Debbie 2 sorry, dad. Lemonis banana yes or no . All no. Lemonis do you sell mango . Dino it dont matter. Its staying. Lemonis do you sell mango . [ applause ] who loves simply slices . [ crowd cheers ] lemonis we got to cut four more. Hows it doing, dino . Dino its going good, baby, going good. I think youre a genius. Lemonis i think youre a smartass. Come on. Im just waiting for my guy. Hell be here any second. Hey, dino. Its marcus. I have the chef here. Just give me an eta. That would be great. Hey, dino. Im getting a little worried that youre late. 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Upbeat music luckily theres febreze plug. It cleans away odors and freshens for 1200 hours. [deep inhale] breathe happy with febreze plug. Dino i thilemonis e a genius. I think youre a smartass. Come on. Dino its just a bunch of groupies. You just got to deal with it. Lemonis dino. Dino what do you need me for . lemonis i need you because youre important. Dino obviously, im not that important. Lemonis come around. We got to cut some flavors. If 10 people are saying the same thing, its not just an idea anymore. Its a consensus, and dino doesnt operate well with consensus unless consensus definition is dinos idea. [ indistinct conversations ] lemonis i think we got a plan. Thank you guys very much. Have you done a car count . Do you know the car count . Dino yeah, its 35 to 40 a day go by here. Lemonis thousand . Dino yeah. Lemonis understanding traffic counts in a franchise model where its a drivethrough concept one of the first things you have to do. How many actual orders are you taking . Dino like 200 checks probably. Lemonis 200 . Dino yeah. Lemonis most cities in america dont have a street that has 35,000 cars a day. Id rather pick a quiet market and prove the concept there. Its easier to say, look, this store in bowling green, kentucky, makes money. If you take it to a market that has twice the population, the math is the math. So, we have to be able to sell a concept where people are gonna have objections. Dino yeah. Lemonis and were gonna have to give them an answer. Dino yeah. Lemonis in addition to understanding the traffic, you also want to understand whats going to stop people and catch peoples eye. Okay, so, number one what about the sign on the street . Debbie 2 i definitely think that needs to be better. Lemonis a new faceplate. Thats probably gonna be 2 grand, okay . You come to the front. Does it seem appealing . Does it seem dated . Debbie 2 its dated. Lemonis so, new awning. In a drivethrough business, you only have a couple seconds to send a message thats going to get somebody to stop. Debbie 2 him and i struggled seeing any other concept but personalized pizzas made to order. Lemonis do you have a new logo or a new look or a new name . Debbie 2 i dont have any ideas. Ray one that got thrown out was, like, simply slice and ice. Debbie 2 i thought it was stupid. Lemonis ohh. So, i asked dino to meet me at my restaurant in chicago called mlg to bring in a surprise for him, something that i thought would help him improve his business, where he can learn more about how to make the business scalable. [ line ringing ] dino hi, this is dino. Lemonis i dont want to say anything about it. Im good. Hey, dino. Its marcus. I know we were meeting at 10. Just give me an eta. That would be great, buddy. Thanks. Byebye. How are you doing, buddy . Fabio how are you doing, man . Lemonis appreciate you coming. Fabio is everything good . Lemonis good. Im just waiting for my guy. Hell be here any second. Fabio is a celebritychef friend of mine whos based in chicago, and hes been on a ton of cooking shows, and he specializes in the italianfood space. And so if youre going to learn about how to improve your sauce and make it scalable, i think this guy could teach you something. Hey, dino. Im getting a little worried about you, bud. Its 10 45. I have the chef here. Youre running late. I dont know where he is, so lets you and i get started. Fabio as long as youre going to make the sauce for him, then were good. Lemonis okay. Well, its too bad that the guy that was supposed to be here learning how to improve his business decided not to show up. Fabio so, for franchise, you got to source good tomato can. What are you gonna buy . Youre gonna buy the bestquality tomato, or youre going to buy a lowerquality tomato puree . Lemonis whats the difference in price between these two . Fabio almost double. Lemonis cheaper isnt always better, and Business Owners sometimes think that they can cut their way to a profit. Fabio garlic, crushed pepper. Lemonis sometimes having a better product and Getting Better repeat visits will actually make you more profitable. Man, thats fantastic. Thank you, buddy. I learned a lot. Hi, there. Debbie 2 hey, marcus. Lemonis i wanted to drop off some sauce that i made this morning. Debbie 2 oh, cool. Lemonis is your dad around . Debbie 2 he asked me to call him when you got here. Lemonis yeah, do you mind . Debbie 2 mmhmm. Lemonis i understand that dino likes to control everything, but when people put their reputation on the line or they bring somebody in to help and you just flatout embarrass me, well, now its just rude. And while im furious that hes disrespectful, my job is to continue to move the business forward. Where were you before . Dino being involved in this process is like riding a tiltawhirl. Yesterday, im trying to give my kids a day where theres no drama. And im like, im just gonna work, cause i do much better when im working. Lemonis yeah. Dino and i got a call to come up to. Lemonis my restaurant. Yeah. Dino and it was, we want you by yourself. All right. My wifes not gonna like that. We dont do anything separate. And i said, no. No, no, no. Cristine the things they were saying about doug they were like, dougs toxic, and we dont deserve this place. Lemonis did you guys just get pushed out of your own business . Work so hard give it everything you got strength of a lioness tough as a knot rocking the stage and we never gonna stop all strength, no sweat. Just in case you forgot all strength. No sweat secret. All strength. No sweat. Uh, well, this will be the kitchen. And wed like to put a fire pit out there, and a dock with a boat, maybe. Why havent you started building . Well, tylers off to college. And moms getting older. And eventually we would like to retire. Yeah, its a lot. But Td Ameritrade can help you build a plan for today and tomorrow. Great. Can you help us pour the foundation too . I think you want a house near the lake, not in it. Come with a goal. Leave with a plan. Td ameritrade. Theres one thing you can be sure of. Theyre changing by the nanosecond. Thats why cognizant created a unique engineering approach to design and build new digital products. Learn how cognizant softvision designs experiences and engineers outcomes. Cool. Cool. So josh, you going for our drive safe and save discount . Yup, using the app. Driving safe. You wanna go bro . Do not mess with my discount. Woooo sighs get a discount up to 30 with drive safe and save™. Work so hard give it everything you got strength of a lioness tough as a knot rocking the stage and we never gonna stop all strength, no sweat. Just in case you forgot all strength. No sweat secret. All strength. No sweat. Lemonis my restaurant. Yeah. A call to come up to. Dino and it was, we want you by yourself. So, im like, all right. My wifes not gonna like that. We dont do anything separate. And i said, no. No, no, no. Lemonis it wasnt intentionally to leave you out. It was just you and i to work with the chef on how to find a copacker. Dino thats fine. Lemonis id like to show you the sauce. Dino okay. Lemonis look, dino likes to control the entire environment with his presence. So he figures that if he doesnt show up, the sauce isnt gonna get made, things arent going to happen. Well, heres a news flash for dino if you dont want to participate in it, no problem, but youre not going to control me or this process. Now i think for 10 minutes we could just have a little fun. And maybe some of these ideas, like changing the sauce, arent the worst idea in the world. What do you think of the sauce . What do you think of the flavor . Dino i think if i was at a fancier place, i would go for that. Its heavy on ingredients, and that gives you that like youre out at a fancy restaurant. Lemonis do you like this sauce . Dino i wouldnt change my sauce to it, no. Lemonis dino is never going to admit that anybody had an idea that was good unless it was his, but im okay with that because hes eating the pizza like its his last meal. The reason i wanted you to come to the restaurant was to have somebody talk to you about the scalability of it all, that could say, here are some ideas that i have. But i think, with you, if its not your idea, you just dont like it. Dino i mean, thats possible. Lemonis okay, buddy. Well see you soon. [ indistinct conversations ] woman and then another one . Lemonis its clear to me that the biggest challenge in this family is them actually working together. If that tension can be overcome, then maybe thats whats actually going to unlock dinos openness to ideas. I think the reason this family really called me is cause it doesnt know how to communicate with each other, not because you guys dont know how to launch a franchise. Debbie 2 i mean, thats for sure. You just dr. Philed us right there. Lemonis . Which is whats preventing the business from moving forward. Debbie 2 yes, i totally agree. Lemonis i think we have to find the balance between that and your controlling father. Ray whos gotten way better. Debbie 2 a million times better. Dino im like a fine wine, baby. I get really softer and sweeter as i get older. Lemonis i think what im starting to realize is that theres two dinos. Theres the one that records his voicemail, that likes to act like a happygolucky pitch man, and then theres the guy who doesnt show up, likes to control things, and likes to tear people down. So, if the Franchise Company thats owned 50 50 by dino and i put 30,000 up for each Location Team one, team two and you guys are actually competing to come up with the perfect concept. Debbie 2 you guys are going down. Cristine oh, i was going to say, make it a competition in this family. Lemonis well do 30 days. You should start to plan. The idea is to give each team 30 days to reimagine their location, the name, the branding, the process, everything. After that, well start renovating, but theres a twist. Which team do you want to be on . Dino ill be on the team where im at. Im in crestwood. Lemonis actually, i think itd be better if youre on that team, working with doug. Cristine no, he doesnt. Lemonis why you dont want to work with doug . You want to look at me like you want to threaten me . Dino im talking to you. This is me. Lemonis i see the real you. Dino this aint an act. Lemonis youve been acting since the day i met you. On a scale of one to five . One to five . Its more like five million. Theres everything from happy to extremely happy. Theres also angry. Im really angry clive actually, really angry. Thank you. But what if your business could understand what your customers are feeling. And then do something about it. Turn problems into opportunities. Thanks drone. Customers into fanatics change the whole experience. Alright who wants to go again . I do i do i have a really good feeling about this. A lot of folks ask me why their dishwasher doesnt get everything clean. I tell them, it may be your detergent. Thats why more dishwasher brands recommend cascade platinum. Its speciallydesigned with the soaking, scrubbing and rinsing built right in. Cascade platinums unique actionpacs dissolve quickly. To remove stuckon food. For sparklingclean dishes, the first time. Choose the detergent that lets your dishwasher do the dishes cascade platinum. The number one recommended brand in north america. I got it, dad. And, um. Wow. both no. With you for whatever comes next. This is green from amex. So how did this happen . I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride. Awwww. Oh, get your birdseed ready. [seagull squawk] oooh [falling thud] run [seagull squawks] [crowd screaming] unitedhealthcare helps connect you to care. Whenever you need it. So im not going to need stitches then . No, just the antibiotic cream. Oh, watch out unitedhealthcare. Lemonis i think itd be better working with doug. Team, why you dont want to work with doug . Working together is the best therapy. Debbie 2 i agree. Lemonis you could start to plan. While theyre working on coming up with their concept and making the improvement, i wanted to head out and contribute, so i went equipment shopping, like, for a new oven and other things that i think well need in the new process. And i want to find the right source for fresh ingredients for the sauce, so im headed to a bunch of distributors that have the products that i think we need. If we can get the right equipment and speed up the process, there is a viable concept here thats totally scalable. Everything good . Ray awesome. Lemonis you guys got ideas . Debbie 2 yes. Ray got ideas. Lemonis its 3 weeks, and im back in crestwood, and i wanted to check in on the progress that the family has made with their ideas of transformation. Okay, so, how do you want to spend 30 grand to create your perfect concept . Ray one of our biggest problems is refrigeration space. Were talking about putting a walkin off of here. Lemonis do you have a quote on it . Debbie 2 no. Lemonis okay. So, how we spending the 30,000 . Ray it needs a facelift. Debbie 2 yeah. Lemonis exterior, interior . Debbie 2 interior. Ray interior. Lemonis did you find a contractor yet . Debbie 2 no. Lemonis have you done any designs or sketches . Debbie 2 mnhmnh. Ray were weak in that department. Debbie 2 my dad doesnt want us to screw it up. Lemonis okay. Im a little confused because, three weeks later, they havent even called a contractor. So, either theyve lost interest, or somebody is stopping them. So, i said to them, okay, whats the plan . Lets go. But theres no plan. Dino so you dont know it . Lemonis i dont know anything. Dino oh, okay. Doug has made a decision to step away from the business. Yeah. Lemonis how come . Dino well, he wants family first. And i respect that. Obviously, im gonna be taking back burbank on april 1st, and dougs gonna walk away from it. Lemonis so, he wont have it anymore . Dino right. Lemonis and then you guys will manage both stores . Dino yes. My plan would be this instead of 30,000 30,000, put 60,000 into here. Well close for a month, starting april 1st. You come back may 1st, and if you dont love every change we made by may 1st, ill give you your money back, and you can step away. You like that . Lemonis no. Dino was pissed that i asked him to work with doug, and three weeks later, doug decided to leave the business. And im supposed to just act like its no big deal and just move on . Sorry, dino. You cant fool me that easily. So, is doug still working there . Dino yes, hes going to work it through march. Lemonis what if he wants to stay . What if we could change his mind . I mean, one of my goals is to grow the business by helping the family Work Together. Dino but that needs time, and i think you need to just respect that it needs time, and thats it. You can hear it from doug, but im telling you debbie 2 because its really his choice. Lemonis doug over at the other shop . Dino yes. Lemonis all right. Let me drive over there and just chat with him. You want to meet me over there . Dino okay, ill be there. Lemonis okay, let me run over there. Ill see you guys later. How are you . Woman how are you . Lemonis dougie . Doug marcus. Lemonis we were going to renovate the store. Theyre like, well, doug is leaving. Doug um. We were given the ultimatum of, go back under simply slices crestwood or change the name of simply slices, because they dont foresee me being very adaptable. And once that meeting happened, it was pretty clear to me that it wasnt going to work Going Forward with me still being in the business. Can you get that . Cristine mmhmm. Lemonis i am so confused. Did you guys just get pushed out of your own business . For exclusives, extras, and business advice, visit theprofit. Cnbc. Com. Asbut when your team is always dealing with device setups, app updates, and support calls. You can never seem to get anywhere. Thats why Dell Technologies created unified workspace, powered by vmware. A revolutionary solution that lets you deploy, manage, support and secure all your devices from the cloud. So you can stop going in circles, and start moving forward. Work so hard give it everything you got strength of a lioness tough as a knot rocking the stage and we never gonna stop all strength, no sweat. Just in case you forgot all strength. No sweat secret. All strength. No sweat. Lemonis did you guys just get pushed out o your own business . Why did you choose to leave . Why dont you guys just change the name and have your own concept . Doug cause i think that would just cause a further divide between the family and i. Lemonis so, basically, somebody said to you cristine that we didnt deserve this place. Like, that was clear to us. Lemonis who said that . Doug that was my dad. Cristine it was hard to sit there and just, like the things they were saying about doug theyre like, dougs toxic, and we dont deserve this place. Lemonis doug and his wife have a lot of vibrance and a lot of ideas, and theyre very committed, but all they were told was that their store sucked and they were terrible and they did things that were wrong, and at some point, you start believing it. You just wave the white flag. Your dad said to me that you guys all sat down as a family and that you decided it was best for you not to be here. Cristine wow. Do you guys want to leave here . Cristine no. And the hard part about it is, like, we took the pay cuts. Weve put everything into this place. We have like, what are we going to do . Like, hes done this his whole life. Dino hello. Lemonis hey, buddy. Ive met a lot of controlling people in my life, and i have a tendency to sometimes be controlling, as well. Its a bad habit. But i think when it crosses the line is when you take peoples ability away to make decisions for themselves. I thought you guys said that they wanted to leave. Dino doug has made a decision, and i am respecting it. cause thats what you wanted. Lemonis right, no, it is dino you said me and doug have to get under one umbrella, and this is the solution. Lemonis they have to follow your rules. They have to get permission for stuff, no . Dino see, youre just. [ clears throat ] all youre doing is dragging up something that we spent three weeks to get to this point here. Tell me what youre trying to tell me, that this doesnt mean nothing, that the three weeks that i put into my family dont mean nothing, marcus . Come on. I asked you i said, respect the decision that was being made, and all youre doing is getting under my skin. Lemonis youre getting yourself under your skin. Im asking you dino no, you are. And you know it. Doug the meeting wasnt like, lets kick ideas around. How would this work if we were back together . Debbie 1 we can sit here and say, she said, he said. We can play that game all night long. They were presented with some options. They didnt come back to us with any other options. Lemonis nothing was done at crestwood, no plan, no notes, no nothing. Debbie 1 there was a plan. Lemonis that was not a plan. Debbie 1 that was a plan. Dino we spent three weeks. Lemonis that was not a plan, and, debbie dino . Healing our family, marcus, three weeks. Lemonis first of all, you dont need to talk to me like im an idiot, okay . Dino im just mad. Lemonis im so confused. I really am. Dino well, then maybe im not the person you should be in business with. Maybe were at that point. Lemonis its getting to that point because any time anybody asks you a question and you dont want to talk about it, you just get mad. Dino thats fine. Lemonis when i found out about doug leaving, that was a surprise to me. But you guys did misrepresent it. You guys gave him an ultimatum. Dino i misrepresented it. Lemonis you made it seem like he left. Dino you can unmic me now. Debbie 1 and this is dougs decision. Cristine its dougs decision. Dino take that camera off me. I dont think we should stay. Lemonis dino, do you want just you and i to talk away from everybody else . Dino you want to talk to me . Lemonis yeah. You want to look at me like you want to threaten me . I mean. Dino im not threatening you, marcus. Im talking to you. This is me. Lemonis yeah. No, i get it. I see the real you. Dino this aint an act. Lemonis yeah, it actually is. Dino this aint no tv show for me. Lemonis youve been acting since the day i met you, until when you get upset. Then the real dino comes out. Thank you for firing me. Doug bye. Lemonis bye. That was fun. I feel sorry for dino. He really cares about his family, but dinos problem he and his wife, by the way they love their kids so much that they suppress any idea or any freedom that they could ever have to be their own person. I guess love works in two very different ways, and this love i dont want any part of. Tonight on the profit. I go inside worldwide trailers, a custom trailer manufacturer in tampa, florida. And so is this essentially a commercial kitchen . Yep. Thats your serving area. Coowners struggle to Work Together after their nasty breakup. Youre a pathological liar, is the way i look at it. I cant work with you. I have my work cut out for me. For me, its all about business. None of it wouldve shouldve been anything except for business. I need to put the controls in place. My name isnt going on this if it looks like this. Theres no way. We do track our money. But no, you dont track your money. And make sure these bitter rivals can Work Together. Yeah, you got that right my name is marcus lemonis, and i fix failing businesses. I dont know how you run your business this way. I make tough decisions. I can tell you for damn sure, youre replaceable. And i back them up with my own cash. Theres your check. Its not always pretty. Everybodys working hard, not just you. But this is business. I was just gonna try to stop you in your tracks. Youll never to stop me in my tracks. I do it to save jobs, and i do it to make money. Chingching. This is the profit. [upbeat music] worldwide trailers designs, builds, and sells concession trailers, mostly to food vendors. Tom etheridge and nancy pappas started the company in 2001, and took it from a backyard startup to a multimillion dollar business. You got 50 . I got 50 . Tom a