And i fix failing businesses. If you dont like money, dont follow my process. I make the tough decisions. Were closing the store. Were done. Im not talking about it anymore. I back them up, spending my own money. Its not always pretty. Man perfect flavor. Lemonis . But this is business. You got to trust the process. I do it to save jobs, and i do it to make money. Thanks for your business. This is the profit. Like, like, like that, like that the unique salon spa is a fullservice salon with four locations across long island, new york. Woman hey, what are we doing today . Lemonis they do everything from massages to nails. Woman 2 a Manicure Pedicure . Lemonis . But their primary focus is hair. Woman you look great. [ laughs ] lemonis 16 years ago, carolyn devito. Carolyn how can i help you . Lemonis . And her partner joe secreeti bought their first salon. And it expanded quickly, but there was trouble along the way, and their partnership blew up. Carolyn i cant stand him. I hate him. Lemonis they landed in an ugly legal battle. Carolyn negotiated to keep the chain of salons, but she walked away with a mountain of debt. Carolyn the first year of the company was really survival mode, because my partner left me in such a financial mess. Lemonis despite the fact that she pulls in over 4. 2 million in annual revenue, carolyn still struggles to pay down her debt. As a single mother of three, shes under enormous pressure to get it right. Carolyn such a headache. Lemonis if i can find a way to get this fading business a fresh new look and attitude, then unique salon spa will be a cut above the rest. When i pull up to unique, i can tell this is a great location. The area is packed with stores and shops. How are you . Im marcus. Jennifer im jennifer. Nice to meet you. Lemonis nice to meet you. Is carolyn around . Jennifer yeah, she is. Let me get her for you. Lemonis okay, great. The front of the stores been taken over by i dont know what, a jewelry store, and it looks like a secondhand clothing store. It is unique. Ill give her that. But im not so sure its a good thing. How are you doing . Im marcus. Carolyn how are you . Nice to meet you. Lemonis nice to meet you. Youre carolyn . Carolyn i am carolyn. Lemonis i mean, i have to tell you, there is a lot going on in here. Do you feel like you have to have all of this . Carolyn women love to come in and do onestop shopping. So i have boutiques in my locations. I have jewelry concessions in the location. Lemonis this isnt the only salon that ive ever seen with Retail Products up front, but this is ridiculous. To use your prime real estate to sell something other than your own haircare products . Big mistake. What percentage of your total comes from selling products . Carolyn 5 . Lemonis and how are your margins . Carolyn buy it for 5, you sell it for 10. Lemonis not bad margins. Carolyn thats why i started my own product line. I came up with my own name, my own brand. This is a normal to dry shampoo. Lemonis how do these margins compare to like carolyn theyre a much better margin than that. Lemonis okay. And so do you distribute this product anywhere outside of here . Carolyn no, not yet. Lemonis have you tried . Carolyn no, i havent tried yet. Lemonis you just didnt have the time. Carolyn i didnt have the time. Lemonis anytime i make an investment, im looking for a way to enhance it. Clearly, this product has great margins, but the fact that carolyn doesnt distribute it is a real lost opportunity. What inspired you to get into this business . Carolyn i grew up in the industry. I started this with a partner about 16 years ago. A gentleman by the name of joe called me and said, id like to become partners. I met him, and i decided, okay, lets do it together. 15 years later, i went to an attorney. I. Lemonis carolyns legal settlement with her expartner prevents her from discussing the details. But what i can tell you is it had a tremendous financial impact, not only the money that she owes, but the damage it did to her credit. How many total locations . Carolyn four. I have four locations, all on long island one here, two centre island, and then south shore is my massapequa location. Lemonis which is the biggest one . Carolyn this is the largest of the four locations. Lemonis can i have a tour . Carolyn absolutely. Lemonis thatd be great. Carolyn this is the color area. We do a lot of color. We get keratin treatments back here. We have an exhaust system for that up here. Lemonis thats disgusting. Carolyn that was here. It used to be a restaurant. Lemonis at first glance, its not the most inviting space. Carolyn yeah, i know. Lemonis is it easy to recruit new stylists here . Carolyn the problem is, hairdressers want to go to whats new and happening and exciting. And, you know, this location here, its 16 years old. You know, its falling apart. Lemonis when you go to a salon that looks rundown and dirty, how are you supposed to feel inspired . I dont want to go into a place that looks worse inside than it did outside. Thats why its empty. Carolyn this is the dispensary. These are the colors we use. Part of the challenge is to keep a lid on the amount of waste. Lemonis oh. How much money do you think is in this room right now . Carolyn [ sighs ] probably about 25,000 worth of color here. Lemonis and how much do you think leaks out a month . Carolyn i always think its like a 10 waste. Lemonis a month . Carolyn a month. Thats my guesstimate. Lemonis the color room has about 25,000 worth of inventory, but it loses or wastes about 10 of that a month 2,500. On an annual basis, thats 30,000. We got a problem. Carolyn we grew so large that we needed a g. M. Who needs an office. And this is susan, the general manager. Susan nice to meet you. Lemonis im marcus. Nice to meet you. Youre the numbertwo person . Susan yes. Lemonis how many total employees report to you . Susan pretty much everybody 120. Lemonis what has having a general manager allowed you to do differently . Carolyn you know, theres a protocol to go to before they get to me, and my phone would ring 500 times a day. The employees would report straight to me. Susan you know, Little Things like that ordering, with communicating. Lemonis ordering products . Susan ordering products. Lemonis just at this location . Susan no, at all locations. Lemonis it seems to me that in a business of this size, there really shouldnt be a need for a layer of a general manager. Lemonis im marcus. Angela angela. Lemonis as i walked around and talked to all the employees in the company, there was one thing that was clearly consistent everybody hated the look of this place. Woman its just got to be. Woman 2 sharper. Woman . Revamped. Lemonis what should the look be . Woman [ laughs ] not that not to kill your ankles when you sit down, no. Lemonis and i also got a little more detail on carolyns exbusiness partner. When did you go into business with him . Carolyn 1998 i started with him. Lemonis how many salons does he have . Carolyn he has about 22 now. Lemonis really . Carolyn yeah. Lemonis and there was definitely confusion about roles and responsibilities. So, what do you do here . Debbie im actually the manager here, marcus. Lemonis you are . Debbie yes. Lemonis how is that different from susans job . Debbie um. Um. Uh. Lacey hi, guys. Is susan here . I need to talk to her. Debbie you need susan . Let me get her for you. Lacey okay. Susan hi. So you left your salon by yourself to come here to tell me that . Lacey definitely, cause i was trying to get ahold of you and i couldnt get ahold of you. Susan i have two phones. Lacey i know. And i emailed you. What happened on saturday when the a. C. S were broken down . Susan i had a guy that worked on them. Lacey no, you didnt. Susan and where were you . Lacey i was there. Susan exactly. And thats where youre supposed to be. Thats your job. Im here to help you manage, not manage your store, so dont start with me. Lacey the a. C. S not working in plainview, and she never took care of it. Were sweating our ass off. I got clients leaving the salon, staff upset. Lemonis whos supposed to do that . Lacey susan. Lemonis then why isnt she doing it . Carolyn im not sure. I dont know. She should have took care of it. Lemonis want to go talk to her . Carolyn yes. Lemonis lets go. Its obvious to me that carolyn hasnt established a chain of command. You can see it. You can feel it. You can hear it. What is the issue right now . Lacey i called her in the morning and said its not working. She says, ill get on it. Ill call a couple people. And i said, okay, great. Time goes on. Its dying in there. People are screaming and yelling at me, so i called susan again. I said, did you find anybody . Let me know. She was like, well, well wait till tomorrow. You know, its saturday, and were busy. Theres no excuse for it. Susan and you know what . You dont need to tell me what i need to do. Lacey youre supposed to be there to help out. Susan no, im not supposed to be there. Lacey youre not . susan you keep on mentioning my duties. Your job is to manage your salon. Lacey i did. Susan and my job is to know that youre doing your job right. Lacey i am doing my job right. Youre not doing your job right. Susan you have no clue how to manage your salon lacey no, actually, i learned. I study. Susan you dont study. Lacey yes, i do study lemonis if susan is the general manager and something at one of the salons isnt working, she should probably be onsite, making sure it gets fixed. Carolyn i think you should have been there, period, saturday, to have had peace of mind the whole time. Thats how i feel. Lacey you need someone to take care of this stuff, and i feel bad. You got a text message from a staff member that was clearly pissed off at me. I said, i called susan. Susan and why is she pissed off at you . Lacey why do you think . Were sweating our ass off. Lemonis a lot of these Small Businesses get in trouble because they have too many layers of management, and it became more obvious to me when some of the stylists wanted to pull me aside. I feel like im about to get jumped in an alley or something. Woman [ laughs ] lemonis so, whats going on . Woman we have an issue. Lemonis okay. Woman um. Susan. We are kind of confused at what she does. Lemonis yeah. Woman 2 have you figured it out . cause we dont know. Woman shes off saturday, sunday, and monday. Woman 2 she should be here on saturday. Our biggest day shes not even a part of. I just dont. Lemonis how does this affect you in doing your job . Woman 2 misbooked appointments, lack of assistance, and just Customer Service and lack of product. Woman 3 we have never seen her once come up anything about inventory, about putting things in the computer. Lemonis nobody in here has ever talked to carolyn . Woman i think she has some idea. Woman 3 but shes the type of person that thinks with her heart. She never wants to, you know, hurt anyone. She wants to give someone the benefit of the doubt, you know . Lemonis communication doesnt exist here. Its like the inmates are running the asylum. Im hoping that she has a better feel for her financials. I need to understand the revenue. Whats the total revenue, and how does that break down per store . Carolyn annually . Lemonis yeah. Carolyn um. Say us, its probably 1. 2 million, maybe up to 1. 5 million now. Plainview is probably 1. 5 million. Massapequa is about 700,000 or 800,000. Lemonis okay. Carolyn bellmore is probably around the same, 700,000 or 800,000. Lemonis and so thats 4. 2 million . Which ones are not making money . Carolyn i think syosset. Lemonis this one . Carolyn right now, yeah. Lemonis so this location. Carolyn thats correct. Lemonis if you took a location like syosset, how does the revenue of 1. 2 million break down . Carolyn 70 of its color. Lemonis 70 of the 1. 2 millions color . Carolyn color. Lemonis [ laughs ] carolyn colors big money. Lemonis are there opportunities to grow that business . How do you grow that business, in your mind . Carolyn you can add to highlights. You can add toners and glazes and conditioning treatments and. Lemonis which is why the materials and the control of those materials and the waste can either make money or put somebody out of business. Carolyn correct. Lemonis thats good to know. This further proves the fact that that color room better be right. Current debt on the business . Carolyn 170,000. Lemonis okay. Total number of employees. Carolyn 120. Lemonis oh. And you look at payroll as a percentage of revenue in this business . Carolyn yes. Lemonis and so what is that number . Carolyn where id like to be, where i think would be fair, 50 . Lemonis is that actually what it is . Carolyn 62 . Lemonis well, thats a big difference. Thats 12 . In order for you to take out 12 , youre gonna have to take out more than 400,000 in labor. A lot of Small Businesses make a lot of mistakes when they start acting like a big business. And so all these basically broke even for the year. Carolyn for the last two years, yeah. I havent taken a paycheck in like six months. Lemonis wow. So, basically youre struggling. Carolyn the economy went down. My partner ended up, you know, not paying his bills. And everything was behind the scenes. But, you know, theres a constant reminder in these places, because im still doing business as unique within the walls of the old company. Lemonis how do you move past it emotionally . Carolyn i juggle every day of my life. [ voice breaking ] sorry. Lemonis no, its okay. That was a tough time. Carolyn very. It still is. My kids were affected. Now im behind on my mortgage, taxes and things like that. So, i put on a facade, and i put on a happy face every day, and wake up. As long as my feet hit the floor, i go out running. Failure is not an option right now in my life. Lemonis it appears as though carolyns looking for a hall pass for a business relationship gone bad two years ago, and i get it, but its probably time for her to get over it and move on. Why dont we just grab a seat . Carolyn okay. Lemonis i guess the question that i have for you is, why did you call me . How can i help you . Carolyn because my business makes money. Id like it to make a lot more money. I need somebody to help me take it to another level. You know, ive never in my life ever thought that my expartner, joe, would ever do what he did. So i have to open up to somebody and say, hey, i need a little help here. Lemonis part of the reason that im here is because i think you have your act together. Carolyn i do have my act together. Lemonis in some ways. In other ways, it looks like in some cases the inmates are running the asylum next door. You inherited a store that is tired, and you did not have the money to fix it up. Today, its hard to get somebody to come into that salon. I wouldnt get my hair cut here today. I do not want to run a flea market where theres lots of different operators. Those look like bad business decisions. I have no interest in being a big partner in a hair salon. Carolyn if i see a value, i think it will be big if i can get something going. Lemonis its just not something that i can scale across the country in a way that i really want to. Rowithout the Commission Fees and account minimums. So, you can start investing wherever you are even on the bus. Download now and get your first stock on us. Robinhood. Robinwithout the Commission Fees. So, you can start investing today wherever you are even hanging with your dog. So, what are you waiting for . Download now and get your first stock on us. Robinhood. Lemonis i have no interest in being a big partner in a hair salon, but i buy off on your idea of having the products really be what could actually generate some real cash, but i dont like your packaging today at all. Carolyn okay. Lemonis i think its terrible. So heres my offer. Im willing to put up 200,000. Number one, i want to invest in redesigning and relaunching the product line. Number two, i believe the place looks very tired. And i want to start with one location, and i want to get it really right. We want to have a beautiful experience, but its effective and efficient, and its a good return on our money. Carolyn correct. Lemonis and, number three, the Business Needs working capital. So i want to put the right amount of cushioning in the business that i believe has you not looking over your shoulder every morning. Carolyn right. Lemonis and so, for the 200,000, i would want to be 20 of the salons and 51 of the product company. In the short term, im 100 in charge of everything. Carolyn well, i was thinking. What ive built so far, based on the numbers that im doing, would be worth a little bit more than 200,000. Lemonis so do you need more working capital . Carolyn i probably would like some sort of value for what im selling you or what youre, you know . Lemonis oh. So you want to be able to take some money off the table . Carolyn correct. Lemonis put some money in your own pocket. I like the fact that you had no problem pushing back with me. Ill go to 250,000. Carolyn [ sighs ] i want you as a partner, so, and i want to make a deal. I want nothing more than that. Lemonis so well do the 250,000. Because you came back and you bumped me. Carolyn [ chuckles ] lemonis this is by far the most expensive haircut. Carolyn . Youve ever had. Lemonis [ laughing ]. Ive ever gotten. Carolyn it will be the best haircut youve ever had. [ laughs ] lemonis we have a deal . Carolyn we have a deal. Lemonis congratulations. Carolyn thank you. Thank you. Lemonis so, heres the deal. Earlier, carolyn and i made a deal for me to become a partner in not only this business, but in her haircare products, as well. So, here are the things that are gonna happen here. Im putting up 250,000 to put some working capital in this business to renovate this entire facility to be the first renovation of all of them. Debbie yeah. Lemonis one of the benefits of designing a new space is your ability to add more chairs. With the new, updated design, we should be able to add eight new chairs and eight new stylists to go along with it. If each stylist can generate approximately 1,500 a week in sales, on an annual basis, those eight stylists would generate 576,000 in additional gross revenue. The styling of hair and hair color is our core focus. We need Everything Else that goes along with that. Whether thats fixing the product or adding other products and services, were gonna do that. So, a big chunk of the money were gonna spend is to build a new color bar and really increase our distribution of the product. In order for this business to be successful i want to make sure that we have clarity in the end on whos in charge of what. Whos in charge of this location . Raise your hand if you know whos in charge. See the problem . For the next period of time, there will be no question im 100 in charge. All right, we have a lot of work to do. All right, lets get to work. Thanks, guys. Woman thank you. Lemonis hi. Susan hi. Lemonis how are you doing . Susan good. How are you . Lemonis you look like youre waiting to talk to me. Susan oh, no, no, no. Im good. Lemonis how are you feeling right now . Susan i dont know. Confused. Lemonis well, what are you confused about . cause i want to make sure that we have leave here unconfused. Susan im just trying to do my job. Lemonis i know. Everybodys got to know what their job is. Its unclear what your job is. Its not clear to me. Susan um. From color to supplies to staples to anything. Lemonis so youre like the purchasing manager. Susan yeah. Lemonis and has there been an inventory issue in this location in the past . How bad . Susan well, we run out of supplies. We shouldnt run out of supplies. So we couldnt do a client today. Lemonis but we ran out of supplies, but dont you control the inventory . Susan um. No, some products i do order. They give me an invoice. The managers check what they need, and then they place orders. I want to keep it in my records what each salon is ordering weekly so theyre not overselling or i have more control of to see whats, you know, the numbers. Lemonis hmm. Okay. I have to get my head around that. Today, carolyn and i are heading to rejuvenol, the manufacturer and laboratory that makes her haircare products. Man okay, so this is manufacturing. All computerized, stateoftheart. Lemonis whats a typical bottle of shampoo cost to you . Carolyn 4. 50. Lemonis yeah, and youre selling it for what . Carolyn 18, 17. Man and thats cheap. Lemonis cause, you know, the purpose of us coming here today was to figure out how to take her line from good to great. So, can we see the packaging . Man yeah, sure. Lemonis oh, great. Check this out. Laserprinted on. Man we do it here. We silkscreen. Everything is silkscreened. Lemonis very cool. Hi, cindy. Cindy hey, how are you . Lemonis im marcus. How are you . Im looking for new packaging. What are some options of things that i can look at . Where are tubes . Cindy tubes this is a bronze tube. Lemonis see . Something like this to me, you could take the exact same product. Can you put it in Something Like this . I could get 25 more in price. Man we can double the price on the tubes, yeah. Lemonis the numberone thing in this business is quality, but a close second is appearance. I dont want a bottle of dog shampoo on my shelf anymore, and im confident that if it looks better, well sell more of it. Currently, carolyn sells the bottle for 18. I can go from 18 to 22 by doing nothing more than changing the packaging. Carolyn today does 50,000 just in her own salons. Im confident that we can get outside distribution and do a Million Dollars in the first year. And so id like to give you guys the direction to develop the line, but i am not looking for this anymore. Thank you very much. I told you, winwin. Man its gonna work. Lemonis thank you very much. Lemonis so, in order for that product to work, we really need to figure out distribution. Once we develop uniques product line, were gonna try to sell it to every salon in the local area. Carolyns expartner, joe, has about 20 salons. The question is, is carolyn ready and able to move forward . Your expartner, joe do you think he runs a decent operation . Carolyn the man has been the bane of my existence for the last two years. Theres a lot of hurt and pain involved, and i dont know why youre bringing him up, so i wish you would get to the point. Lemonis i mean, he has 20 salons, and i want to utilize whatever resources he has for our benefit. This all comes back to business. You got to have your game plan, and it cannot be dictated or affected by anybody, because you start to make decisions that are based on emotion and not on dollars or logic. Take your emotion out of it. Be a smart businesswoman that i know you are. Im requiring it. Hey. So, i just wanted to see if we could print out all the inventory. I just wanted to spotcheck it a little bit. This particular part of the business, the color room, is really aggravating. Were sometimes unable to even take a client because we dont have the right product. If colors 70 of their revenue, it should be 70 of their focus. Someone needs to take charge. Heres the issue that i have. Carolyn okay. Lemonis ultimately, susans failure is really your fault. Carolyn my fault. Lemonis because were responsible to hire people and train them, put them in a position to succeed. Now, she isnt qualified to be the manager. Shes not qualified because shes not doing basic things like inventory. Carolyn okay. Lemonis what i want to have is somebody that understands the hair business, understands how to deal with your managers. If you know how to run the salon business as much as you say you do, then you should know, in a salon, you have to have inventory. You told me that 70 of your revenue came from color. You want to go back there . Carolyn i know how the dispensary is. We dont have an Inventory System there. Lemonis well, why . Carolyn cause i cant afford an Inventory System. Lemonis oh, bullcrap. I mean, the place looks like a disaster. Carolyn this is how all the dispensaries look. This is how we do our Inventory System. We put the cans in here, and we reorder based on what comes out of that garbage pail. Thats our Inventory System. Im telling you. I know. Lemonis thats the most ludicrous thing i ever heard. Carolyn i couldnt figure out a process to do it. Lemonis well, thats your fault. Do it. Come up with a halfassed system on a chalkboard. Carolyn they do not inventory this stuff in the computer. Lemonis whos they . Carolyn the managers. Lemonis whos reordering . Carolyn the managers reorder from what these lemonis susan told me she reordered. Carolyn no. The managers take the orders, and they give her the numbers after they get them. Lemonis what is 7g . Carolyn these are the popular colors the g. N. Lemonis the popular ones are the ones we dont have . Carolyn we dont put 6, 7, 8 on the shelf because then they disappear. Lemonis they disappear because nobodys counting them. Im tired of carolyn acting like the victim. I didnt invest in this company for the owner not to take control of their business. You dont know what you have in here, do you . Carolyn no, i have no idea. Lemonis that is the single biggest reason that your general manager should be fired. Were wasting 40,000 on susan. Shes not doing inventory. The managers dont respect her. So whats the point . Youre gonna have to defend yourself, because the nice marcus is still inside somewhere. Right now im pissed. Carolyn but i havent had control over this. Its been a constant struggle. Lemonis but i dont want a damsel in distress. When people are sitting around, were burning money. When products are disappearing, were burning money. This is about being a leader. Im sorry to put the pressure on you, but thats life. Carolyn okay. Lemonis somethings got to change, cause this model doesnt work. Its totally broken totally broken. Rowithout the Commission Fees and account minimums. So, you can start investing wherever you are even on the bus. Download now and get your first stock on us. Robinhood. Lemonis there seems to be a root of a problem here that really is i dont know that Everybody Knows what their job is. Carolyn i dont think so either. Lemonis well, thats your fault. Carolyn it is my fault. But you know what . Susan i was hired to help carolyn out and take the load off of her, since day one. Lemonis youre not executing the role of a general manager. Your general manager would be at every store all the time, would understand the numbers, would know the reservation systems, would be doing training. And while you are a general manager in title, the girls that manage the locations dont know who their leader is. Who is their leader . Carolyn me. Lemonis well, what do i need her for . Carolyn Inventory Systems lemonis all the things that arent happening and so whos supposed to do them . Do you do Inventory Management . Susan we do not do that in any of the salons. Lemonis yeah. Thats obvious. Give me Something Else that you do do. Susan um. Hire. Lemonis whats the most important thing about hiring . Susan um. Interviewing them . Lemonis i just dont see the role. Should an organization that has four salons and managers in each location have a person between the owner and them . Thats my biggest question. And its not about you, susan. Its should that role actually exist . And im struggling with it. Somethings got to change, cause this model doesnt work. Its totally broken totally broken. Sal, im marcus. Sal hello, marcus. Pleased to meet you. Lemonis were gonna meet at belvedere, a manufacturer and designer of stateoftheart salon equipment. Sal this is equipment from germany. Lemonis given that the look of the salon is beatendown and uninviting, im gonna totally renovate this place and take the look up about five notches. I want to make this place elegant and inviting. What happens here . Sal that is the color bar. Youre applying color here and here. A big chunk of the money were gonna spend is to build a new color bar right in the middle of the salon. I want the customers to see their color being made and be part of the process. Carolyn, lay down. Carolyn [ laughing ] i dont trust this guy theres no water coming out. Lemonis no, theres no water. And ive decided to take a little detour. Im meeting carolyns expartner, joe. Joe marcus . Joe secreeti. Pleasure to meet you. Lemonis really pretty place. Joe thank you so much. I said im going to brand myself to be different than everyone else. Lemonis id like to try to broker a truce between them and maybe do a little business. Joe if youre saying to me, would i possibly be open to doing something with carolyn, the answer is yes, as long as she would be open to it. Lemonis it was great meeting you. Joe its my pleasure. Lemonis thanks, guys. I appreciate it. Byebye. Wheres susan at . She texted me, you dont need me anymore. Lemonis so, do you have her number . Carolyn mmhmm. [ ringing ] susan hello . Lemonis susan, this is marcus and carolyn. You know, i just dont understand why you just leave in the middle of the day. Carolyn should have waited till the end of the day and we could have spoke. Susan ive never showed you any disrespect ever. Lemonis well, im sorry, but susan ive never given you trouble. Ive never given you drama. Lemonis i think walking outs pretty disrespectful. Carolyn well, you shouldnt have walked out, susan. I would have talked to you oneonone. You shouldnt have walked out, so. Susan i think i deserve that respect now. Lemonis well, you sent a text saying that you dont work here anymore, so which one is it . [ line clicks ] oh. She hung up. There is no place for her here, in my mind. Whats wrong . Carolyn [ voice breaking ] its overwhelming sometimes. Lemonis i know. Carolyn and altogether, its overwhelming, you know . I lead by example on everything in my life. I do. And even the managers, like you expect them to get it, get it. And then living in fear of, you know, getting rid of somebody because theyre gonna take your staff or you know, its like, its a lot. Its overwhelming. Lemonis yeah. Susan so i have not been able to make decisions based on whats right or wrong, you know . Its all been based on fear for 2 1 2 years. Lemonis i think youre letting your heart get in the way of making Good Business decisions. And so part of my reason for being here is not only to be your partner, but to push you. Carolyn i get it. I totally get it. Lemonis these are things that you needed to do regardless. Carolyn all of its my fault. Lemonis well, lets not get dramatic. Dont be dramatic. Losing susan is one of the key ingredients to getting this business to profitability. We already know they have too much in labor costs, so this is one step in the right direction. Carolyn the question is, if somebodys trustworthy and loyal lemonis shes not loyal. What makes her loyal . It was the first time youve confronted her. She didnt like what she heard, and what did she do . She bailed. Where is the loyalty in that . Carolyn i guess youre right. Lemonis if your business is in trouble and you need my help, log on to theprofitcasting. Com. Debbie lets do it [ excited chatter ] carolyn all right, listen. The past is the past, and on to bigger, better, and more powerful things. Lemonis today we start the renovation, which is symbolic for a lot of reasons. [ all cheering ] i could imagine that its pretty cathartic for carolyn to take a sledgehammer to her old, tired salon thats filled with a lot of baggage. [ all cheering ] out with the old and in with the new. This renovation isnt just about looking good. Its about making more money, as well. I want to add at least eight more chairs. More chairs, more color. More color, more revenue. Everybodys happy. It will also give us a special area to merchandise our new Retail Products. [ all cheering ] [ applause ] feel good . This is awesome. Carolyn feels really good. Lemonis hey, guys. Welcome to our studio. Carolyn [ laughs ] man good to see you again. Carolyn this is the new unique. Man mwah lemonis good to see you. Okay. So the team from rejuvenol is here to show us the new packaging for our products. Woman i just want to show you one of the designs that ive come up with. Lemonis i dont like it. By the way, i think you did a great job with picking the color of the package. The layouts fantastic. This is beautiful. But im seeing i am unique, which is great. Yeah, you are unique. But theres a million other uniques out there in the haircare line, and so how do we stand out . Carolyn we have to come up with, you know, another name that is very. Catchy. Lemonis how about your daughters names . Carolyn my daughters names, erika with a k, raquelle, and cole is my son. Lemonis erika cole. Carolyn erika cole. Can we get raquelle some in there . Man erika cole by raquelle. Lemonis thats it. Carolyn erika cole by raquelle . Thats great. Lemonis i feel good about that. You feel good about it . Carolyn yes see . Lemonis i want to see what that looks like mocked up. Erika cole by raquelle. Carolyn i like that. Lemonis do you . Carolyn thats cool. Lemonis good morning. Carolyn good morning. Your bright and early, chipper, and a smile on your face. Lemonis so, i was actually thinking all night about rejuvenol and all the things that we can do. Im not a fan of launching a privatelabeled product and putting all that money into it and going through all that for four locations. I want to figure out how to make money. Carolyn okay. Lemonis and so its important to me for you to have closure on the issue with joe. Just the way you close up and your facial reaction when i mention his name shows me that hes baggage. And i have to tell you, its not good. Carolyn needs to shake the past. When people fall down, they need to get up, dust off, and move on. I think if she can do that, shell not only move forward professionally, but personally, as well. Carolyn i dont understand what youre really trying to do. Lemonis make money. For Business Advice and extra scenes from the show, go on to cnbc. Com theprofit. Rowithout the Commission Fees and account minimums. So, you can start investing today, wherever you are even on the bus. Ooh, like this guy. Yeah, i bet hes investing right now. Hes taking charge. Hes grabbing the bull by the horns and he just missed his stop, yeah. Its time to do money, so what are you waiting for. Download now and get your first stock on us. Robinhood. Lemonis its now time to change the layout and the flow. Were gonna completely transform the salon and bring in new furniture and equipment. Its a lot of demo. Carolyn yeah. Its crazy. Lemonis the makeover is gonna include new chairs, new lighting. Remember, this place has to be bright. New fixtures, a new color bar. I want to walk in the front door, and i want to see the color bar, right . Why dont you guys come around on this side . Remember, carolyn, whatever you have to say, whatever it is, be yourself. Carolyn okay. Lemonis ive asked carolyn to meet with joe to say her piece. If she can get over things, we can potentially distribute our product through his salons. You know, i feel like, together, we could do something really good. But obviously, you know, theres a lot. So, you guys are both looking to me. [ both laugh ] and, quite frankly, id like you guys to talk to each other before i talk. Joe well, ill just say that carolyn and i were partners for many, many years. And, so, we got along relatively good, and then it turned bad and ugly, and ill take some of the responsibility for that. Two years later, im emotionally over it, and im moving on. Carolyn when did that happen . Yesterday . The day before . You almost put my family out of a house, my kids on the street you did. Not me. You did. Joe okay, you blame that all on me. Carolyn thats right. You took money from everybody joe i did not do that. Carolyn you didnt have a franchise. Joe but we were paying for mark carolyn you expected us to do the work in the salons for nothing lemonis its clear to me that we wont be doing any business with joe, and obviously carolyn had a lot to get off her chest. Carolyn the company paid you 10,000 a month until you put us out of business. Joe well, thats incorrect again. Im done. Im over it. Its over. I dont care. Carolyn okay. Then i dont care. You almost put me and my kids on the street, and for that i dont know how you stick your head on the pillow. And i dont need you or your cactus or your marketing money. Carolyn i grew nassau county, not you. Lemonis that meeting with joe and carolyn did not go at all how i thought it would. How did that feel . Carolyn . Awesome. Lemonis [ laughs ] the good news is, is that i feel like carolyn made peace and she got over what she needed to get over. So if theres a Golden Nugget to take away from that very crazy meeting, its that i feel like she can move forward now. What do you say we get back to work . Carolyn okay. Lemonis were gonna make a lot of money. This is one of the biggest and most rewarding transformations that ive ever done. When i got here, the lighting was horrible. I replaced the old, dirty skylights with doublepaned glass that really lets the light through. I added a new lighting system, and i also added chandeliers. I replaced the old ripped and broken chairs with brandnew seating for both comfort and style, and the old product display was disorganized and cluttered, so i added new backlit displays so our new product really stands out. Carolyn hey, doesnt this look amazing . Amazing woman if youre happy, well all be happy. Lemonis the new salon has just opened, and the entire mood is completely different. Woman this is where we belong, i think. Lemonis with over 300,000 in total renovations, i can see its already starting to pay off. Carolyn oh, my god. Lemonis oh, my god. Carolyn unbelievable. Lemonis it looks unbelievable. You know what i like more than anything . The fact that the chairs are full. How many new chairs do you have . Carolyn 31. Lemonis so eight more chairs. And look at it. Theyre all full. And each one of those chairs is generating an additional 6,000 per month in revenue. How do you like how the color bar came out . Carolyn oh, my god. It came out awesome. Lemonis 70 of our revenue is done right here, and this is how we pay our bills. Carolyn now as they use it, theyre writing it down. The person thats in charge back there will also scan it so it goes right into the system so our reordering process will be based on whatever girls need. Lemonis so theres an Inventory System in place. Im gonna be sending in secret shopppers just to be sure that its right. Carolyn good. I hope so. Lemonis with the new color bar, weve also eliminated the 10 waste they were experiencing, and thats added an extra 30,000 a year. So, one of the things i did is i had at t come in and put in a fully integrated system. Theres now wifi here. And the thing that im most excited about is this new mobileforms concept. Let me show you how this form works. I have a closing checklist and then an opening checklist. It literally walks them through all the things that they have to do. As an example, balance out the cash drawer, set aside cash for the next day, turn off the heat or the airconditioning. And they cant close until everythings checked. Carolyn thats great. Lemonis and i also wanted to get feedback from people. If people fill out this survey, it gets emailed to you and i on a daily basis so we know. They get a Gift Certificate for our products. Carolyn perfect. Lemonis our brand is now erika cole by raquelle. These products we think are all gonna be in ulta in a couple thousand Stores Across the country. I cant believe how good this packaging looks. Carolyn came out amazing. Lemonis i mean, look at this. I mean, honestly, where is the old one at . I just want to see the difference. This is retailing for how much . Carolyn 18. Lemonis and how much was this one . Carolyn 22. Lemonis and what is the difference in cost . Carolyn there is none. Its the same item. Lemonis so look at what a difference packaging makes. And once we distribute this product, its gonna be amazing. Fantastic. I feel like we entirely changed the process. Weve launched a new product. I feel like were closer to the business today, and i think weve got over a big fear. Carolyn yeah. I feel like the weight is off. I have a purpose a new purpose without all of that baggage weighing me down. And i thank you. Lemonis carolyn seems honestly like a new person. Shes moved forward, and you can tell this is a new day for her. But, most importantly, i left this place in way better shape than when i found it. I can see that its doing business, and im very pleased. I want to thank you for everything. Carolyn no. Are you kidding . I thank you. Are you kidding . Lemonis ill be checking in. Carolyn and i want you to. Lemonis see you soon. Carolyn okay. Lemonis bye, ladies. Woman bye greenville, south carolina, is home to west end coffee. A regional roaster with great product. Thats pretty awesome. But even better margins. We sell it for how much . John 48. Lemonis that margins killer. Coowners are living proof that you should never mix business with pleasure. John [bleep] youre horrible at doing the right things until youre forced to do it. Lemonis i not only have to put the right process in place. You made a huge inventory mistake. I have to figure out a way for the owners to coexist. Youre so busy fighting that youre not busy selling. If not, west end coffee will grind to a halt. All right. Rookie mistake