Is fascinating to me, and so before i go to the business, i want to stop off and see what its all about. Oh, hi there. Woman hi. Lemonis how are you . My first stop is the post office, where santas helpers answer all the letters. Woman 2 it will come here if it says north pole. Lemonis this is the best one. One thing i want to do before i leave is write a letter to santa and ask him to give me a good business. This town is fantastic. From a marketing perspective, id say youre starting with a leg up, and thats why i decided to show up with the christmas spirit. When i walk in, im expecting to walk into santas wonderland with ornaments and christmas lights, but instead, it has dark ceilings and the place is totally uninviting. And even worse, theres cameras everywhere. Who decorated this place, the grinch . Mark hey. Lemonis how are you . Mark nice to meet you. Mark. Lemonis mark . Mark yep. Lemonis im marcus. Mark this is heidi. This is. Heidi hi. Nice to meet you. Lemonis how are are you . Nice to meet you. Husband and wife . Heidi yes. Lemonis well, im in santa claus. Heidi yep. Mark yeah. Yeah. You are. Its a very touristattracting kind of area. Lemonis yeah. Mark holiday world, splashin safari park. Lemonis okay. Mark . They get about a million to a million and a half visitors a year. Lemonis wow. Mark so thats the big tourism for the town. Theyre actually the first theme park. Lemonis oh, theyre the first theme park that every existed . Mark yeah. They were santa land about 70 years ago. Heidi we moved here two years ago. Lemonis oh, okay. Where are you from . Heidi we were originally from pennsylvania. Lemonis oh. Heidi and we were going to do that back there, so i researched it. Im like, wow. Thats a really cool town. So he changed his job. We moved out here, sold our house, and here we are. Lemonis wow. Heidi . About two years later. Lemonis who does the toybuying . Heidi its a family affair. Mark yeah. Yeah. Heidi our kids get involved, too. Lemonis oh, do they . How many kids do you have . Heidi we have two. Lemonis oh, wonderful. Heidi we have a 14yearold and a 10yearold. Lemonis very cool. Heidi yes. Mark when you meet hunter, youll see. Hes 14. Hes a little more advanced, and my daughter is special needs. They call her delayed, and at some point and she catching up. Lemonis yep. Mark like, shes reading now, and shes doing great. Lemonis okay. Can you take me through the products and the categories . Mark yeah. So weve got well over 4,000 different skus. Weve got games on this corner here. Lemonis okay. Mark . A lot of the little knickknacky stuff up here towards the front. Our squishies this is kind of our trendy area. Lemonis how do i know that other than looking at it . Is there a sign . Mark theres no signs. Yeah. Thats the only thing. Lemonis okay. Im not really sure where to shop or where to go. Nothing has any labels on it, and when youre competing with the internet these days, it has to be just as easy as navigating through a website, and to say that the Customer Experience was not part of the thought process here would be an understatement. Does the store seem dark to you . Heidi it does. Yes. Mark oh, my gosh. Yes. Lemonis the black ceiling. Heidi yes. Mark its just. Lemonis yeah. Mark a lot of this stuff, we just kind of did ourselves. Lemonis what are these . Mark those are our cameras. Weve got 16 cameras in here just to kind of deter somebody from. Lemonis is this, like, fort knox . The place doesnt really feel fun. Warning all activities are recorded to aid in the prosecution of crime. Then theres these cameras here telling you that again. Thats, like. Its, have fun, but dont have too much fun, okay . Because were not about fun. I think its important to elicit excitement and to encourage people to touch and play and fall in love with the toys. The best way to get somebody to buy something is to get them to fall in love with it. Mark what weve found was kids would be opening everything. Lemonis its a toy store. Mark . Breaking them. Lemonis yeah. Heidi i think we just take it personally, you know . Lemonis yeah. Heidi because we built this. Lemonis because its your stuff. Heidi so when kids come in there and, like, let loose, were like, oh. Lemonis right. Unfortunately, in a toy store, you have to factor that theres going to be a certain amount of loss. So in a candy store, its people sampling. In a toy store, its people opening. What a business like this should do is you can actually create a line item on your p l. Of course, theres revenue. Theres gross profit. Theres rent. Theres marketing expense. Theres payroll, but maybe they factor in that 1,000 a month is going to go towards opening products up and letting people play with them instead of getting angry about it. What do you do with stuff like this that doesnt sell . Mark we donate this kind of stuff for the schools, for the nonprofits. Lemonis so can you walk me through and show me the other dead merchandise in this store . Mark yeah. I sure can. We switched brands from that to this. Lemonis okay. Mark so once those are gone, we will not have anymore. Lemonis so thats dead merchandise . Mark yeah. These, i cannot sell. Lemonis okay. Heidi the remotecontrol cars dont really seem to go that well. Lemonis they dont sell well . Heidi mnhmnh. Mark none of these, this whole rack, ive had these for two years. Lemonis it doesnt sell . Mark yep. Lemonis wow. Do you do a lot of Business Online . Mark we dont. No, and now heidi we have it. Lemonis do you do any Business Online . Mark we do a very small amount. We have a regular website. Lemonis whats that called . Mark santastoys. Net. Lemonis dotnet . Mark yeah, and you can go to that. Lemonis why dotnet . Mark because the dotcom costs more. Lemonis how much is the dotnet a year . Mark i believe its 29 a year. Lemonis and how much is the dotcom . Mark a hundred and something, it was. Lemonis and so you thought for the 70, it was better to go with dotnet . Heidi just because we werent getting the orders from there. Lemonis maybe because nobody knows dotnet. While i appreciate the frugalness, the Customer Experience is awful. They have santastoys. Net instead of santastoys. Com. He didnt even invest a little bit of money to have a shipping box that had his brand on it. Instead, hes reusing old boxes, and theres a handmade sign that looks like it was made in an artsandcrafts class. Whats a busy day here . Mark 5,000 to 6,000. Lemonis and whats a low day here . Mark a low day here would be. Heidi zero. Lemonis did you ever do zero . Heidi we did. Mark we have. Heidi especially in the slow time, january through march. Mark january, february. So right now were at the end of the summer season, where everything dies down a little bit. Lemonis uhhuh. Yep. Mark so in the offseason like this one, nobody is open. Theres nothing going on. Its quiet. Lemonis and have you ever thought about closing down seasonally and just having the website open . Mark some of the locals do that, local businesses, but for us. Heidi you dont know if they have a birthday or. Mark you have a birthday. Yesterday, we had a little girl. She broke her leg, so we had probably five or six families come in and buy toys for her so she had something to do when she was recovering in the bed. Heidi so were here all the time. Lemonis so mark and heidi stay open yearround because they live here, and i get that, but ultimately, they have to generate revenue for their family and they have to do it efficiently. And so whats the solution . Launch a website that actually gives people the chance to buy product 365 days a year, 247, and have it end in a dotcom, not a dotnet. Lemonis im kind of disappointed that it doesnt feel like christmas. See . Like, i look at this, right . Why did you feel the need to do that when you had this . Mark well, because its a toy store. Lemonis i mean, people know santas toys, its a toy store. Mark yeah. Lemonis and it doesnt even feel like its in the christmas theme. Mark no. Its not. Lemonis so as you stand out here, wheres the christmas feel . Mark its one of the things that were working towards. Lemonis i mean, when you look at santas lodge, its got a giant santa out front. Mark yeah. Lemonis its welcoming. You know that its christmastime. Your building looks clean. It just doesnt look inviting. What happens if the business doesnt work . Mark i mean, i go back to work, and she runs it because i made 20 times more than im making now. Lemonis what did you do before . Mark i was an atm repair guy. God, i was gone six to eight months out of the year. Lemonis yeah. Mark i was always gone. Theres a lot of pictures of the family going to the zoo or the aquarium or the science museum. Im not in them. Lemonis why did you get in the toy business . Mark for me, especially in this town, a classic town, you get that spirit of christmas. When you see that in the heart of a little child. I didnt grow up with a lot of money. I never met my real father. [ sniffs, sighs ] so i kind of grew up on my own. Lemonis and so are you trying to create a refuge for kids to come somewhere and feel safe . Mark i just want them to feel the magic of christmas. Lemonis i think what you have to do is bottle up that passion that you have for it and figure out how to package it in a way where it could provide for you and your family 365 days a year. Mark yeah. Lemonis because every day is christmas. Mark it should be. Lemonis okay . Lets head inside. Guys. Heidi hey. Mark how you doing . Lemonis how are you . Do you have the financials . Mark i do. Yep. Lemonis okay, so 50,000 of inventory right now. Mark right now. Lemonis and what are the payables that you owe . Mark yes. We dont do credit. We buy it outright. Lemonis pay cash, and thats it . Mark yes. Lemonis so you dont owe anybody any money on the vendor side . Heidi correct. Lemonis so heres 17, last year 344,000. So the business makes about 60,000 a year . Mark yes. Lemonis after everybodys paid . Mark yes. Lemonis is that including you guys getting a wage . Mark i mean, we only take enough to pay our bills. Lemonis but thats in these numbers . Mark mmhmm. Lemonis considering that you bootstrapped it and in the last 12 months being open less than two years, you made 60,000, theres not a lot of businesses that can make that kind of return on capital in less than 24 months. Does the place look as good as it could . No. But did you learn how to make a profit and do it with what you had . Mark mmhmm. Lemonis yes. Like, highfive on that one. Mark [ laughs ] thanks. Lemonis and i want to do a deal with you guys. Mark ooh, wow. Lemonis i want to put up 75,000 bucks. I want half of the money to go into the store to improve it, to fix it up a little bit, and i want the other half of the money to go into building the website, which means that the store will be closed for a few days. Heidi [ gasps ] mark she would freak out. Heidi i couldnt even shut it down for a halfhour. Mark shed be like. Shed be a wreck. Lemonis yeah. Mark for me, it comes down to every little bit helps. We just want more for our kids than what weve had. Lemonis youve said to me, we want more for our kids, and in a weird way, by not having an online store, youre doing your kids and other kids a disservice. Mark again, we have a website. We have an ecommerce. We have a whole Payment System and lemonis i understand, mark, but i dont like a dotnet. I dont think its as good, and were going to have something built because thats the nice thing about having an online store. You can always work. Its always open. But it also will work for itself when youre not there. Mark yeah. Heidi its just not our thats not why we did it. It was to have the actual store. I think we should focus more on the store. Yeah. Lemonis coming up. Mark, put your heart into it. Mark can you imagine a place. Lemoso youre a smallice thing about hbor a big one. E store. You were thriving, but then. Oh. Ah. Okay. Plan, pivot. How do you bounce back . You dont, you bounce forward, with serious and reliable internet. Powered by the largest gig Speed Network in america. But is it secure . Sure its secure. And even if the power goes down, your connection doesnt. So how do i do this . You dont do this. We do this, together. Bounce forward, with comcast business. Mark yeah. Heidi its just not our thats not why we did it. It was to have the actual store. I think we should focus more on the store. Mark yeah. Lemonis so when we were in front of your store, what did you tell me outside that christmas is all about . Mark family. Lemonis uhhuh. How are you addressing that in working seven days a week and not taking any time for the family . Mark yep. I see what youre saying. Lemonis if youre selling christmas and joy and family, you better live it. Mark yeah. Lemonis so my offer is 75,000. Half of the money goes into the store to improve the brand. Mark i see. Lemonis and where i want to partner with you guys is on santastoys. Com. Mark how much of that do you want . Lemonis i want 50 of it. Mark thats fair. Lemonis i want you to keep owning 100 of the store. For your family, its enough to make a good living. Even though im not taking a financial interest in the store, the reason i want that money to go towards it is so that it can help build the brand for the website. What i expect from you guys is buying the product. Well ship them out in a really cool santa claus box. Well make cool labels, but you guys have to do all that work. Heidi im in. Lemonis so do you understand the deal . Mark absolutely. Lemonis this is the biggest check i ever wrote to santa. [ laughter ] mark santa is getting a new sleigh. Lemonis a new sleigh . Hes got a new maserati. We have a deal . Mark absolutely. Lemonis im going to give the money to her. Mark i would. Yes. Lemonis thank you. Heidi thank you. Mark marcus. Lemonis thank you. Mark thank you so much. Lemonis good luck. Now that the deal is done, im super excited to get started working for santa, and im going to put some christmas in the air. These are good. I love these. Heidi good morning. Mark hey lemonis whats happening . Hi. Hunter hello. Emily hi. Lemonis how are you . Im marcus. Emily im good. Im emily. Lemonis nice to meet you, emily. Emily nice to meet you. Hunter hunter. Lemonis hunter, nice to meet you. Do you love all these toys . Emily yeah. Lemonis what do you think about making it better . Hunter yes. Lemonis what do you think we should do to it . Hunter just decorate it better so that way it doesnt look kind of cheap, almost. Lemonis oh, it looks cheap . Okay. At least we have an honest family member. And what do you think they sacrifice for you . Hunter a lot. Dad worked a lot. He still does. Mom still does. We never get to have family outings, not very often, anyway. Lemonis im marcus. Laura hi, laura. Nice to meet you. Lemonis laura . Laura yes. Lemonis nice to meet you. Jessica jessica. Lemonis jessica. Jessica yep. Lemonis nice to meet you. Do you guys work here fulltime or parttime . Both parttime. Lemonis and so i know that were just meeting for the first time, but mark and heidi and i ended up making a deal for me to help grow santas toys, and in order to get ready for the holidays, somethings got to change, and step one would be to take out the stuff that doesnt sell and put it in a truck and try to liquidate it. Lets go outside for a second, okay . Emily lets go. Hunter outside we go. Lemonis so. This truck is going to get filled today with everything in the store that we all know isnt good merchandise. So why dont you guys go start pulling things that you know are a problem, and then well load them up . Mark okay. Lemonis all right . Mark got it. Lets go right by you. There you go. Lemonis how do you know what sells and doesnt sell . Mark just from being here. Everything in this area sells. Lemonis all of it . Mark all of it. Lemonis get the data. Dont just guess. Mark oh, im positive. Lemonis one of the things that i want to do is dig into whats really wrong with this business. Mark microscopes got to go. Lemonis and the best place to start at any business thats struggling is you start with the inventory. So whos the one thats buying all this stuff . Mark [ sighs ] me. Lemonis all this is these are all mistakes. Mark yep. Lemonis okay. You should get out of the toybuying business if this is your aisle. After seeing all this crap inventory, maybe it was too early for candy canes. Heidi, what about all the stuff that you buy . Heidi all these dinosaurs are good. We just have to reorder more. Lemonis and you have to get a lot more. Heidi yes. Good. Good. That is good. Lemonis okay. Heidi this is good. Lemonis this is good. Heidi good. Lemonis all of that is good . Heidi all thats good. Lemonis what about all this . Heidi good. Lemonis look, it seems like the toys that are selling are the ones that heidi is buying, and the one that mark bought are ending up on the truck. So from here on out, mark is on the naughty list when it comes to buying toys. Were getting close to being done, and the place still doesnt look right. It looks like a Metal Building with a low, black roof with a couple different types of floors. And so how do you feel about closing the store for three weeks . Heidi [ gasps ] three weeks . You mean three days . Lemonis three weeks. Heidi three weeks . [ chuckles ] no. Lemonis coming up. Heidi, im only comfortable being in business if you are the lead buyer. Heidi no. Lemonis what is it that youre worried about . Closing the store and sofor three weeks . About heidi [ gasps ] three weeks . Mark yeah. Lemonis the idea is to open the whole store up, from wall to wall. Open up the ceiling and have it actually feel like christmas in here, like santas workshop. Its going to take about three weeks. Mark honey, itll be okay. If we sacrifice a little bit now, then the end result will be way better than continuing on the path that were going, which isnt going as well as it should. Heidi yeah. Lemonis and the two of you have too much at stake, too much of your heart in it, for it just to chug along. Heidi okay. Lemonis with heidi onboard, christmas is back on, but lets be clear. We still have to figure out how to get rid of all this stuff. Just out of curiosity, how much money is in there, heidi . Heidi 15,000 . Lemonis 15,000 . Mark yeah. Lemonis so for me, id rather buy it from you for 15,000 and donate it to kids and put the money back in the business. Mark im all for it. Yeah. Lemonis . And then we go to a show, and we take the 15,000 and were smart about it. Run it through the register. Ill sign the receipt. Look, after weve gotten all the bad inventory out of the store, they need to buckle up because this is just the beginning of the changes. So the next three weeks arent going to be a vacation. Mark oh, no. I didnt lemonis we got to go find a couple toy shows. We got to go find a box manufacturer to get santas toys boxes done. We got to go get a new marketing plan, get the website moving, get the website open, and youre going to write up a plan for the toy show. I wanted to bring mark to chicago to take him to a box manufacturer so that as we move the business forward and launch the website, when a customer gets a package, its in a branded box. Keith we make 100,000 a day, maybe 200,000. This is the quantity you want to get to. Like, this is a bigass order. Lemonis this is yeah. How cool this is . And they do something even on the inside to elevate it. I mean, i want to understand what the barrier is to you doing Something Like this. Mark one would definitely be cost. Lemonis whats a box like this cost . Keith 500 units, a couple dollars. Lemonis okay, 5,000 units . Keith 5,000, itd go down to 1. Lemonis you have to think about them not as a box company but as a foldable, moldable billboard company. Keith yeah. Lemonis it can travel the country. It could deliver your message. It can create an experience. But its also to improve retention, so i need you to think about the box also as a retention tool. Mark okay. Lemonis anytime a business is trying to maximize their profitability, one of the things that they need to understand is their cost of acquisition and the retention of that customer after the fact. So if a customer walks in on day 1 and it costs you 40 to get that customer, either from marketing, messaging, billboard, an ad that they saw, and they spend 40 at a 50 margin, you essentially are 20 behind the 8 ball on visit one. The second time they visit, they spend another 40, and now youre back to even, and over time, if you can get them to visit you two to three times a year, youre getting a lifetime value of that customer that will outpace your initial cost of acquisition. Keith a lot of people dont look at packaging as advertising, and a probably the most impact you can get for the dollar you spend is on your corrugated box. Lemonis back in indiana, construction is under way at santas toys. The entire place is being gutted. The only thing thats left are the exterior walls and the roof. Heidi is busy loading the rest of the merchandise into the warehouse she found. Shes probably still frustrated that the store is closed, but the payoff will be well worth it. Good morning. Mark good morning. Lemonis how are you, buddy . Mark im good. Lemonis so im bringing you to pinnacle advertising. Its an agency that ive used for probably 20 years. So theyre going to talk to us about how to turn a website into a 24hour marketplace, and theyre going to talk to us about how to market our location in santa claus, indiana, so that people want to stop there. Whyd you make that face . Mark money lemonis im preparing you that you have to spend money to make money, okay . Mark okay. Lemonis at the end of the day, in order to grow this business, were going to have to invest in this business. The reason that i wanted mark connected with pinnacle is because they handle massive companies. Mike this is our awards wall. Mark holy smokes. Lemonis and i wanted him to know that i was giving him every available resource possible to grow his business. Can we go to his current website just so you can see it . Catie yeah. Its i was going to ask a lot of questions about it because it looks like it was built by your ecommerce platform, but it doesnt sound like youre doing a lot of ecommerce right now. Mark no. Were not. We never really thought of the online site as a serious ecommerce. Catie in regards to bringing people into your store, i think theres a lot of very quick design work that can be done here. Lemonis the website is going to be the most important business, and i bought santastoys. Com before i came here. Jac oh, i think thats great. I mean, it should be sensory overload. When i walk into santas toys, i should smell hints of gingerbread in the air. You know what i mean . Its sights. Its sounds. Its feelings. Steve right. Jac and you are capturing that magic, and then were going to transfer that magic online. Steve and then its, like, somebody thats had a great experience is going to say, santas toys is amazing. Jac when they ask for the website, its like, oh, you should join our nice list, and, you know, you could capture some of their information and their data right then. Mark thats perfect. Jac right . Mark yeah. The nice list. Thats so cool. Mike its that type of innocent passion that is going to draw people in. Its just going to be fun. You want to be a part of it. Its totally infectious. Lemonis all right. Well, lets start with. Mark lets yeah. Lemonis . Baby steps. Mark baby steps. I got you. Lemonis while were at pinnacle, im going to have mark practice recording a radio spot. In order to be a retailer, particularly with Something Like a toy business, you have to be able to communicate excitement and fun. Ultimately, if he can do it, customers will have a better appreciation for him and have an affinity towards him. Mike so in here, this is one of our edit suites, and this is a sound booth, so lemonis you ever been in a sound booth . Mark never. Lemonis lets go inside. Dont touch anything, though. So i want you to give us a 30second elevator pitch. Mark oh, no. [ laughs ] you put me on the spot. Lemonis from the heart. Make it happen. Man all right. Were recording. Take one. Mark all right. So santas toys, to me, is a place where children can come in and see toys that you wouldnt normally see everywhere, and to lemonis mark. Mark. Mark yes. Lemonis i didnt this isnt an interview question. I want you to tell people why they should shop with you. Mark oh, gosh. All right. So santas toys has over 2,000 different toys where you can ask questions from salespeople that really know about the toys. Lemonis i just turned the commercial off. Im going to come in and help you. Whether its online or in the store, what are you selling . Mark the spirit of christmas, the magic. Lemonis i want you to read this sentence in a magical way. Mark can you imagine a place. Lemonis mark. Mark yes. Lemonis put your heart into it. Mark [ sighs ] why did you really get in this business . Can you imagine a place where youre not alone . Mark can you imagine. Can you imagine a place where youre not alone . [ sighs ] lemonis if your business is in trouble and you need my help log on to theprofitcasting. Com. Mark i get too emotional. I cant talk like that. Lemonis you can. You can do it. Im positive. First day i was with you, i fell in love with your spirit and your heart about things. You care about your family. You care about your town. You care about your business. You care about your customers all because you wanted to take them to a place that was different than you used to be in, right . Thats your motivation. Come on. Turn around. We got this. Okay . Take one last crack, but i want you to put the same thought into it, okay . [ door closes ] mark can you imagine a place where youre not alone, where you can experience the fun, the imagination, and the joy of christmas . That place is santas toys. Lemonis i got it. Im very proud of you. You did fantastic. I think everybody agrees. Mark okay. Lemonis all right . Lets go. Mark thanks, guys. Lemonis lets move it on. Thanks, guys. While i dont feel like mark nailed it in the end, the progress that he made from the moment we walked into that sound booth to the moment we left was huge, and if i could see that sort of progress with him in a lot of different areas, well, that may actually be the code we need. All right. Lets go. Mark all right. Lemonis back in santa claus, we are well under way. Were rewiring the whole place for new lighting, putting in allnew floors. Im having allnew fixtures and signage made. The goal is to open up the floor plan and put in new fixtures, allowing there to be double the amount of product there was before, but properly assorted and organized, and were turning part of the wasted stockroom into a cool santas workshop. Good morning mark hey. Heidi hello. Hi. Lemonis how are you . Heidi im good. How are you . Lemonis good to see you. Welcome to dallas. How are you . Hunter pretty good. Lemonis whats happening . Emily good. Lemonis are you excited . Emily yes. I am. Lemonis all right. How are you, buddy . All right. So you ready to go inside . Mark yep. Lemonis lets head in. How you doing . Mark im good, buddy. Lemonis you doing okay . Mark yeah. Lemonis okay, fall toy preview. Holy moses. Look how big this is. Mark oh, this is awesome. Heidi wow lemonis its cool, isnt it . Do you have a written plan . Mark i have it somewhat written. Lemonis no, but wheres your plan that you were going to write down, like, these are the age groups i need to accomplish. These are the categories . Wheres that plan . Mark mostly in my head. Lemonis no more coming to shows without game plans. Go ahead. Mark my game plan is a little different than yours. Lemonis well, your game plan hasnt worked. Anytime you go to a wholesale show, you go in with a buying plan. An opentobuy refers to a budgeted amount of money that you could spend that is allocated based on the business plan. The second thing you should do is understand what vendors are there and what categories am i trying to accomplish . What are the age groups that were looking for . Mark zero to 3, 3 to 5, 5 to 7. Lemonis and how much do you have in each of those categories now . Mark were basically starting over because theres such a small amount left. Lemonis okay. Lets head to the first booth. Emily lets go. Theyre pens. Man you want to try a chicken . Emily [ laughs ] mark im not a fan of this. Its very generic, in my opinion. Man it teaches you how to draw, stepbystep. Emily i think its cool. Lemonis whats the price point . Man 59. 99. Mark what do you wholesale it for . Man 37. 32. Mark not great margins. Man so you have something in your hand. Whoa, its a light. Emily its a light. Man you can make it go through your head. Im getting lightheaded. Emily wow. Man and then check this out you can take the light, and you can throw it into your phone. Emily how did you do that . Is the phone, like, magic . Hunter how does the light thing work . How do you make it jump around . Mark so, to me, he makes it look awesome, but when a kid buys it, hes not going to be able to do what hes doing. This is kind of a waste of time. Lemonis you can mark its not something we would do at our store. Lemonis whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Before you say its a waste of time. Mark yep. Lemonis . Give him the objections that you have. Mark i got you. Emily what . man now close your hand. Mark so the thing for me, if they werent here, i would have just kept walking only because im like, well, how do i do that in store . Man yeah. Mark because youre really good at it, and i dont know that i would be really good at it. Man everything comes with a video display, so the video does the pitching for you in your store. Mark oh, thats pretty smart, actually. Heidi i like it. Yeah. As a mom, i like it just because of the drawing for kiddos, something to do, creative. Lemonis okay. Heidi this is going to be 12. 95, and then we have to buy it at 6. 45. Lemonis so good margins . Heidi yes. Mmhmm. Lemonis how do you feel about the price point for your Customer Base . Heidi i think its really good. Yeah. Lemonis wow. Heidi yep. Lemonis mark, where is your pad of notes . Mark in my backpack. Lemonis hey, grab it real quick. Mark here it is. Lemonis okay. Mark yeah. Uhoh. Oh, yes. Shes a better notetaker. Lemonis she asked costs. She knew her margins. She liked the size of it from a value standpoint for 12. 95. The one thing that i did learn at this toy show was heidis ability to do the work, the detail work, the writing of the notes, the asking of the questions. I saw her executing at a much higher level than mark. I dont think you should do much buying going forward. I watched heidi do it, and i was kind of blown away. Mark i agree. Lemonis im only comfortable being in business if you are the lead buyer. Heidi i its just not me. I just id rather just go and help for somebody else. Lemonis you got to let these unbelievable brains and creativity out. We need it. Mark i want you to do that because you are better at it than i am. Heidi no. Lemonis what is it that youre worried about . Heidi i just dont want to fail. Lemonis you to fail, the business to fail, the family to fail . Heidi all of the above. Lemonis you feel that pressure on your shoulders . Heidi yeah. Lemonis coming up. Mark i did get a label to go over the top of the dotnet. Lemonis but its not done. Mark its on my list. Lemonis bull[bleep] mark. You should have just done it, though. Its like you just didnt put the frosting on the cake. Lemonis what is it that youre worried about . Heidi i just dont want to fail. Lemonis you feel that pressure on your shoulders . Heidi yeah. I dont know. Lemonis have i made you feel that way . Heidi no. Lemonis so then why . Tell me. Heidi because i have them. Emily its okay, mom. Its cool. Lemonis your mom is wicked smart, but she doesnt feel like she can unleash it because shes too shes worried. Hunter come here. Emily hello, there, hunter. Hunter come over here, you bugger. Emily [ laughs ] its all good. Kissies. Mark you can do this. Emily now were happy. Mark you know you can. Lemonis you ready to go to work . Mark youve been doing it. Emily yeah heidi lets go to work. Emily lets go to work. Hunter see, you were joking and caroling. And you. Lemonis its clear to me that heidi has the fundamentals to be more successful in this process and that marks heart is so filled with love for his family that he recognizes that having his wife participate in the most meaningful way is only going to make their Family Business stronger. And it took me about a month, but i finally saw mark loosen up. This guy wont stop hanging around. Mark [ laughs ] lemonis okay. Are you sure youre okay . cause youre having a little bit of fun. We made a ton of progress today. I thought heidi did really well in understanding that categories that needed to be bought based on what sold historically and then taking a few chances, but being really smart about it. Lets go that way, and then well come back. Were putting the finishing touches on getting the store ready for the reset, and mark is putting finishing touches on boxes and bags, and the new and improved santas toys website is almost done. Also, im taking mark and heidi to buy christmas decorations. Ill take 15 of these, so three of each color. Man okay. Lemonis were trying to make it magical for people when they come in. Mark it is going to be magical. Lemonis were going to decorate the store in a way that customers will never forget. Mark will this go outside . Man yeah. Mark [ gasps ] we could put one on each side of the doorway. Lemonis by the time were done, i think well get put on the nice list by santa. What are you highfiving for . Highfive her. Mark i just wanted to be part of it. Heidi [ laughs ] lemonis you highfive. Im back at santas toys because ive gotten all these emails and texts from mark about the fact that he was ready to open up the store, and i have come prepared with my santa hat to celebrate christmas, but i got to be honest. I have a hard time believing that christmas has come early especialthis early. What . heidi hello give me a hug. Lemonis merry christmas. Heidi merry christmas. Lemonis merry something. Heidi yeah. Mark oh, there he is. Lemonis how you doing, buddy . Mark nice to see you. Im doing good. Lemonis yeah. Mark its awesome. What do you think . Lemonis it feels different. Heidi it does. Lemonis it really opened it up. Mark oh, yeah. Yeah. It feels so much bigger. Lemonis when i walked in, my First Response was, it does look totally different. Its brighter. Its more open. Theres graphics on the wall. Theres new fixtures. Theres signage, but different and perfect are two different things. Look at that. What does that look like to you on a grand opening . Mark not as good as it could be, for sure. Yep. Lemonis the shelves werent filled. This looks terrible. Mark because. Lemonis and im looking at this case by the register thats entirely empty okay, so this is just empty . Mark yeah. Lemonis im not happy with the fact that you scheduled the grand opening for today when youre not ready. We need to take the next three hours and we get it right. Mark i dont know that three hours is going to do it. Lemonis why is that . Mark because we dont have a system at the storage unit. Boxes are just piled on top of each other over there. Lemonis okay. Im seeing holes everywhere, and hes telling me that theres a bunch of product back at the warehouse and in the stockroom. In what universe did he think it was a good idea to have the grand opening today . Mark i completely missed how much time it was going to take to get all this stuff in there. Lemonis whyd you leave this behind . Mark just time. We got another santa over here. Weve got nutcrackers, all kind of knickknacky stuff. Lemonis and you just decided to leave all this back here. Mark i just said, when i have the time here next week or in the week after that, were going to get i want to get all this stuff done. I just i should have waited. November the 24th and 25th, that would be a better day for a grand opening. Lemonis so why didnt you just stick to that day . Mark that was my choice, but that wasnt my other halfs choice. Lemonis what does that mean . Mark heidi didnt want to wait until then. Lemonis how much pressure did your wife put on you to open the store . The truth. Mark considerable. Lemonis uhhuh. Mark ultimately, its my fault for not thinking it over more. Lemonis so we closed for a month. We did this giant renovation, but you wont know it because when you pull up, it looks just as bad if not worse than it did when i left. In the parking lot, i see overgrown grass, and i see the same banner hanging from the sign that i asked to be removed last time. Why is that banner still hanging that we talked about . Mark i was going to take it down when i had a chance. I did get a label to go over the top of the dotnet to make it dotcom. Lemonis but its not done mark well, i didnt lemonis but its not done mark its on my list. Lemonis bull[bleep] mark. You should have just done it, though. Its like you just didnt put the frosting on the cake. For exclusives, extras, and business advice, visit theprofit. Cnbc. Com. Lemso youre a smalldnt put the fbor a big one. Cake. You were thriving, but then. Oh. Ah. Okay. Plan, pivot. How do you bounce back . You dont, you bounce forward, with serious and reliable internet. Powered by the largest gig Speed Network in america. But is it secure . Sure its secure. And even if the power goes down, your connection doesnt. So how do i do this . You dont do this. We do this, together. Bounce forward, with comcast business. I need you to be perfect when it comes to the details of the business, but you werent ready. Mark no. Youre right. Lemonis so we got to scramble. [ indistinct conversations ] mark if we aim that up and to the yeah. Down just a little bit, well be looking pretty good. It makes a really big difference. It looks great. Lemonis we did it. We did a good job. Mark hey, everybody. [ cheers and applause ] mark its been a really fun, amazing road to get here. We really fell in love with the town, the people. We want to continue growing and getting better. Anyway, thank you all. [ cheers and applause ] heidi all right. Mark here we go. Heidi there we go. [ cheers and applause ] lemonis who wants to go inside and see the toys . [ cheers and applause ] come on in. Head in. Finally, i can celebrate christmas. As everybody enters the new and improved santas toys, theyre going to get a totally different experience from what it used to be. The signs and cameras have been removed, and theyve been replaced with christmasthemed murals. The low black ceiling has been torn out, and the ornaments and the open ceiling bring the place to life, and it is much easier to navigate with clearly signed sections that tell you where all the products are. And i really love how the old Storage Space is now santas workshop. This room came out nice. Mark yeah. Lemonis so when you see all these people here, what do you think to yourself . Mark its nice to succeed. The support, it means a lot. I dont have to be on the road. Im home. I see my kids and my wife every day. Lemonis christmas is really about people just being nice to each other. Heidi coming together. Lemonis . And not, apparently, getting on the naughty list, which id like to contest why heidi is up there. Mark i dont know. She shouldnt be on the naughty list. Lemonis maybe its because she opened the store too soon. Heidi yeah. It was hard being closed that long. Lemonis what did you learn about yourself . Heidi like, i have patience. Lemonis did you gain confidence in yourself . Heidi i think so. Mark hey, you guys you know how gummy bears are usually really soft . These are super chewy. Lemonis with the new and improved Customer Experience and all the new products and all the new signage and the entirely different environment. Woman hello, santa. Welcome lemonis . And with the santastoys. Com website up and running, well, theyll be able to get revenue 365 days a year, not just during christmas. Im expecting this business to go from 300,000 a year in revenue to way over 1 million. Heidi 36. 29. Thank you. Mark this is botley the robot, hottest thing on the planet. Lemonis and the brightest bulb on the christmas string for me was having mark really understand what he was trying to accomplish. Let me feel that muscle. Woman whoa mark whoa holy moly lemonis the christmas spirit, santas spirit, it runs in his blood. Mark i appreciate you helping. Lemonis you feel good . Mark . Helping me focus. Lemonis at the end of the day, i spent over 100 grand, which was way more money than i ever wanted to, but this town and this whole idea around santa and toys and christmas was something that was really important to me. Heidi thank you for coming. Lemonis thank you for having me. Lemonis you did great. Heidi no. Thank you. Lemonis im very proud of you guys. Dear santa, youre welcome for fixing your toy store. Now can you get me a good return on my investment . Mark thank you, sir. Heidi say goodbye wow, this place is beautiful. A gifted designer started his business when he was just 8 years old. So you make all of this stuff . Ben yep. Lemonis this is all yours, too . Ben yep, these are all of our designs. Lemonis wow. Eventually building a milliondollar home brand around his dazzling creations. Now bens garden has stopped growing. Ben i want to scale, and thats what ive been really stuck on. Lemonis and so has your business gone down . Ben yes. Lemonis though owner ben busko has overcome incredible challenges. Ben i was diagnosed with aspergers syndrome, which is a form of autism. Lemonis . He still struggles as a leader. Victoria theres a lot of finger pointing that im not doing my job. Im not doing anything