My name is marcus lemonis, and i risk my own money to save struggling businesses. Were not going to wake up every morning wondering if we have a job. Were going to wake up every morning wondering how many jobs we have to do. Its not always pretty. Everythings going to change. Everything. But i do it to save jobs, and i do it to make money. This. Let go to work. Is the profit. Its hard to believe that ive been doing the profit for several years now. And ive done a lot of deals with a ton of businesses. We have a deal . We got a deal. Partner . I think most people are under the impression that if the deal ends well, then its, like, millions for everybody and its going to be great. Wow. Congratulations, guys. Thanks again. Get your ass to work. It just wasnt true. Im not sure who to be pissed at myself for doing the deal, or you guys for letting this stuff just sit here. In order to understand how i look at wins and losses, i have to probably define for you how i look at them. A win isnt always about money. It can be somebodys personal development, it can be fulfillment. But its mostly about the money. In the case of the losses, its about losing money, right . But, its also about things that sometimes just piss me off. So, in the case of patrick dilascia, i lost money and he pissed me off. Which is why dilascia definitely falls in the loss category. Dilascia made graphic tees. Lemonis ive seen it at barneys. Ive seen it at nordstrom. Its everywhere. This is kind of what made our brand superfamous. I literally drew it on, like, a piece of paper. And, like, we have to make the plane look backwards and do everything in reverse. That is very cool. Patrick dilascia owned the business, with the help of his two siblings, kelly and dan. Though they had some minor success with really big retailers, they really had no process or strategy and were struggling to stay afloat. Hes the little brother. Were always trying to take care of him. Why do you help so much . I dont know. Just something ive always done. Why . cause my mom would have taken care of him. Shes not here. Patrick, youre a lucky guy. I know im lucky. But i would do anything for them, too. My initial deal was to infuse 200,000 into the business to clear some of the payables and to reinvest that money into a broader inventory. I like this as a lightweight hoodie. So its like a tshirt. Yeah. Lemonis but, throughout the episode, im really struggling with patricks willingness to change willingness to listen. How much would this retail for . What would you pay for it . 75 . I cant believe you said 75 for that were not at forever 21 anymore. And theres one particular moment that i never revealed. I have an artist friend named rolland berry. And one day rolland called me, and rolland said, theres a history between patrick and i. I actually am the one who started the business. Im telling you this as your friend. Walk away now. I was shocked to hear this. So i brought patrick to rollands warehouse. Through my experience with him, ive felt like i didnt always get the whole story. And then, also, i wasnt comfortable with the flow in, flow out of money and how that worked. I personally wouldnt do business with him again personally, i wouldnt. I think what pissed me off most about it is, i understand that people have business dealings in the past that dont work out. But, why wouldnt you tell me about those things . The fact that rolland was never mentioned, ever, seems like a really calculated omission from patrick. You never thought to say anything about other people, other businesses, not even for a second . No, honestly, not really. Okay. I mean. Then that lets me know what your logic is like. Right, i mean. And so im telling you, that logic doesnt work for me. So, that was one bad thing one red flag. But then i found out patrick wasnt honest and he wasnt transparent about things, especially when it came to money. I ended up being personally sued by one of his vendors that he did not tell me about. I had to write a 36,000 check. So now i have 236,000 invested. In the end, i said i just cant get taken advantage of anymore. So patrick is no longer associated with dilascia. The money that ive invested, i had to take it as a writeoff, and. Its gone. It was a really terrible experience for me, one of the worst that ive had in the history of this show. And he didnt even have the courtesy to apologize. Oh, my god, you guys unfortunately, thats not the only time that i made a mistake and misjudged somebody. Another disaster for me blues jean bar. The blues jean bar was a retail chain of Fashion Stores that predominantly sold denim, and it was owned by lady fuller. Im lady. Im marcus, how are you . Nice to meet you. Lady had started the business with her deceased mothers inheritance. And she was determined to create a cool shopping atmosphere to honor her memory. You know, my mother passed away when i was nine, and she took her own life. She left me money and i wanted to do something with her money that paid homage to her. And i think on some much deeper level, prove to myself that my life was going to be different than hers. While her original intentions were right, she definitely got lost along the way. At its height, the blues jean bar had 13 locations. When i walked in, it had three. I walked into a very pleasant staff, but a very confusing business model. All right, the basic premise of the store is that you cant, you know, touch the jeans without us. Do they actually say to people, you cant touch the jeans without us . Yeah. Mmhmm. They cant walk behind the bar. Okay. The deal that i made with lady was that i would put 900,000 in the business for 50 of the business. To you, the both of us and dont forget, im 100 in charge. I know you are. And i wanted to really renovate the concept and start over. What im looking to do is change the entire store. Lady can we step back for a second . And can i ask you, if we take the bar out, then were just gap on steroids . Were just a white box. And i feel like the reason why this store is so cool is because we have the bar. But it didnt work for this business. You opened up 13 of them, and they didnt work. Through the process, i had to really work through poor inventory choices. This is basically a room full of mistakes and desperate buying without a plan. And more importantly, an owner who was really never visiting the stores. I havent seen lady in six years. Ive never met lady. In the end, i ended up changing the entire concept the shopping experience, the look, the feel, and i even changed the name to denim soul. Well, you didnt take the soul out of the business. We unveil it, ladys happy, everybodys hugging, its superemotional. Oh, my god oh, my god it doesnt even look like the same store. Everybodys excited about the relationship. If you havent met marcus, which many of you have, major thank you to him because without him, you know, a lot of peoples dreams, not just mine, wouldnt come true. And, so thank you. And, so this is really where things started to get weird. Little by little, we started to uncover these things. What i ended up finding out is that a number of the vendors she had on her books, she never paid them. None of that was disclosed. And what happened was i went back to a number of these vendors and said, hey, id like to grow my business with you. And their comment back to me was yeah, wed like to grow our business with you, too, but were not crazy about lady fuller being involved because her business still owes us money. For a brief minute, i had other vendors questioning me and my integrity was at risk. And i had to work hard to clean that up. So, after the issues with the vendors, i decided that it was best for lady and i to part ways. I ended up signing a note with lady fuller to buy her interests for 500,000. So i invested about 900,000 to acquire three denim stores, then i invested another 500,000 to buy lady fuller out. And throughout the process, i had to eat different bills that uncovered themselves. So i have probably almost 2 million invested in what i bought from lady, which was three stores. The reason thats a big deal for me is that denim soul today is one of my most successful Retail Businesses that i have. It does unbelievably well. Its awesome i think one of the reasons that i categorize this as one of my biggest losses is, in the end, i realized that i didnt even need to do business with lady fuller to open these stores and then feel taken advantage of. I have a feeling you and i are going to. [ laughs ] giddy up but i dont want anybody to feel bad for me because my entrance into the fashion business has turned out to be wildly successful. And that brings me to one of my biggest wins in profit history courage b. It was a chain of Retail Stores that predominantly dealt with womens fashion. Look, all the detail inside lemonis noemi was the chief designer and her kids, stephanie and nicolas, ran the business. Did you make the labels for these yet . They did about 5 million or 6 million in sales, but they still were losing money. Who designed, like, these two things right here . Stephanie noemi did. Well, we probably could pick a hundred things like that. And then produce liquidate that. It doesnt matter if it liquidate dont try and justify it. It wasnt correct. Nicolas was a hothead. You want all of the accolade without doing any of the work. And stephanie it was interesting maybe the smartest one of the three of them, but she always took a back seat. Youre not liable. So theres absolutely. Stephanie stop. Lemonis there were a lot of issues and a lot of personalities and a lot of things to fix. But there was way more to like. My initial investment was 800,000 for 30 of the business. In the first year, it was really about changing the product, renovating the stores, and understanding how the Family Dynamics would work. You guys are a dangerous trio. Im just trying to keep up with you guys. And right out of the gates, it was going pretty well. I think youve grown amazingly in the last eight months. And i have to give you a lot of credit. But, as i dug into the business, i essentially realized that the real asset in that deal was the people. Nicolas ended up really becoming a trusted partner, and hes grown a lot as an individual. And stephanie shes blossomed like no other person ive seen. There you go, enjoy everything. Thank you. So, heres how things have transformed. Courage b doesnt exist anymore in name. I converted all five stores into other brands. What does exist is a Fashion HoldingCompany Called ml fashion, which consists of all the other fashion brands ive invested in throughout the profit, like susana monaco, siloett, flex watches, inkkas. We have seven brands and 29 stores. Most have done pretty well. Only one hasnt worked out siloett. But overall, business is doing fantastic. And you know who runs it . Stephanie. Im proud of you. Thank you. And nicolas is actually now helping run gander outdoors, which is a business i acquired out of bankruptcy. And he still has equity in ml fashion. Whats ironic about all of this is that what started out as an 800,000 investment in five womens Fashion Stores, has turned into an 18 million venture into the fashion business. And im not going to stop anytime soon. The true definition of a raw deal. Perfect flavor. One of my most promising investments ends with a major beef nobody saw coming. And later, i reveal my biggest win of all. Anthe chase mobile app changed the game for us. We had this plan to go to the hottest place on earth, harness the energy from the sun to develop popcorn. We thought we had the right equipment, we quickly realized we needed more. We were able to send a Wire Transfer to a local vendor and get more Solar Cookers delivered, right here in death valley. Manage business expenses from virtually anywhere. The chase mobile app available with business checking. Chase for business. Make more of whats yours. Think of all the things ithat think these days. Businesses are thinking. Factories are thinking. Even your toaster is thinking. Honey, clive owens in our kitchen. Im leaving. Oh never mind, hes leaving. But what if a business could turn all that thinking. Thinking. Endless thinking into doing . To make better decisions. Make a difference. Make the future. Not next week while you think about it a little more. But right now. Is there a company that can help you do all that . I can think of one. Wifiso if you cant live without it. T it. Why arent you using this guy . It makes your wifi awesomely fast. No. Still nope. Now were talking it gets you wifi here, here, and here. It even lets you take a time out. No no yes yes, indeed. Amazing speed, coverage and control. All with an xfi gateway. Find your awesome, and change the way you wifi. Both youre bull[bleep]. Im not bull[bleep]. You are bull[bleep]. Email me the [bleep] schedule just do it you need to cut the [bleep]. You know, when i go back and i watch some of the original episodes i mean i hate to admit it, but in every case where a deal went bad, i ultimately have to look back at myself. Did i pick the wrong partners . Did i enable them too much . Did i make a business calculation that was just wrong . I mean, i really feel like i have to own all of them. Are there people that took advantage of me and screwed me . You bet. But did i let them . Yeah, i did. One of the most surprising examples of that. Nice to meet you. Pleasure to meet you. Lemonis . Is Brooklyn Burger and stein meats. This one definitely goes in the loss category. This is how i would have started my infomercial for Brooklyn Burger. I would have started by telling you about the weight of the burgers and the quality of the beef, this beautiful brooklyn bridge. Problem is, this isnt my business. I thought it was, but its not. You see, i started by going to this business in brooklyn called stein meats. Wow. A legendary meat house in new york, they would supply people like peter lugers and wolfgangs some of the best steakhouses in america. Walk me through the process of how it works. Howard this is the receiving area. We get all out fresh meat through here. Owners alan buxbaum and howard mora had taken over a. Stein from their fathers who founded the company. And their hamburger, the Brooklyn Burger, was the staple at new yorks three biggest sporting venues. Good burger. Its the best. It was a 50 million business, but something didnt smell right. So the money that the customers owe us those are the receivables. Correct. How much is our total receivables right now . Couple hundred thousand . Almost 4 million on the street. Are you kidding me . So, based on that information, the offer i made was to put 1 million in and own 50 of the business. And the way i arrived at the 1 million offer was the receivables and liabilities the assets and the liabilities were off by about 1 million. And that my Million Dollars would essentially fill that hole, i would tighten the expenses, keep the revenue going, and over time for a million bucks, i would own a 50 million business. Seemed like a good idea, right . About 3 4 of the way through the episode, i brought in an accountant to really dig into the numbers. So, does this break out how much youre paying in payroll . No. Does it interface into your system . No. Do you have an aging of your payrolls . No. And in the end, what i learned is that it was a much worse picture than they had painted. Their payables are about 3. 8 million. Thats several million more than i thought it was. Theyre almost bankrupt. Wow. I would run. Hey, guys, we got to talk. We got a problem. Theres a 3 million hole that you cant explain, and you have 30,000 in the bank. Guys, this is bad. This business is two weeks away from closing. Howard i know it doesnt look good. I dont want you to think that we knew it and were hiding something from you. This is new to us also. Things are way worse than you think they are. Where do we go from here . I explained to them that i could no longer move forward on my milliondollar deal because it wasnt 1 million, it was going to be, like, 2 million or 3 million. And i just couldnt make the numbers work. From a business standpoint, right now, i dont think this is a good investment for me. I need some time to think about this. Fast forward. I got a call from them. [ cellphone ringing ] hello . And they told me that they were not going to be able to make payroll. Alan we got a little problem. Whats the problem . Today, we found ourselves a little short in the bank. You know, we dont want to bounce any checks, so i was wondering if theres anything you could do to help us. And i was with my crew that shoots the show. And i was ready to leave, and they all looked at me and said, those two guys theyre like our dads. Marcus, you have to save them you have to help them. Look, so i decided to help them out, but its not charity. I have to protect myself. How much do you need . About 200,000. You know, i cant just give you the money. I cant just write you a check and give you a gift, as much as i like you guys. And so, in order for me to give you that money, im going to need to get a return on my money. And the only other thing that i can think of is that i buy Brooklyn Burger from you. And ill repackage it and ill get it back on its feet. Were willing to do whatever it takes. Episode ends, right . Im starting to make plans for Brooklyn Burger. They said to me, weve decided were not going to transfer you the intellectual property. Weve thought about it after, and we feel like we were under pressure. Were not giving it to you. I said, okay, well, then, you at least need to give me my 200,000 back, and the interest associated with it. We dont have the money. I was, like, okay. You dont have the money and you dont want to give me the brand. No problem. Im going to sue you. And so i filed suit, and the judge said, sorry, do you have any paperwork to prove it . I said, well, i have the footage from the show. His comment was, its on a Reality Television show. I dont know whats real and whats not. So, today, i now sit here 200,000 plus 150,000 in legal fees 350,000 out. And the Brooklyn Burger happens to be sold in Grocery Stores around the country. Thats a problem, right . The reason that i put this in one of my biggest losses isnt because of the dollar amount, its the lost opportunity. If Brooklyn Burger is sold in walmart, publix, kroger, target, i mean, could it be a 20 million business . Yeah. And thats what i was banking on. Thats why i put it in as one of my biggest losses. Perfect flavor. Another business where people really disappointed me was coopersburg sports. Coopersburg was a homegrown, pennsylvania Small Company that really focused on the licensing