Lemonis . Theyll be forced to close their doors forever. Mike i cant take this. [ sniffles ] lemonis southbridge, massachusetts, seems like a quiet town until you get inside of sjc custom drums. Mike sjc. This is mike. Lemonis mike and his brother, scott, started making drums in 2000. But after a serious falling out, a deafening silence has divided them for years. Mike not being able to have a brother i mean, you only get one life. Lemonis since then, mike and his righthand man, chris, have tried to keep the company going. Chris were about 30,000 behind right now on bills. Lemonis sjc drums are among the very best, and performers like imagine dragons, green day, and lady gaga swear by their sound, but sjcs lack of inventory and working capital. Mike where are we even gonna get the money from . Lemonis . Has them in a terrible financial snare. Man im calling about the order i placed about six months ago and still havent seen. Lemonis its time for sjc to march to a new beat. Mike its like i can only take so much, you know. Lemonis or this customdrum manufacturer will crash. Im in anaheim, california, at n. A. M. M. , the National Association of music merchants, to meet mike and chris for the first time. And the Energy Levels unbelievable. Man ha whoo [ cheers and applause ] lemonis you mike . Mike yeah. Lemonis hey. Marcus. Mike nice to meet you. Lemonis nice to meet you. Mike thank you for coming. Lemonis this place is rocking. Mike its crazy. I cant believe i still have my voice. Lemonis and so this is the product that you make . Mike yeah, we make custom drums from start to finish. Lemonis how much is a setup like this . Mike this set is about 6,000. Lemonis the average person cant afford 6,000. The average person cant afford 2,000. The problem i see is theyre selling to a very small customer base. So, what is the lead time . Mike our turnaround time is, like, six to seven months. Lemonis six to seven months . Mike yeah. Lemonis its ridiculous. You could build a yacht in six months. You could build a brandnew plane in six months. Mike we run out of inventory. Lemonis they dont have the parts and pieces. Thats no way to run a business. Mike this is chris. Lemonis how you doing, chris . Chris very nice to meet you. Lemonis im marcus. What do you do . Chris i order all the parts for manufacturing, finance. Lemonis so youre doing manufacturing and youre the accountant . Chris yeah. Mike chris left a corporate company, making six figures, and cut it in half to come work for sjc. He has mbas and an engineering background. Lemonis you a partner in the business . Chris we act like partners, but i have no equity stake in the business. Lemonis so thats a no . Chris yes, so. Lemonis so, something beautiful like this. Whats your cost to make it materials and labor . Chris 680. Lemonis it was 680 to make this . What will you sell this piece for . Mike 795. Lemonis so at, basically, 15 margins. Mike right. Lemonis thats a lot of work for 15 points. These things look badass. Mike exactly. Thank you. Lemonis your margins are not badass. Chris right. Mike right. Lemonis you really have to have a sustainable margin on any product to be able to pay your bills. I mean, their margins right now are 15 . Theres no way youre gonna make a living off of that. I mean, its just not gonna work. What does sjc stand for . Mike its my brothers initials scott james ciprari. We started the company together 15 years ago. Lemonis hes not in the business anymore . Mike about five years ago, things started to not be good. I mean, my brothers a genius. Hes the one that started making the drums. I dont know how to make drums. I know how to market. But it was very bad it was toxic for him and i to be working together. And three years ago, i said, im gonna buy you out. And we didnt see each other for a while. Lemonis tough. Mike yeah. Lemonis when you lose the founder of the business, it definitely hurts the business. Theres other people you could hire, but you cant hire a new brother. [ drums playing ] mike man, you got it lemonis what was interesting to me is the range of ages that were in that booth, excited to see and play sjc. It was impressive. If they could offer up more affordable kits, this is maybe one of the few businesses that i think has more potential than even the owner thinks. Lemonis that was pretty good. Mike [ laughs ] lemonis after seeing things at n. A. M. M. , im heading to southbridge to really see whats going on behind the scenes of this company. Good to see you. Mike good to see you. This is our warehouse. This is kind of the start of the process. All of our shelves are there. A lot of custom stuff. Lemonis how you doing, buddy . Chris hey, marcus. Lemonis so, the Raw Materials come in here. Who schedules the workflow that happens . Chris i schedule every order that comes through. Lemonis so whos in charge of sales . Mike me. Lemonis who generates the actual sale order, the quote . Mike i do. Lemonis and who makes sure that its priced properly . Chris i created the pricing tool, and mike said, these prices are too high. Mike im trying to be competitive to to get sales in the door. Lemonis so youre inefficient, and youre priced below market, which means you have high costs and no margin. Death spiral. The guy whos manufacturing the product and knows all the numbers isnt allowed to price the product . Were gonna let the salesman price it . Not a good idea. Are these organized in a way or would you say its a little jackedup right now . Chris its not too bad. Lemonis it doesnt look superorganized to me. Disorganized materials equals loss of time, which equals loss of labor, which means money is leaking out the door. I see boxes everywhere. I see piles of crap beyond belief. Im not sure how they even make the quality of drum that ive seen and ive touched in this warehouse. Where is everybody . Chris theres people working back there. Lemonis i want to see what theyre doing. Making a custom drum is very laborintensive. Each tube has to be cut just to size, then sanded, then painted or stained. And the loops that hold the skin to the drum shell are also made by hand. And then theres a bunch of Hardware Options to put it all together. But because this warehouse is so disorganized, theyre wasting a ton of time trying to find the parts and pieces. And all of these inefficiencies increase production time, which kills their margins. Mike so, what theyre doing right now is theyre its in the final assembly stage. Lemonis hello. Im marcus. Josh josh. Nice to meet you. Lemonis hey, nice to meet you. How long have you been here . Josh this will be my eighth year. Lemonis wow. Whats been the craziest part of it . Josh just the hustle. Lemonis how stressful is it working here right now . Louie pretty stressful. Matt we get orders all the time that come straight from the front office, and its like, we need this kit yesterday. Lemonis so whose fault would it be . Matt mikes. So then we have to go around the whole shop and find different parts to make the kit. Josh every time we try to set a schedule, youre constantly stopping and going back, because this kit ends up being more of a priority. Louie mike will come out and say, we need this kit done. And we know we dont have the parts, so ill say, chris, we dont have the parts. He goes, yeah, dont worry about that one. Do this one. So its like its just. Compounded throughout the whole shop. Lemonis the most disturbing thing about their manufacturing process is there is no process. The reason it takes six months to make a drum is they dont know what theyre doing. Chris weve been a little bit behind on checks. Lemonis who are these checks to . Chris got rent. We have checks to fedex. And we dont have enough money to cover payroll for next week. Were pretty much at zero right now. Lemonis i didnt get the impression that it was that dire when i was out in n. A. M. M. With you. Mike it was dire back then. Its just kind of slowly been getting more dire. Lemonis youre kind of almost closed. Mike yep. Chris pretty close, yeah. Lemonis now that ive seen whats wrong with their process, i need to look at the numbers and really understand where the holes are in the system. Chris i have the last three years income statement and balance sheet. Lemonis you have 45,000 in credit cards. You have 35,000 in checks that you cant mail and another 20,000 to vendors. Chris yeah. Lemonis 200,000 of product owed to customers. The total happens to be right around 300,000. Mike yeah. Lemonis so, in the last 12 months, you did about 1 million in sales and you lost about 200 grand. What are your Gross Margins . Mike our Gross Margins last year were about 20 . Lemonis what should the margins be, chris . Chris in my mind, they need to be like 40 . Lemonis which is basically the difference between losing 200 grand or breaking even. In the pricing model that youve put together, if mike would have stayed away from it, would it have been 40 . Chris yes. Lemonis one of the things that i like about chris hes very focused on the numbers. He has a lot of the answers to the questions that im asking. Im a little disappointed that mike isnt taking advantage of this asset thats sitting right in front of him. In 2014, you sold less and things got worse. Chris yeah. Lemonis what else changed . Mike scott left in 13. Lemonis scotts your brother . And how much equity did he own . Mike we were 50 50 partners. Lemonis how much did you pay to buy him out . Mike to buy him out 533,000, which is 2,000 a month for the next 15 years and a balloon payment of 285,000 at year 15. Lemonis and how did that feel like a good deal to you . Mike it didnt. Lemonis so why did you do it . Mike i didnt want to shortchange him and be like, ill give you 100 grand. Get out. Lemonis and so the fact that you were willing to put your brother ahead of yourself says a lot about your character. Mike [ sniffles ] lemonis do you miss your brother . Mike yeah, i miss him. We when it was just me and him, the first few years, it was awesome. And now this is a mess, and hes not here, and he resents me either way, you know. [ sniffles ] chris i wish your brother knew how you felt. Mike our relationship has been so far gone for so long. Lemonis well, you have to fix it. Mike yeah. I. [ sniffles ] lemonis its very hard for a new investor to come into this deal. The value of a milliondollar business that loses 250,000 a year is worth how much . Chris its not worth anything, really. Lemonis the margins are terrible. This is a bad deal. Its obvious to me that this place has hit rock bottom, and this is really wearing on mike, and now its wearing on chris, and i really feel like i need to understand why its wearing on chris so much. Chris [ crying ] lemonis hey. You all right . What are you thinking . Chris its just. I know how hard it is. Mike and i believe in it, and i believe in mike. And its hard to be on the verge of feeling like. You might not believe in it. [ sniffles ] struggling to clean tough messes with wipes . Try mr. Clean magic eraser sheets. Just wet, squeeze and erase icky messes in microwaves and on stovetops for an amazing clean, get the power of mr. Clean magic eraser in disposable sheets. Wthats why xfinity hasu made taking your internetself. And tv with you a breeze. Really . Yup. You can transfer your Service Online in about a minute. You can do that . Yeah. And with twohour Service Appointment windows, its all on your schedule. Awesome. So while moving may still come with its share of headaches. No kidding. Were doing all we can to make moving simple, easy, awesome. Go to xfinity. Com moving to get started. And its hard to be on the verge of not feeling like. You might not believe in it. [ sniffles ] and i think theres things that we can do to blow the ceiling off the place and make it something thats bigger than anybodys ever seen. Lemonis that means a lot to me. Yeah, that means a lot. Why dont we go figure out how to do that, okay . Chris [ sniffles ] lemonis man, your weather here sucks. Chris [ laughs ] its not that bad. Lemonis yeah, it is. Chris [ laughs ] lemonis holy crap. Well. Long day . Mike emotional day. Lemonis in my mind, in order for this business to be successful, it needs to have working capital so that i dont ever have to hear, i couldnt finish the order because i didnt have. Whatever part theyre missing. Chris right. Lemonis it needs to clear itself of all of the liability that is not affiliated with your brother. 300,000 is owed to credit cards, vendors and suppliers. I dont have as much concern about the Sales Numbers because i walk around this building, and every single place i look, i see an order. Thats not a concern. My offer is 400,000 for 33 of the business. 300,000 will pay off all of the current liabilities, and 100,000 will go into the account so that there is cash. Mike um. Lemonis mike, you seem kind of hesitant on this one. Mike yeah, i just feel that im just concerned that. That wed be in the same position almost as we were last year in a certain regard. My concern is it not being enough to cover everything. Lemonis how much do you have in the bank today . Mike zero. Lemonis what would you have after that . Mike 100,000 in the bank. Lemonis and how much liability would you have . Mike zero. Lemonis if i dont put money in, what happens . Mike just continue this downward spiral. Lemonis right. Mike i get it. Lemonis my offer is 400,000 for a third, but youre not keeping 2 3. Mike i was gonna bring that up. Lemonis what were you gonna bring up . Mike that i want to bring chris in now. Lemonis good, because that was my contingency, that were equal partners, the three of us. 400,000 check. We have a deal . Mike we have a deal. Lemonis im 100 in charge. What i say goes. Mike understood. Chris thank you. Lemonis you got it. Mike thank you very much. Lemonis now youre in session. All right, ill see you guys bright and early. Hey, guys. Id like to huddle. So, last night, mike and i made a deal for me to invest 400,000 into the business. As part of that deal, im gonna own a third of the company, mikes gonna own a third of the company, and chris is gonna own a third of the company. He will set the priorities with you guys, and mike will not be coming in, saying, imagine dragons called, and they want their drums tomorrow. Were just not gonna do that anymore. Now, mike is still responsible to make sure that were marketing the business properly and were selling. Both of them report to me. Im 100 in charge. Chris definitely. Lemonis we know the product that you make today is awesome, but i think you leave a segment of the market to fend for themselves. We can be what i call good, better, and best those three price points. The goal that i have in this whole process is to diversify their pricing offering. And so, we establish the good, better, best model. Once we can sell somebody an entrylevel sjc drum, good, we can then keep them in the family and move them up to better, and as they get better and we give them tips and tools, then we can move them to best, which is our amazing custom drum, and thats the model that actually allows us to take care of the whole universe. Any other questions . So, lets go to work. I want to make a nice kit that solves the entrylevel market with the highest retail being 895. The good kit will be our entrylevel price point. What kind of margin do you want . Chris you need at least 40 . Lemonis okay. Tell me what the cost would have to be. Chris you got 895 times. 40. It would be 537. Lemonis cost. Chris yep. Lemonis thats why hes in charge of the numbers. Mike i know. Lemonis you guys are gonna put together a kit for 537, so go to work. Chris all right, sweet. Louie well, did we want to go with 2. 1 hoops on the medium kit . Chris 1. 6 millimeter hoops are a little bit cheaper, but theyre. Matt definitely save that one for the the base kit. What if you shrink the rack tom size so you can get the most out of a full tube . Pat we should talk finishwise, though. Lemonis how are you guys doing . Chris um. Were having some trouble trying to get the price down on the good kit. Lemonis whats the issue . Chris most of our metal components are about the same price no matter what you use, so were trying to find other ways around it to reduce either cost of, you know, finishing. Lemonis i think the key would be really just simplifying the process. As i listen to these guys, they cant seem to get past how they manufacture the drums today, and im starting to get concerned. What i really think they need is a fresh perspective. So let me put some thoughts in. Ill see what i can come up with. All right, keep working at it, though. I think there may be a solution. Its a risky one. Scott . Scott yes. Lemonis how are you . Nice to meet you. Mikes brother, scott, is the innovator of sjc, and so i wanted to ask him to consider coming back and helping us with this process. If scott is unwilling to come back and help us make this entrylevel drum, then the companys gonna struggle. You got a set of drums here. Scott yeah. Lemonis you still play . Scott yes. Of course. Lemonis you also play guitar . Scott well, i went to school for music, so, yeah, i picked up a lot of instruments along the way. Lemonis you were the artist. Lets just call it like it is. Scott yeah, i mean, mike designed drums and stuff, but when i came to, you know, putting your hands on it and doing it, that was all me. I, in my career, have made thousands like, i think 5,000 drums. Lemonis so, whats the story . Why did you leave . What happened . Scott well, my brother formed a mutiny, is what i say, where people started to slowly become just turned off from me. It could have been the most intricate drum set in the world for the most famous drummer that i should be so proud of making, but it was like, he needs it in two days. It quickly turned into, we just want it now. And if i didnt get it done in two days, i was perceived as not caring about the business. Lemonis how . How could that be . Scott because my brother was the guy upstairs, and everyone who worked at sjc was his friend. They all made fun of me, and i would walk out. And then my brother would say, see, he doesnt care. Lemonis the issues between these brothers are very complicated, and they run deep. But if this business is gonna be a success, they have to work together. It may not happen quickly, but it has to happen. I have to tell you something. I am a pretty good judge of character. I can tell you that he feels awful. He feels like he lost his brother forever. Scott he should. He should feel that way for what he did. I asked scott to come here because i think he could be helpful. Mike im scared to death of him being here. Lemonis is there ever any moment where you guys can get past this . Mike [bleep] it. Im gone. He feels awful. Scott he should feel that way for what he did. Lemonis for whatever this is worth to you, he is devastated. Scott [ sighs ] yeah. Lemonis so, we made a deal last night, and im putting 400,000 into the business. The good news is im 100 in charge now. And so were going to manufacture a less expensive drum. Is there any universe that you would ever reinvolve yourself in the business if you knew things were really different . Scott hes never specifically addressed the things that he did. Lemonis would that help . Scott if he could do it. Lemonis it was nice meeting you. Lemonis hey, bud. Mike hey. Lemonis [ sighs ] i went and met with your brother. Mike you met with my brother . Lemonis yeah, i did. Do you think he could help this business in any way . Mike yes. I dont know how to make drums. Im not out there building drums. We would have never had a company if it werent for him building them. Lemonis i asked scott to come here because i think he could be helpful. Mike im scared to death of him being here. Lemonis what i want to do is stay focused on the business. You understand that, right . Mike yeah. Lemonis and deal with your scars a little later, if you can. Mike i can do that. Lemonis let me just walk you guys through this process real quick. So, were gonna simplify the way we actually manage the business. Josh yep. Lemonis okay. And were gonna think about it in steps. 10 steps to success. Josh i like it. Lemonis sjcs manufacturing process is in desperate need of repair. Orders have stalled because they dont have all the parts. Materials are everywhere. In order to fix that, im gonna install the 10 steps to success. Right here is basically where our 10 steps start. Up theres gonna be a big, electronic board and its gonna have every order thats out there. Theres gonna be carts like this with buckets just like this. Pat yep. Lemonis and so youll essentially pull an order, pull all the parts, take it through the process, 1 through 10. Once it leaves, its on its way to the money door. Okay, so, were gonna start cleaning it up and get ready for it, all right . You can pick up time, which is essentially the same as picking up margin, by putting a process in place that clearly organizes the inventory. The system will also update the status of every order so mike doesnt have to bother people about it. Well hang that. [ laughs ] mike yeah, joshy [ cheers and applause ] lemonis we got nine more. [ laughter ] scott hey, marcus. Lemonis hey, bud. How are you . Scott good. How are you . Lemonis you doing all right . I invited scott here to see if hell consider working with sjc again. But in order for that to happen, he and mike are gonna have to patch up their differences. It feel weird to be back here . Scott it does. I spent a lot of days here. Lemonis scott hasnt spoken to his brother since their fallout nearly three years ago, and there is a lot of animosity. Quite frankly, im not sure that their relationship can be repaired. Well go inside. Scott sure. Lemonis look at this picture. Scott yeah. I remember that. It kind of lost its meaning after a little while. Lemonis [bleep] this is like. Scott yeah. Lemonis im waiting for somebody to Say Something other than me. Mike thank you for coming here. We built the business together. There were obviously lots of disagreements and things that were said and done, and we both put up with disappointment and crap. Scott what disappointment did you get put up with . Mike scott, we could go back and forth all day, and im not interested in going back and forth. Im more interested in trying to be brothers than rehash a lot of that stuff. Scott what did i ever do to you . Say what did i ever do to you . Mike i really dont want to get into all that. Scott all i did was work hard. Mike all i did was work hard, too. Scott no, all you didnt do was work hard. You worked hard, and you formed a mutiny, and you turned people against me. Mike for a long time, scott felt like there was a mutiny against him here. I think it was more he was just ganged up on than a mutiny. You know, nobody was here plotting to get him out. It was just, you know, people would disagree with him, and people would vent. So i feel like scott was a little bit paranoid about that. I was accused of forming a mutiny and all these things, and i apologized for that. Scott you werent accused of it. You you did do it. Mike okay, thats fine. And again, i understand scott so, why am i wrong for saying a fact . Mike i understand that you feel that way, and i apologize for that. I apologize for the way that you feel about those certain situations. Scott but you came up with that culture. Lemonis he knows that. Scott and you fostered it. And, you know, it was never my idea to leave. It was i never was like, i want out. Im leaving. You were the one who initiated me leaving. So, that on top of everything else, that was like, all right, im not wanted. [bleep] it. Im gone. Lemonis is there ever any moment that is not this backandforth stuff where you guys can get past this, or do you feel like its just not fixable . Scott in terms of a personal relationship, i just think nows not the time. Lemonis okay, so well stop talking about personal. Do you feel like this company has potential . Scott yes. Mike yeah. Lemonis all right, do you feel like we make a good drum here . All right. So, we have some things in common. Lets talk about drums. Scott my ideas, i think, will be better suited to put into play if i see what things are right now. Lemonis lets go do it. Mike thanks for coming. Scott youre welcome. Mike dude, i cant [bleep] handle this [bleep] weve talked about bringing him back in the business, and marcus wants him back in the business, but if we cant even be in the same room together because you can [bleep] cut the tension with a knife, then im not gonna be here. My mom washes the dishes. Before she puts them in the dishwasher. So what does the dishwasher do . Cascade platinum does the work for you, prewashing and removing stuckon foods, the first time. Wow, thats clean cascade platinum. What are you doing back there, junior . Since were obviously lost, im rescheduling my xfinity customer Service Appointment. Ah, relax. I got this. Which gps are you using anyway . A Little Something called instinct. Been using it for years. Yeah, thats what im afraid of. He knows exactly where were going. My whole body is a compass. Oh boy. The my account app makes todays Xfinity Customer Service simple, easy, awesome. Not my thing. Then throwing that on top of it. [ sniffling ] i would rather just [bleep] check out, dude. I cant take this. Lemonis what part . Mike all of it. I understand what youre saying, and i understand where youre coming from. Im only human. Im not a robot. Lemonis i didnt ask you to be like a robot. He doesnt want to hear you say, im sorry that you feel like i pushed you out. Its very different than saying, im sorry that you got pushed out of here. Its very different. Mike i understand what youre saying. Lemonis okay, then go fix it. I am not oprah. To think that your brother doesnt add some value is [bleep] asinine. I think he can add something to the business. Scott this isnt a machine from willy wonkas factory. This is, like, you know this is this is the real deal. This is, like, you know. Mike do you mind talking over here . Scott ii mean, if you want to talk, ill ill. Ill yeah, we can talk. Mike that was not the way that i wanted it to go. I wanted to come in here and say i am sorry, truly, that i did not defend you when the [bleep] hit the fan and stuff happened here. The culture was, yeah, something that i created. And i was doing what i thought was right, and i didnt know what the [bleep] i was doing. Scott you thought what was right was to defend them and and treat me like an outcast . Mike i never thought that was right, scott. Scott people had the wrong idea about me because of you. Mike okay. Scott and thats like, thats thats terrible. Mike i apologize for that, scott. It things get blown up. Things blew up. I never intentionally scott you did intentionally turn mike i apologize for that. Scott you just said you didnt, but you did. Say you did. Mike i did it. And im sorry for that. And i would like to have a relationship with you as brothers. Scott well, right now for me is not the time to want to sit and talk about brother things. Mike well, just so you know, i am interested in talking about brother things, and i want some sort of relationship that is healthy for us. Scott i understand. Mike i just want some sort of relationship and it not to be [bleep] awkward. Scott i never wanted it to be this way, either. Lemonis it seems like there are just scars there that just have not healed. Hopefully, this will allow them to set their personal feelings aside and focus on the business at hand. Scott all right, i think thats enough for today. Mike all right. Thanks for coming. Lemonis hey, guys. Josh hows it going, dude . Scott hey. Lemonis so, i wanted to be clear that, when we started this project, we were gonna have a good, better, and best model, right . We already know we have the best. And im feeling like were not getting where we need to on the good model. Pricings not exactly where i want it, and im not sure its right, and so i want to have you spend some time with scott and really get some kind of input on what are the things we need to do to drive the price down. You ready for that . Ready for that challenge . Scott yeah. Lemonis okay. Scott awesome. Chris so, what options are important for people that doesnt throw a wrench in the process . Matt its definitely paint. Scott i have ideas about that. I think you go one flat finish, but its a natural satin stain, cause then youre eliminating the cost of the laminate, youre eliminating an extra step when youre doing the baring edges. Pat what about, like, formica . Scott formicas cool. But then again, what is it . 100 bucks a sheet . One sheet covers one kit. Your labor, the contact cement, the labor spinning it, drying it, doing the seam, doing the outside edge, filing the outside edge. I think naturals the way to go. Whats the size of the bass drum gonna be . Chris its a 20inch bass drum. Scott 20inch . If you offer a 20 and a 22, you have almost the same shipping costs, cause youre still getting one box, but then were able to get another shell in there. [ drum pounding ] lemonis scotts knowledge of innovation and creativity is second to none. And, quite frankly, i think thats the missing recipe thats gonna get us to the magic number. Its kind of cool to listen to your brother cause hes got some crazy [bleep] in his head, and hes very smart. Mike right. [ drum playing ] lemonis after a week, i got news from the guys that the prototype is done. For us to be able to make a prototype that is 895 retail, that thats a big deal. Thats a goodlooking set. Mike yeah, its sick. Lemonis and what does that cost . Mike this costs 537. Lemonis okay. At a retail price of 895 and a cost of 537, we will have a retail margin of 40 , and that meets our goal. Mike i just want to make sure it sounds good. Lemonis so then, tomorrow, were gonna go find a sound studio somewhere. And i want you to get your 6,000 drum kit, and i want to compare the two using professional sound equipment. cause at the end of the day, i dont want to compromise quality. Chris whats up, scott . Scott hey, guys. Nice to see you. Mike this one sounds awesome. [ drums playing ] scott sounds awesome tuned real low like that. Its got, like, a real wet, floppy sound to it. Lemonis hey, guys. Chris whats up . Lemonis so, the reason i wanted to bring you here is really to understand do the drums actually sound the same . Sjc has always been known as a brand that makes great quality. Is the drum itself good enough . Scott lets find out. [ drums playing ] lemonis oh, that is cool. Scott i think that was perfect. Lemonis what is this gonna do . Jack this is a frequency analyzer. Its gonna show us the whole frequency range of human hearing. Lemonis very cool. Jack yeah. [ drums play]ng and, actually, whats really kind of crazy is every time i hit this drum, im getting a really consistent tone and sound from it, and you can see that here. Every time i hit it, this graph is not changing much at all. So thats a good thing. Lemonis so, lets stack it up against the other one. Jack lets do it. Lemonis thats the big test. Mike yeah. [ laughs ] mike we are developing a product mix a good, better, best model where wed love to have this, which is the better kit, available in your store. Richard youre competing with some of the Biggest Companies in the industry. Its just not what we see. Up against the other one. Jack lets do it. Lemonis thats the big test. Mike yeah. [ laughs ] [ drums playing ] awesome. Jack [ exhales sharply ] lemonis all right, lets check it out. Jack okay, yeah, so these are the two side by side. And theyre both very, very similarlooking. These are just showing me what tones the drum is producing. If we were looking for something out of the ordinary, we might see a big peak here somewhere, an unwanted frequency coming from the drum. Lemonis and youre not getting that . Jack nope. Lemonis i mean, you wouldnt call that matthew thats not a beginner kit. Lemonis but its beginner price. Matthew yeah, oh, yeah. Thats the best part about it. Lemonis weve taken a huge step forward in this prototype process, and i feel like were ready for production so we can make some money in 2015. Why dont you guys have a little drumoff . This is what ive been waiting for. Today was a success for our drum kit. But more importantly, today was a real success for mike and scott. [ laughter ] josh first new tool. Lemonis in order to complete the 10 steps model, we bought over 50,000 of new equipment to improve their process, including two new drill presses, a table saw, four downdraft tables for dust, and a new airpurification system. This place looks spectacular. I mean, it looks kind of like what we talked about, right . In the past, sjc couldnt make more than 40 kits in a given month. Now sjc can make over 100 kits a month, giving the opportunity for a customer to order it and for them to actually get it quickly. And now that parts are in stock and theres a process in place, theres zero lead time instead of the eightmonth wait. It feels like a legit business. Chris yeah, its definitely getting there. I feel like we can even get better and better as we go. Lemonis chris did a great job of getting the 10 steps installed, but he did an even better job of getting the prototype made at the cost that i wanted. I knew making him a partner would pay off. And it doesnt feel like im in a big dust bowl anymore. Mike right. Chris right. Lemonis now that the 10 steps are in place, we can build a new better line, the intermediate kit, in less time, making more money. Our new better kit will be the first drum to go through the new 10step process. From cutting the tube, to sanding, to painting, it will move forward to edging. Next, it goes through layout, drilling, and assembly. And finally, a quality check. The new kits go through success steps 1 through 10 in record time, allowing us to make drums in days, not months. I feel good about it. I really do. Chris feels a lot cleaner. Lemonis hey, guys. How are you . Mike hey, whats going on . Lemonis sjc drums now has three types of products good, better, and best. The good product is one thats made for beginners. The better kit was made for intermediate players, and the best product is the custom kits that allow consumers to design it exactly the way they want it. This is for real professionals. So, ive brought mike and chris to new york city to sam ash, one of the nations leading music retailers. Theyve been in business over 90 years with over 50 locations. Were looking for sam ash to market our new better line of drums. We know sjc needs a retailer to get to the next level. Its important to me that mike do a good job today. Ive heard hes a great salesman, but i want to see it. This Company Needs this account. Richard hi. Weve never met. Mike im mike. Richard mike, how you doing . Lemonis how are you . Im marcus. Nice to meet you. Mike cool, yeah, so my brother and i started the company out of our grandmothers basement in dudley, massachusetts. Sjc is actually my brothers initials. Right now what were doing is, instead of just being a fullfledged custom shop like weve done in the past, we are developing a product mix a good, better, best model where wed love to have this, which is the better kit, available in your store. Richard oh, boy. Pricewise, where are you . Mike this kit, to sam ash, would be about 1,100, where you guys could retail it at about 1,700. Richard thats no, im sorry. Youve picked a very difficult category. Youre competing with some of the Biggest Companies in the industry that have huge, huge artist rosters, that have been around for many, many years. Its just not what we see. Wthats why xfinity hasu made taking your internetself. And tv with you a breeze. Really . Yup. You can transfer your Service Online in about a minute. You can do that . Yeah. And with twohour Service Appointment windows, its all on your schedule. Awesome. So while moving may still come with its share of headaches. No kidding. Were doing all we can to make moving simple, easy, awesome. Go to xfinity. Com moving to get started. Huge artist rosters, that have been around for many, many years. Its just not what we see. Mike our product is still made in the u. S. A. For the quality and richard and thats a very important part of the component of being a success in the drum business, is u. S. Manufacturing. Its a great place to come from. When a kid gets down here and hes got all these brands to choose from, you want us to say, but what you really want is the sjc. Why . Mike i think the backstory of, you know, our artists that we have. Why does tre cool choose sjc . Slipknot used to play pearl. Now slipknots playing sjc. Ive gone on tour with bands, whether its imagine dragons or slipknot or green day. Whoever it is, we could parlay that, have the band come in for kids to meet the band. Richard so you could get green day to play in our store . Mike him and i are great friends. Ive been to his wedding. He came to my wedding. Richard wow. That is very cool. Well, you know what . Its very exciting because all these companies that are represented here are huge, multinational, corporate juggernauts, so it would be a pleasure for us to help somebody like yourself spread the word. Wed love to do it. Mike thank you so much. Richard not easy, but exciting. You did good, kid. Mike thanks. Richard you sold us some drums. Mike [ laughs ] lemonis things at sjc seem to be better than theyve been in a long time. The process is working, and the business has ramped up really nicely. On an annualized basis, we could do as much as 1. 8 million, almost doubling the business. Im now in the process of finalizing a licensing deal with the school of rock. I think the thing thats most exciting about it is that not only is it gonna be the brand of our entrylevel drum, but a portion of the proceeds are gonna go towards scholarships, allowing more kids to go there and learn and enjoy music. [ laughter ] [ music stops ] [ cheers and applause ] girl its very fun to play. Sounds really nice, and its so nicelooking. Mike awesome. Lemonis whats most important is that the relationship between scott and mike is healing. With all the new opportunities that exist for sjc and the fact that the brothers relationship is headed in the right direction, my prediction is that theyre gonna be doing a lot of work together. Think the warehouse looks better . Scott i dont have tools that nice. Lemonis oh, youre jealous of the tools . Scott yeah, pretty much. Mike they are pretty sweet. Lemonis you see, life and business isnt always about calculators and dollars. If the business is healthy and the people are good and the process is right and you have a good product, youll make money. But the relationships have to be solid. And in this case, i feel like were on our way. Mike seriously, i think the greatest thing that im taking away from this isnt the money that marcus is giving the company or the fact that we have inventory. You know, i think thats awesome, but the greatest thing, i feel like, is the fact that we are actually talking, and i think its awesome that marcus opened up that door. Pretty much forced the door, but. Scott speaking honestly, like, you know, i didnt i didnt expect to come in here and talk to mike, so you did kind of force it on us, but it worked, and its definitely helped me move on. Lemonis how are things between the two of you guys now compared to before . Better . Scott yeah. A lot better. Lemonis i owe you, my man. Scott im grateful. Lemonis i appreciate it. Mike thanks. Scott youre welcome. Lemonis who would like to try acome on down. . Tonight, on the profit. Finia now im the macaron queen. Lemonis one womans quest to become macaron royalty. What are we shooting for . Why dont you tell me . Finia we are shooting for the moon lemonis . Resulted in a perfect dessert. Nina this is caramel chocolate. Mindy oh, my god, thats so good. Lemonis but her handson Business Plan is wrecking her health. Nina can you hold on one second . Are you sweating . Are you okay . Finia yes, its. I had a heart surgery two years ago. Lemonis . And creating an obligation for her daughter to fulfill. Are you happy, yes or no . Nina if you asked my husband, hed say no. Lemonis nina. If she cant learn to trust. Are we using a recipe book . Finia no, the recipe is here. Nina waiting for our mixer. Lemonis . Her empire will never grow