The Profit’s Progress Report After Two Seasons
Some people might not do a progress report in the hopes that we don’t remember their failures. Not Marcus. He’s equally open about both failures and successes. As a result this turned out to be an enjoyable episode to watch especially because I got too see how some of my favorites were doing a year after The Lemonis Intervention. Hopefully at some point next year he will do a progress report on the businesses in the most recent episode such as Shuler’s B-B-Q, Coopersburg Sports, Simple Greek, Artistic Stitch, and Courage-b.
Success Stories
Marcus growth strategies have worked extremely well for companies such as Mr. Green Tea, Car Cash, Athan Motors, and Sweet Pete’s. Speaking of Sweet Pete’s, I was rather annoyed to learn that it cost Marcus $50K to get rid of the deadwood, but that’s business for you. When I heard how much it cost I immediately thought of A Bronx Tale where the young protagonist can’t get a school friend to pay back the $20 he borrowed. When he asks the local mafia boss for advice on the matter, he’s told to consider himself fortunate because all it had cost was $20 to get a deadbeat out permanently out of his life. In life and business, you just have to learn to put the negative stuff behind you and move on.
Marcus Lemonis, tycoon deal-maker
Failures
The biggest failure to date has been Stein Meats. The pair who owned the troubled $50 million company accepted $200K from Marcus and then quickly folded the company without giving Marcus anything for his investment. From watching the episode I just had the suspicion that these guys weren’t managerial material at all and mentioned in my review that they should have hired a professional manager. This would have allowed them then to stick to being butchers. Marcus is going after them through the courts but I doubt he will recover his funds.
Then there’s the Skullduggery trio who stiffed Marcus for $105k.
Marcus was repaid the $150K he sank into Maarse Florists by Hank’s mother. I hope he got a good spanking over that.
Marcus’s Grand Growth Strategy
All of you aspiring tycoons and deal-makers have probably noted the synergistic aspects to Marcus’s investments. For example, his car investments cooperate with AutoMatch USA buying over 60% of its inventory from Car Cash. Then there are the food companies. Now that Marcus owns the remaining 28 stores of the Crumbs Bake Shop chain he’s having it promote products from Key West Key Lime Pies, Pro-fit, Mr. Green Tea, Sweet Pete’s, and even the biscuits from Shuler’s. In addition, Marcus invests in some businesses because he has pre-existing connections that could quickly boost their revenues. Think of how he was able to get the Skullduggery brothers into meet a senior executive at NASCAR. Unfortunately the two made asses out of themselves in front of him and a national television audience. On the positive side he used his connections’ to get Tina’s protein bars into 3000 GNC stores across the nation.
That’s how tycoons build business empires.
I am really looking forward to season 3.
2 Responses to The Profit: Marcus’s Progress Report
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Was anyone more shocked than I was to hear the Worldwide Trailer pair had ironed out their differences and were working together? They even took Marcus’s advice and moved the business to one location. Miracles do happen.
You article clears up something I’d wondered about during the show, when Marcus mentioned product placement at Crumbs Bake Shop. I was surprised by the Crumbs citation, because I knew that the chain had gone belly-up, and that only some of the shops had re-opened. What I didn’t know was that Marcus owned them.