Marcus moves fast. Money loves speed, as they say. He doesn’t waste any time waffling.
Just received this press release.
Sunday Business Notebook: AutoMatch USA is open
Where our hero Marcus works his magic in record time.
Link to Video.
Amazing Grapes is an Orange County, CA wine bar and shop started by a successful real estate developer. It was launched 9 years ago but has never shown a profit despite current sales of $3.5 million. It also owes $570K to its vendors. The main problem is that all of the owners are distracted by other business interests and personal activities. The most active of them, Greg Schroeder, only drops by once or twice a month, according to staff. Another invisible owner, Bill, had to be shamed by Marcus into meeting with him. Greg and Bill have invested $750K. There are five other investors who invested another $500K but they are only mentioned once in passing.
This particular episode is an example of the tycoon game at its finest. Captain Marvelous (aka Marcus Lemonis) comes across a very nice business with great potential that can be turned around quickly. The business is already in an affluent area packed with the right type of customer. It just needs to do a better job of catering to them and utilizing its expensive floor space which costs $14K per month.
Poor, poor, pitiful me. – Linda Ronstadt
We finally got a really good episode from a business lessons perspective! I really liked this one, folks, even though it was infuriating in some ways. (More on that later.)
Sweet Pete’s is a Jacksonville, Florida based candy artisan owned and operated by married couple, Allison and Pete Behringer.
Watch Sweet Pete’s here.
It’s the best episode of the year so far because it has everything: a great little business with strong potential for growth, passionate owners who you want to see succeed, and, unfortunately, a troublesome hanger-oner. You simply can’t cram more drama than that into 43 minutes. Watching the episode you really get the sense that this thing is ready to explode from potential. All that’s been holding the partners back is a lack of resources and a ball & chain around their ankles.
Let’s do a quick Marcus Lemonis-style assessment:
The Boy Wonder: Tom Gores
Here’s a must read on how Tom Gores of Platinum Equity started with next to nothing and became one of today’s best examples of a self-made tycoon.
Here are a few excerpts to whet your appetite:
One of the best things about having control of a publicly-traded company is that you can use funny money instead of real money to acquire assets and grow rapidly. The funny money I refer to is the public company’s own stock. If you do a deal to acquire XYZ Company for one million shares, you just create one million shares out of thin air and hand it over. Easy as pie.
However, there’s a problem with doing this too many times. If you keep issuing more stock to others eventually your own position gets diluted. You could even be diluted down to where you lose control of your company.
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