Marcus Lemonis Finds Himself in Crazyland: WorldWide Trailer Sales
This one could have been an interesting case study when you recall that our hero is a self-proclaimed “car guy.” Sadly, it falls strictly into the entertainment category. You can rest assured that Marcus’s screening process intentionally selects a few guaranteed train wrecks just to keep the audience happy. The popcorn lady episode was another one of these as well as Maarse florists. I know from my own traffic logs that the train wrecks are the most popular searches even though they tend to offer the least in terms of business lessons.
Marcus must have known going in that WorldWide Trailer Sales was a hopeless situation because of the people involved. You don’t just talk to people once before committing to bring over with a full production unit to tape a one hour show.
The two big business issues with WorldWide Trailer Sales were the inefficient manufacturing process being split between two locations hundreds of miles apart and the lack of proper accounting. Splitting the manufacturing like that for no other reason than the convenience of an owner was a dumb decision. If you really don’t want to live in the place where the business is situated hire a professional manager to run it for you and have her or him send you weekly reports if not daily. Even then you need to tour the site at least monthly to determine if there are any problems the accounting system doesn’t identify, such as personnel issues.
The two partners also didn’t even know what their earnings were. $400K or $200K? Or was it $400k with half siphoned off by one partner? When I was working as a business broker it never ceased to amaze me just how many long term business owners didn’t have a handle on how well or badly they were doing financially. If you are buying small businesses and have a basic understanding of accounting, including how to read financial reports, you will tower over sellers. They will look upon you as a mini-Warren Buffett.
In closing, I’ll just share one of the best insights into human nature that I’ve come across: When it comes to people what you see is what you get. Don’t try or expect to save someone from themselves by getting them to change. They won’t. Just assume that they will always be the way that they are and then ask yourself if you really want them in your life. Why the two owners remain in such a toxic relationship is beyond me.
Frankly, I am amazed that Marcus invested so much time on this. But then it’s all about the ratings, isn’t it.
Watch the episode online. This is even crazier than the popcorn episode.
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Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. LOL
Ahh I think that should be hell hath no fury like a woman, PERIOD.
Ladies should know by now that that cave-girl stuff won’t win faire lad’s heart anymore.
I do understand the producers wanting some episodes to be business deal busts for entertainment purposes, however, I wish I had seen this train wreck coming before I was half through the episode. I do have better things to do (root canal surgery is one!).
Neither one of these “partners” were angels, but rather were in a sense, quite sad. Personal as well as business decisions they made were poor.
You didn’t realize this was a train wreck in the first 10 minutes???
I realized this was a train wreck from the commercials!
That crazyass chick is real life bunny burner. See the old Michael Douglas classic about the dude who has an affair with a loon played by Meryl Streep. It’s a shame we never found out what Marcus’ plan was for world wide trailer .
Yes, That female part owner of World wide Trailer Nancy is very disturbingly psychotic and even to the point of being a danger to others….not only to her ex, but also including innocent bystanders. She even claimed to be “85 different people” in the episode, besides suffering from a number of other major delusions.
I think you are referring to Fatal Attraction played by Glenn Close. I thought of this movie too.
The psycho who Michael Douglas’ character hooked up with in “Fatal Attraction” was played by Glenn Close, not Meryl Streep.
Who cares? They’re impossible to tell apart.
Nancy Pappas can kiss her career good-bye. After this episode none of the employees can have any respect for her. When everyone at your company thinks that you are a certified nut it’s time to leave. You can’t stay anymore. Only god know what Thomas Etheridge did in the past but he does come across as the sane one.
Actually, I think these train wreck episodes are as instructive about business as the success stories. Most career failures are not due to a lack of technical skills. Most business failures are not primarily failures of strategy. Rather, people get fired because of their failure to work productively with others, and businesses fail because of personality quirks. The sorts of narcissism featured in many of these episodes are not rare in the annals of bankrupt ventures, and I think that’s one of the things to take away: take the measure of people you intend to partner with, and, if you have enough self-awareness, take your own measure. Entitlement, the need to be right, and even a sense of superiority can be signs that you need to either adjust your attitude or decide to be someone else’s employee. You’re not going to have a clear path to successful entrepreneurship.
I have watched it twice unfortunately. I had to because my instructor is requiring a 4 page minimum report and swot analysis for my final exam in my Principles of Management class. It is a very sad situation that the owners cant see past their personal situation enough to put the business first. The last thing they should be doing is running that business together. Marcus could have talked some since into Tom, I think if he had been the sole owner, but Nancy is a different story. I think most of the reason she hangs on to the business is so she can continue to afford her current lifestyle and throw Tom’s mistakes in his face every chance she gets, totally unprofessional. She needs therapy. He needs to do whatever possible to buy her out.
They both need therapy!
I liked Nancy!
She’s a witch. A crazy ass witch.
I guess no one watched the recap episode. WorldWide Trailers is stronger than ever and even Marcus admits it’s a turnaround story. We build a fantastic product. Build food relief trailers for the government…foreign and domestic. Employ over 25 people. Pay for our employees health insurance. Pay our taxes. Pay workers comp and offer competitive wages. Everyone at WorldWide including Nancy are all working hard to make this a very successful company not only for ourselves but for our customer too. Thank you again Marcus.
Tom Etheridge
The problem was never the company itself or the products. It was the crazy lady.
You’re absolutely correct. Something dreadfully wrong with that woman. Hoping she heard loud & clear the “F. U.” From Marcus.
Tom, thanks for the update. I watched this on a plane last night and really wanted to know what happened. I’ll have to check the recap.
It seems you guys make a great product but needed to sort a few things out to become more profitable! I wonder how all this was set up as Nancy really has some issues she can’t let go of. I hope she has sorted this out now for the sake of everyone! Good to hear everything is going well for the company.
Hey Rob. Thank you for your comments. Yes everything’s going well. Nancy and I have been working together to move our company forward. We’re actually adding an addition to our current facility as I write this reply…moving our cabinet department into it’s own building. We’re even thinking of going public in the next year or two. We have a great company and a great product. Stay in touch and I’ll keep you posted on our progress. Thanks again and have a great day!
Tom Etheridge
this episode looked like it was quite fake. really brings the whole believability of the series into question.
they can edit this shid any way they want. looks like the couple were auditioning for lizard lick towing.
Some women that were once cute and attractive when they were younger, don’t realize as they get older they are no longer either; but somehow, they keep acting this way even though they are middle age and now at least 90 lbs overweight. Where does this come from? She kept hitting on Marcus and comes exactly from that. Lady, you can’t win women over any more based on how you look. Those days are loooooooooooong gone for you.
Nancy, is a 3yr old in a grotesquely, foul-mouthed, DRAMA filled carcass. She showed NO interest in that company & those poor ppl in waycross, GA & was more interested in taking the $50,000 from the investor instead of putting it into the company. I & many others can’t understand how that ex of yours stayed with her for 20 yrs. Nancy made a complete ass of herself. God help those poor hardworking ppl in Georgia. Just because ur angry at ur ex gives you no right to behave like a Neanderthal!
Jennifer I’m surprised you believe everything you see on TV. Just Google “how fake is reality TV” and you’ll understand what I’m saying. Majority of what you see is staged. Lets take Marcus’s comment at the end of the WorldWide episode where he says “FU” Nancy. LOL…that didn’t quite go down like that. As a matter of fact, not likely Marcus would say that to Nancy’s face.
Here’s what the producers and production does. They often take different clips and edit them together to sound like one conversation, sometimes drastically changing the meaning. They can even create complete sentences from scratch. It’s so common, they have a name for it: frankenbiting. If you see someone talking and then the camera cuts away to a shot of something else but you still hear their voice, that’s likely frankenbiting.
Lets take another example from the WorldWide episode. Marcus stated his plan was to move the Tampa, FL location to the GA manufacturing facility to combine operations and minimize costs. Well that wasn’t his idea. It was mine. The Tampa move was even postponed so filming could be done at that location. I can go on but I think you get what I’m saying.
As for Nancy, the employees in GA really do enjoy working for her. I didn’t hear The Profit telling the audience that Nancy goes to the factory and makes all the employees lunch and smoothies. She’s loaned them money for vehicles, helped their families when a crisis occurs and so much more.
All employees at the factory have health coverage now because we pay for half of it. None of our competitors even offer that to their workers. All employees get a weeks paid vacation, paid sick days and paid for national holidays.
Our custom food trailers are some of the BEST in the country as this is what we’ve been doing for over 15 years and the company is just killing it. We’ve continued to grow year after year and are having our best year to date.
This will probably be the last reply to anyone I’ll make but I felt I needed to set the record straight.
Sorry Tom I’m not buying what your saying. Nancy is way out of control, and needs help. She has major control issues, and does not have integrity. I also question yours as well. Being in business requires keeping records of your accounts. You didn’t do that! And I’m guessing you still don’t. I would never work for people that lacked such integrity, and acted like the two of you.You have no right to subject your employees to such abuse
And that is what it is.
No need to apologize Colleen but its obvious that many people including yourself are fooled by reality TV. Our business is thriving and so are our employees. Many didn’t even own a home or have health insurance and because of WorldWide, they do today.
You base your comments on a reality TV show lol and its also obvious you didn’t Google how “fake is reality TV” like I suggested. Maybe try a little research before attacking anyone or commenting on something you truly don’t know or understand.
Not to mention, you nothing about me, my experiences, my personality, the people who I’ve helped throughout my life and frankly our business.
We will bring in over 6 million dollars in revenues this year and have helped more than a 1,000 people start their own business. That’s not no small task and isn’t accomplished by abusing people. Oh did I mention we’ve been doing this for over 15 years :))
I can assure you one thing, that too doesn’t happen by not counting numbers.
Again do a little research on reality TV shows and then and only then will I continue this conversation. Take care Colleen.
More importantly, who has the dog? I hope the dog is in a loving and caring home. The dogs seem so sweet and seem to be affected by all of the screaming and yelling. She didn’t seem very nice to the dog, just telling the dog to hurry up and get out of the car.
The funny thing about this article is it’s inaccurate. Commonly known as “Fake News” lol. How do I know, I’m one of the owners (Thomas).
And Peter, shouldn’t you do some research other than watching an episode before writing an article? It seems this is how many journalists operate these days. And have you ever researched reality TV. Try it sometime. For the most part, its staged. Meaning it’s Fake. They got ya!!!
And as for the company being hopeless. We are still in business and thriving. And no worries about the dog (Kita), she’s doing great and is well cared for by by partner Nancy.
Oh and Marcus didn’t come up with relocating the Tampa operation. That was already in the works. Production asked us to postpone the move for the show. Marcus just took the credit for my idea.
Again maybe you should have done a little research first. At least then your article would have been accurate.
PS…Please don’t resell my name and email that I provided you.