Were not trying to have that be the main theme. Lemonis . To his employees. Youre so worried that somebody is going to get pissed off. You have this fear that if you push people, that were going to walk out. Leaving the company with no structure. Man im the brand director for ellison. Man my role is corporate branding. Lemonis . Or vision. Ive had a lot of patience listening to a lot of words. I still dont know what the vision is. Just tell me what it is. If i cant get this owner to open up his eyes and look beyond what hes lost. Aristotle you say tomato. I say tomato. I think its. Lemonis no, no, no. I say, profit. You say, i dont make any money. His company may be next. 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. Everything is going to change, everything. But i do it to save jobs, and i do it to make money. This. Lets go to work. Is the profit. Last year, aristotle started selling his branded glasses in my new store, marcus, a 20store chain specializing in womens clothes and accessories. And what sort of feedback are you getting on your product . Woman he does get good feedback as far as the style. People like the brand. Lemonis theyre nice. His brand is selling well, so im excited to meet him and learn more about the product and the company. How are you . Aristotle good. Aristotle. Lemonis aristotle. Im marcus. Nice to meet you. Aristotle nice to meet you as well. Lemonis were you going on a trip . Aristotle no. This is my mobile office. If anybody needs shades, we do it on the spot. Lemonis very cool. I thought it was odd that when he came into the store that he kept his glasses on through the conversation. He was almost too cool for school. [lyrics] i wear my sunglasses at night so i can meet a new investor and not look him in the eye so do you always wear your glasses . Aristotle i do, always wearing the product, absolutely. Jenny hi. Im jenny, so nice to meet you. Aristotle aristotle. Jenny your glasses are awesome. Aristotle thank you. I appreciate that. Lemonis so i wanted to maybe take a look at where your product is over here. Aristotle absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Lemonis . And sort of go through it. Aristotle so ellison is derived from the greek word helios, which means sun. Lemonis are you greek . Aristotle im 100 percent, yeah. Lemonis which means your family is really quiet and calm. They have no energy. Aristotle exactly. So all of our products are made from italian mazzucchelli 1849. Lemonis wait. Slow down. Aristotle okay. Lemonis all the products are made from what . Aristotle italian mazzucchelli 1849. Lemonis i dont know what that is. Aristotle its one of the best handmade acetates in the world. Lemonis what is acetate . Aristotle its a plantbased plastic. Lemonis okay. Aristotle its all recyclable. Lemonis and why did you choose that plastic . What makes it unique . Is it more durable . Is it lighter . Aristotle yeah. It kind of accomplishes both. Lemonis and the less expensive ones. Aristotle do injected plastic. Those wont really have the longevity that youre looking for in a product it can break. Lemonis i was pleasantly surprised about how they felt. They didnt feel like cheap plastic, and as you looked at them, you see a lot of details. A lot of thought went into it. I feel much smarter right now, ready to do some business. Did you design all these . Aristotle correct. The way it happened is, i went to greece for the first time, and i met my father at 18, and so when i went there for the first. Lemonis and your father lives there . Aristotle in greece, correct. Lemonis okay. And you never lived with your dad . Aristotle never even seen a picture. Lemonis really . Aristotle getting off that plane was, as you can imagine, impactful. Lemonis wow. Aristotle so these are derived from my father. He used to be a navy seal in greece, so i found some old memorabilia, and that was an inspiration for one of our products, so i met two guys, and they owned over 2,000 of their own optical shops. I told them i wanted to export a product from greece, my home country to the american consumer. That would make sense, and i was one of their first manufacturer products. Lemonis really . You manufacture these in greece. I would have thought it would have been china or italy. Aristotle yeah. Lemonis what gives greece the advantage on manufacturing . Is there something unique about the process . Aristotle so greece doesnt have it. Thats why i learned how to manufacture, to actually start that. Lemonis i think theres definitely the same risk manufacturing in greece as there is in manufacturing other places outside the u. S. , which is it could slow lead times down, slow the design process down. It could have been more efficient to go to an existing manufacturer. Aristotle the benefit of greece is because we manufacture at chinese pricing. Lemonis but im open to it as long as the costs are in line. So take a pair of glasses like this, right . Aristotle mmhmm. Lemonis what does this retail for . Aristotle one eighty is the highest. Lemonis and what does Something Like this cost to manufacture . Aristotle twentytwo point nine, including everything and shipping. Lemonis wow. Aristotle what was your name . Jess jess. Aristotle jess, aristotle. Nice to meet you. Jess you too. So my goal here is to make sure that you get to try on something, and i fit over 5,000 peoples faces, so i try to have my best judgment. What happens when you look at the symmetry of the face, youre able to complement it, right . If you are a more square structure, and you wear something more square, youre going to look like the terminator. Lemonis aristotle, can you do me a favor . I want you just to take, like, three breaths. Aristotle okay. Lemonis . And slow it down. Aristotle okay. You got it. Lemonis talk us through price points so we understand that. Aristotle yeah. Those will be about 180. Jess thats a good price point. Lemonis i mean, for me, if i feel like i look good in them, it could be 280, right . Jess mmhmm. Aristotle then what really makes us different is we know customers lose or break their sunglasses, so as a club ellison member, with a 10 membership, youll get your next pair of sunglasses at exclusive pricing, which is half off. Lemonis you spend 10, and you get half off . Aristotle for the. Yep. Jenny i just feel like giving a discount that large kind of takes away from the integrity of your brand. Aristotle this is more so as an insurance policy as a firm, and the reason for the price is you have to buy it full price one time. Lemonis i understand the idea of a loyalty program. I understand the idea of insurance on the product. I think you dont need to necessarily compromise the brand, nor do i think you need to undermine your retailers. The problem with the club is that ellison is almost promoting the fact that theyre going to sell to the consumer for less than the consumer can buy it from a retailer, the same retailer that bought it from ellison and is expecting to get a return on their investment. Aristotle thank you. Lemonis all right. Ill see you back at the office. Aristotle okay. Lemonis okay . Aristotle ill see you soon. Lemonis after seeing the product live in the stores, i want to understand how this product gets designed, where its inventoried, and so i asked aristotle to meet me back at his office. Hi, guys. Aristotle hey, marcus. How are you . Lemonis good to see you. Aristotle nice to see you again. Lemonis thank you. Aristotle this is going to be lamar. Lamar lamar, nice to meet you. Lemonis lamar, nice to meet you. Im marcus. Lamar yeah, pleasure. Ian ian. Lemonis ian, nice to meet you. Ian pleasure. Jeremy jeremy. Lemonis jeremy, nice to meet you. Jeremy good to meet you. Lemonis so do you guys all work for ellison . Jeremy parttime. Lamar parttime. Lemonis what do each of you do . Lamar im the brand director and creative director for ellison. Ian i do operations so everything from logistics to sales fulfillment, the content and copy for all of our campaigns that we do. Lemonis the content and copy separate from the branding . Ian correct. Lemonis and then whats your role . Jeremy my role is corporate branding, so like i like to say, the. Lemonis so how is that different from what you do . Jeremy so i do the manufacturing side of it, so im the tangibles. I take his awesome ideas and his vision, and we put it to the tangibles like the packaging itself. Lemonis im not really sure this Business Needs a whole team like this. The jobs that theyre performing are really projectbased, and its almost like they didnt know who was on first. One guys in branding, and the other guys. Also in branding . How much inventory do you have . Aristotle about 100,000. Lemonis and cost . Aristotle it costs about 50,000. Lemonis can we look at the inventory thats back there . Lemonis yep. Yep. Absolutely. Lemonis come on, guys. Aristotle lets go look. Lemonis this is 50,000 of inventory . Aristotle well, when you look at it, this is about 500 units, so each unit is approximately about 100 full retail. Lemonis no, you told me it was 100,000 retail, 50,000 costs. Aristotle five hundred units, this would be 50,000 at full retail. Then, you do 20 percent of that, so 30,000 if you want to do the actual cost. Lemonis thats 20, 20,. 100,000, 20 percent is 20,000. Aristotle yeah. Yes. Lemonis do you not like math . Aristotle yeah, i guess right now its back and forth, so. Lamar i dont like math either, but guess what . I hire people to help do math for me. Its not because i dont like math. Its just because it limits my True Potential because its a construct. Its an idea. Its a framework. I know that hes fumbling, but i do have empathy. Lemonis dont worry. Hell get a hug at some point. Do you have financials that we could look at . Aristotle absolutely. Lemonis all right. Aristotle okay. So this is going to be 2014. We launched in july 2014. Lemonis so 2014 total sales 36,000. Aristotle correct. Lemonis 2015 sales of 95,000, 2016, 109,000 total sales, 2017, 229,000 in sales, huge increase over 16. Lamar, how much did you lose in 2014 . Lamar one fiftyone. Lemonis okay, 15 . Ian one thirtyseven. Lemonis 16. Jeremy one fortynine. Lemonis 2017s . Aristotle sixtyeight thousand. Lemonis okay. So overall, you lost more than your revenue. Aristotle correct. Lemonis i just want to make sure that you guys understand. You start a company. Five hundred thousand dollars over time comes in. Theres no money left of any consequence. People say, well, where did the money go . In each one of the years, the company lost money through payroll, through rent, through marketing, and now whats left is some glasses in an office and 30,000 in the bank. I think everybody has got to figure out what the business is really worth. Its down 500,000 in sales. Its lost more than its actually generated in revenue. Theres not much assets left. Its sunglasses in a relatively commoditized market, and so you got to really figure it out. Aristotle well, its never been about the money. Its about creating something important. Then, money will follow, and i finally found a team that believes in that value. Lemonis mmhmm. Aristotle and i dont want to see this thing go because, you know, me leading, that should have not been how i should have been leading, and for them to make the sacrifices to be here when everybody else has left. Lemonis right. Some other people walked out on you . Aristotle everybody. Lemonis just these guys stayed. People leave companies all the time. In fact, it happens every day, but i think i struck a nerve because a guy that crumbles this quickly has to have something going on. Guys, thank you. Ill see you soon, okay . Jeremy thank you so much, marcus. Lemonis thank you. It was great meeting you guys. Ian its been a pleasure. Thank you. Lamar take it easy. Aristotle hey, marcus. How are you . Nice to see you. Lemonis hey. Aristotle nice to see you. Lemonis good to see you. Well. Aristotle well, well, well. Lemonis what have you learned about yourself being in business for yourself . Aristotle you know, its really about the team because while ive been burned in the past, i guess you could say, and its forced me to be by myself, ive learned never be shy to open up the opportunity for other people. Lemonis you said a couple times that your trust has been violated. Things have happened to you. Are you referring to your personal life or your business . Aristotle thats happened in both areas you know, loss of partners to loss of significant others or close people in my life, my mother. Lemonis she passed away . Aristotle i dont know. Lemonis you dont know if shes alive or not. Aristotle you know, there was a falling out within my family and my siblings, and i wasnt there. I was at school, and my siblings decided to make her feel that she was unwanted. I was in contact with my mother via email, and shes telling me kind of what went down, that everybody told her to basically f off, and i said, mother, i will never leave you, and then one day the emails just stopped. Lemonis and you kept sending with no reply . Aristotle no reply. Lemonis and how long ago was that . Aristotle five years ago. Lemonis she has no idea that you even have this business . Aristotle no. Nope. It happened after. Lemonis im wildly sympathetic to what aristotle has gone through, but if aristotle cant get his head right about his role in his family, his confidence, then the business is going to take on those characteristics. This issue with your family and your mother is definitely a roadblock for you because youre spending so much time trying to prove something to everybody else instead of just running your business. If he wears his emotions on his sleeve, then the business is going to wear those same things. Whats the business worth in your mind . Aristotle well, obviously, lets say truly if you look at the assets and everything, it would probably be 1 million, but if you look at the true opportunity. Lemonis how do i look at the assets and get to a million . Aristotle well, its not necessarily the tangible assets but Everything Else as a whole. Given our market traction, 500,000 total, we could just say five times value of that, five times multiple. Lemonis well, okay, okay. Youve lost 500,000. Aristotle yeah. Lemonis when have you actually done 500,000 . Aristotle life today. Lemonis so you want me to pay you a multiple on what youve done since the inception of the company . Aristotle well, you know, traditionally, we do it five times the multiple of sales. Lemonis of earnings. Im never going to get to a milliondollar valuation. Im just not, but i do buy off on your product knowledge, your enthusiasm, and you have a little bit of street hustle to you. Aristotle yeah. Lemonis and i like that about you. I think the business is going to need 200,000. Im willing to put up 200,000. I have to own 50. 01 percent of the business so i can control every single part of the business and coach you through this process. Aristotle i dont think its enough. Lemonis okay. Aristotle my cover would be 500,000. Lemonis for 75 or 80 percent of the business . Aristotle for the same amount. Lemonis for the same amount. Aristotle for the same amount. Lemonis if your business is in trouble and you need my help, log on to theprofitcasting. Com. Aristotle my cover would be 500,000. Lemonis for 75 or 80 percent of the business . Aristotle for the same amount. Lemonis for the same amount. Aristotle for the same amount. Lemonis because i want this relationship to start off on the right foot, well split the difference, 350,000 for 50 percent, which is way more than i want to spend. Aristotle if we can have the contingency in place that allows. Like, i know that youve said it. Lemonis listen. Im going to give you 5 seconds. Aristotle yep. Lemonis its a yes or a no. Aristotle yes. Lemonis okay. Thank you. Aristotle thank you, marcus. Lemonis i want to be clear about something. Three hundred and fifty thousand dollars is going into the bank, and im going to control what we do with it. Aristotle yep. Lemonis were going to develop new products. Were going to get out and figure out how were going to sell. Were going to build the brand. Were going to build the business from scratch. Aristotle lets do it. Lemonis okay . Aristotle yes, sir. Lemonis all right. Okay. What i want to understand is, whats everybodys role . What are they contributing . When i met these guys initially, they couldnt even tell me what they did or what the other ones did, and so i felt like i needed to give them a clear path to success on what they were going to be graded on. Lamar this is going to be so fun because quadrants are the best because now were talking shop, and thats what i love to talk about, marcus. Ian you like to talk . Lemonis . And the only way you can do that is to have defined roles with defined responsibilities with defined accountability. Who is driving the division of the company right now . Aristotle i would say myself. Lemonis so the lack of clarity is because youre driving the process . Aristotle i would say. Lemonis or because there is no process . Aristotle i mean, you say tomato. I say tomato. I think its. Lemonis no, no, no. No. I say, profit. You say, i dont make any money, and we all collectively need to make money, and so its not a tomatotomato thing. Who is managing the inventory and the cash flow . Who is doing the projections, the sales and the growth . Aristotle as of right now, i would do the top left. I would be the top left. Lemonis youre doing this . Aristotle i would be the top left, correct. Lemonis okay. Who is handling product development, prototypes and things of that nature . Jeremy ill take a j, topright corner. Lemonis logistics fulfillment, customer experience. Ian thats me. Lemonis okay. All right. Who is setting the strategy, the marketing and the communication . Lamar ill take a l, but then circle an l around all of it because Smart Marketing encompasses all of these four quadrants. Lemonis so youre not only handling this, but youre doing all of it . Lamar well. Ian it was sufficient enough just to say, put an l in the bottom. Lamar totally. Ian . Lefthand corner. Lamar totally. But we have to give construct to things. Otherwise, then people will get lost, i feel like. Lemonis or they get offended. Lamar or they get offended. Lemonis we dont want anybody to be offended, right . We want everybody to feel like theyre equally contributing. Lamar absolutely. Lemonis . And that everybodys role is just as important as the next persons. Lamar totally. Lemonis . And thats what offended him. Is it me, or does lamar think that he is the only one that can solve any problem in the world . Well, here is the news flash, lamar youre not the only guy with answers. If ellison had a retail store, what would you fill the store with . Do you have enough glasses to open a store . Aristotle no. Lemonis so i want you to write up a 2,000pair order. Jeremy, what id like to see from you easy addons product extensions that are going to be logical and obvious to the consumer, and i want to see more progress from your individual quadrants, okay . Aristotle okay. Lemonis awesome. Aristotle thank you, sir. Lemonis so im taking these guys to north bridge mall, and i want to take them to an empty space, and i want to challenge them a little and see what kind of ideas they have. Ultimately, the reason i brought you guys here is we can come into a space. You guys can put all your web pictures on one wall, your branding, and then youre going to show me what you would do with this space if this was a store. I asked them to print up images from their website because i wanted to understand in one clear picture what their branding looked like, and lets see what the cohesiveness is and what the theme is. Aristotle all right. Lets use this just because its. Lamar yeah, [indistinct]. Aristotle yeah. While we do this, if you want to start conceptualizing. Lamar yeah. Lemonis i think he already began. Is this the about ellison section on the website . Aristotle yeah. Yeah. Lemonis so can you read this to me . Aristotle we set out to create a Sunglass Company that embraces a natural act of loss. When we lose something as people, we often find Something Special in the process. Fear of losing your shades should never limit that process. At ellison, we want to remove silly but very real anxieties about losing glasses while encouraging people to get lost in order to find something great. Lemonis the only time that ive ever heard a Company Market by using the word loss more often is an Insurance Company where youre buying insurance to protect from loss. Where else would you be excited about losing something . Every time the word loss or losing is on that sheet, i want you to highlight it in green, any variation of the word. It sounds like a commercial for a funeral home, like i know youve lost your loved one, but we have some amazing glasses to sell you. What is the vibe that you get from that . Aristotle the emphasis on loss. Ian loss is associated with a negative emotion. Lamar why cant it be empathetic . Because aristotle has had some pain in his life, and that pain has been real, like, people abandoning him. Ian but if were trying to sell something, were not trying to have that be the main theme. Aristotle and that was definitely a risk. When im going into it, i wanted to do something different, i think all of us, and really taking something that people dont talk about, myself included. Lemonis i dont mind that you wear it on your heart, but i mind that you wear it on the sleeve of the business because that scares me. Coming up. I still dont know what the vision is, so dont keep talking without answering the question. Ive had a lot of patience listening to a lot of words. What is the vision . Just tell me what it is. I worry when Business Owners wear their emotions on their sleeves, and it takes the business in a direction that could confuse people or even depress them. The four of us have to figure out how to get you to see things differently because the loss that you have in your personal life is real, and im empathetic, but my fear is that taking on a space that youre going to build out in decor, im scared that its going to have this feeling. Now, i understand that personally hes hurting, and i want to help him through that, but i cant let that leak over into the business. So youre going to be responsible to find all the products . Aristotle yeah. Lemonis okay. Youre going to do the execution of the space. Jeremy yes. Lemonis and you have the logistics of getting the inventory here and managing it and putting the system in place . Ian correct. Lemonis okay. Lamar im going to pretend to be a 25yearold girl and walk and understand what do i want to see here, and then once i do a good job at that, i should be able to be able to give jeremy some ideas and little details. Lemonis so youre going to handle the creative side . Lamar im going to handle the creative side. Lemonis were going to come back here in 45 days, and the store is going to be either open or its not. Okay . Whats happening . Aristotle whats up, marcus . Ian hey, marcus. Aristotle how are you . Lemonis everything good . Ian everything is good. Aristotle yeah. Its great. Lemonis whats all this . Ian we have some cool brand extensions for that store we discussed. Lemonis right. I tasked these guys with coming up with products that would have some connection to glasses. I mean, i was hoping for a ton of ideas. Ian so our extension from the sunglasses would be tie bars, cuff links, a wallet, businesscard holders and some pens. Lemonis zero. I wouldnt do any of it because i dont understand the extension, and i dont think you guys understand your customer just yet. What does a cuff link have to do with a pair of sunglasses . Ian so our tiein is the fact that sunglasses are an accessory. Lemonis so tell me who your customer is today. Aristotle i would say Young Millennials between 18 and 35. Lemonis what percentage of your buyers are women . Aristotle the majority, 60 percent. Lemonis okay. Well, they dont buy cuff links. Aristotle right. Lemonis so what are you holding . Aristotle im holding a pen. Lemonis uhhuh. Aristotle . And then a businesscard holder. Lemonis so millennials walk around with businesscard holders . Aristotle yeah. I would believe so. I would say the. Lemonis do you have one in your pocket . Aristotle not on me. Lemonis do you . Lamar i dont have a businesscard holder. Lemonis do you have a fancy pen like that . Aristotle no. Lemonis im sorry. I dont even know anybody that has a businesscard holder, and i dress up, and i cant even remember the last time i wore cuff links, and im not saying cuff links are a bad thing, but how is that a natural extension off a pair of sunglasses . What are the things that made the glasses so successful . Ian the attention to detail and the beauty in the acetates. Lemonis what kind of things could be made with acetate . Ian bangles, inlays on a belt buckle. Lemonis this acetate piece is what would make you guys unique, so what i would like to do in the next round is create three more products. They must be made of acetate, and they must skew female. Okay. Thanks, guys. All thank you. Ian all right. Lemonis hi, guys. Welcome to opto. Aristotle thank you. Lemonis thinking about the new store space, i wanted to get jeremy and aristotle all of the resources that they would possibly need, so ive taken them to opto, a company that builds floor and wall fixtures for companies to display their product on. So, jeremy, i really want you to explain to jamie your vision of what you see with the space. The layout of the store is specifically jeremys task, but to be honest, he didnt do so well on the last task, and ultimately, its aristotles responsibility to manage the entire process, and so im having him here today so that he understands he needs to hold his team accountable. Jeremy, really, i want you to design the space, how youre going to lay it out. What are the materials youre going to use . I know youve thought about it a little. Jeremy uh, not too much. Lemonis you havent thought about how youre going to lay it out . Jeremy no. No. And lamar knows the creative vision. Lemonis we talked about him working on some branding actually. We did not talk about him building out the store. Aristotle well, theres the component to the vision and the branding that plays into the store. Jeremy we know elements that we want to create and the feelings that we want to evoke of the excitement, so we catch. Lemonis right, but we got 45 days to have feelings turned into open. They knew that there was a very tight time frame, and theyre looking at me like, we just thought you were going to do it all. So the way you have to think about Space Planning is understand how the traffic is going to flow, and then youll create a fixture plan that actually navigates them through. Whats that going to look like . Jeremy nontraditional style of a checkout, some sort of area into this connection. Lemonis so hold on. Is this where the register is . Jeremy in this area, yes. Lemonis so you would be looking at somebodys back . Jeremy so then, i guess not there. Lemonis what is it that you want the customer to see first . Jeremy in terms. I mean, what do i want them to see first . I mean, i want them to see, like, the vivid of the acetates, the bright, the fun. Well, there has to definitely be a flow in the process, which would come down to, in my mind, just part of the psychology on it would be what are the items . Lemonis jeremy. Jeremy i. But its part of it. Lemonis but youre giving me all these words. They walk in. Jeremy i got to talk with my words. What am i supposed to say then . Lemonis just answer the question. I wish for once i can ask a very simple question and just get a straight answer. What is the first thing you want the customer to see . Jeremy openness, being able to touch and feel, still having a warm inviting element of. Seating, have something that could entertain you. Maybe its a bar. Maybe we have a display that converts into a bar so we can have a fun sort of popup event at our own popup per se. Lemonis just, like, the theme around here is always just talking and talking about nothing. Theres a 900squarefoot box. Aristotle yep. Lemonis . That needs to be built out to sell glasses. Aristotle mmhmm. Lemonis thats all. Aristotle yep. Lemonis no running through fields with daisies and unicorns. What is going to happen with this space . Because if you guys would rather have opto build out the space. Jeremy opto doesnt know our ethos and vision. Lemonis you dont know your ethos. Aristotle you know, marcus, that the vision, you know, as we built this, you know. Lemonis i still dont know the vision. Aristotle well, let me finish my sentence. Lemonis i still dont know what the vision is, so dont keep talking without answering the question. Ive had a lot of patience listening to a lot of words. What is the vision . Just tell me what it is. Coming up. Aristotle so the product is going to come out to 28. 28 just for the frame. Lemonis you know that you told me 22. 9. Aristotle yep. I did not tell you the right numbers. Lemonis just think about how ridiculous this is. Ivxfinity is your home for the listreturn of live sports. S. What is the vision . Just tell me what it is. Jeremy we thought that weve lived the brand. Lemonis what is it . Aristotle the ethos is the dedication to the journey and the vision and to follow ones path, whatever that may be. Lemonis was there any effort at all put into this, or is this store going to be a giant waste of time . You are responsible to get this store open. Aristotle yeah. Lemonis ultimately, what im looking for is to invest in people who have a conviction, and you, you just shake your head, and you go with the flow because youre so worried that if you push people that somebody is going to walk out. Aristotle theres a time and place when you need to push, and, yes, is there a lot more times where i could push harder, yes, there is. There are reservations i have, personal reservations, emotional reservations i have about pushing too hard. Lemonis what is an example of that . Aristotle you know, lost relationships, that comes through maybe in a negative way. Lemonis when you decide to be in business, you understand that rejection is part of the territory. Aristotle absolutely. Lemonis what i dont want to hear ever again from this day forward is that you dont want to push because you have this fear of losing something or someone, so today is the new beginning for you, okay . Aristotle i can agree to that. Lemonis i wanted to give the guys a local source for acetate so they can use that and develop new products for the store, all sorts of accessories, so im taking them to state optical, one of the largest glasses manufacturers in the area. That is cool. Man were on par with any european manufacturer as far as cost. Lemonis also, if were going to open up a store a month from now, we need to put our best foot forward, so im meeting with aristotle to go over what the replenishment inventory is going to look like. Aristotle were going to get them in additional colors because were going to have the mold set up. Lemonis a wall of options. I think this business can sell 8,000 or 9,000 pairs of glasses a year, and i want to make sure that we have them in inventory, in production and in transit at all times. Now that we have the order finalized, i sent aristotle to greece. I want him to put his eyes on the manufacturing process, and i want to see him come back with some new designs. Hey, guys. Aristotle hey, marcus. How are you . Its nice to see you. Lemonis how you doing, buddy . Ian marcus. How are you . Lemonis whats happening . I been good. Im heading over to aristotles office to see what work he did while he was in greece. I want to see the new designs. I want to see new colors, and i want to see if hes getting really focused on the details. So what is all this . Aristotle so when moms are purchasing our product, theyre always asking if you have anything for kids, so i took this opportunity to explore what that possibility could look like. Lemonis i love the fact that you took the initiative to come up with other ideas, and i like the fact that you were clever enough to come up with some colors because kids dont want to wear glasses that are just plain. Aristotle yep. Lemonis its fun. They seem flexible. They seem durable. I know that aristotle and i had never talked about kids glasses, but i have to give him credit for going outside of the box and thinking on his own without worrying about the risk of failure. Thats showing a lot of personal development for him. Are these new ones . Aristotle yeah. Absolutely. Those are adult. Went through this process. Lemonis this is gorgeous, man. Look at the twotone nature there. These are really nice. Is that what you have on . Aristotle yeah, thats what i have on. Lemonis you designed this . Aristotle i designed that. Lemonis this is a cool design. This is gorgeous. Aristotle yep. Lemonis it looks like wood. Wow, this is real cool. Aristotle i actually like the aesthetic look of wood, but i dont like the functionality of it. Lemonis yeah. Aristotle . And the durability of it. Lemonis aristotle, im just going to tell you, this one is spectacular. This one is great. This color is fun. This one is really great with the layers of acetate. Really great job. What i really like about what aristotle did with this order is he put more technical thought into it with fit and color and comfort, and he started working on designs for next season as well. Aristotle so these are going to be the new collection. Lemonis thats excellent. I love the design work. I love the color palette. This feels like you took the company to the next level, and so do you have your costs . Aristotle yep. So i broke that down right here, so the product itself is going to come out to 28. 28 in dollars just for the frame. Lemonis thats more than you told me when i first met you. Aristotle well, i was telling you euro, which i should have been telling you in. Lemonis what the heck do you want me to do with euro . Aristotle twenty. Lemonis you know that you told me 22. 9. Aristotle yeah, so i didnt include the packaging. I didnt include shipping. No, i take responsibility. I did not tell you the right numbers, and i apologize. Lemonis just think about how ridiculous this is. Coming up. The assignment was to come back with things with acetate. Jeremy we never locked firm on that. It takes 2 weeks to get it. Lemonis what do you mean you never locked firm on it . Jeremy if you think a brand is going to recreate itself in 30 days, wheres the realism in that . Aristotle yep. No, i take responsibility. I did not tell you the right numbers, and i apologize. Lemonis just think about how ridiculous this is. Im going to write it down, and youre going to walk me through this. Can you get your calculator out, please . Ian sure. Lemonis cost of the glasses. Aristotle okay, 28. 28. Lemonis what about your cost to travel over there . Aristotle six thousand dollars. Lemonis how many pairs of glasses will you make . Aristotle well do about 3,000. Lemonis so now i have to add 2 to the cost. Aristotle to each part. Yes, sir. Lemonis okay, next. Aristotle white paper boxes, 2. 71. Then, we have the vegan leather pouches, 0. 97. Trifold inserts, 0. 57. Lemonis okay. Aristotle microfiber cloths, 0. 54. Lemonis okay. How much would the hard case be . Aristotle three dollars. Lemonis what else are you missing . Aristotle so these are actually considered medical supplies, so we have to get a certificate after the approval which is 6,000. Lemonis a year . Aristotle a year. Lemonis whats that total . Ian forty dollars and seven cents. Lemonis per pair. Thats, like, almost double what you said, so the margin that i thought was there doesnt really exist. These numbers just have to be driven down. This is a big mistake by aristotle, a huge one, and it really makes me wonder whether he could actually manage this business as it gets bigger. The cost has to be no more than 30 including everything. You definitely threw me off here. Good job, though. Aristotle thanks, marcus. Lemonis good job. Ian thank you. Lemonis things are moving forward at ellison. Jeremy is getting ready to present the new product lines i asked him to develop. Meanwhile, ian and aristotle have put a new Inventory Management system in place. It allows us to know what inventory we have, where its located, what we need to reorder, and it follows a replenishment model. Hey, guys. Aristotle marcus. Lemonis how are you all . Lamar marcus. Lemonis how you doing . Lamar good to see you. Lemonis im getting ready to sign the lease for the new store, and im excited to see all the new product extensions and the marketing plan thats going to support it. Jeremy lets look at some of the products. Lemonis this is everything . Aristotle this is everything. Jeremy well have a really cool concept of a valet tray, like, you know, when you come home, and you take everything off . We wanted to find something that can collect all of their items together, all of their ellison pieces. Lemonis it has to have acetate. Aristotle right. Lemonis . To make it interesting. Jeremy and this is a metal sunglass strap. Aristotle an alternative crokie. Lemonis its like a leash for my glasses. Aristotle correct. Its protects your glasses. Lemonis it protects your glasses, or it protects you from misplacing them . Aristotle misplacing them, yes. The loss of glasses is a huge problem. Lemonis oh, my god. Did he just say. Oh, my goodness. Did you actually just say that . And is there acetate on here . Aristotle no acetate. Lemonis that was our whole thing. Find things made of acetate. Jeremy all of these little finishing of the embellishments here can be transitioned to taking acetate and making those the emblems on there. My bigger concern was the metals , clasps, things like that. Lemonis that looks [bleep] ridiculous. Aristotle what . You think so . Lemonis and the task was, find products that are made out of acetate. Aristotle yep. Fair enough. Jeremy these pieces that sit here, with your direction, can be modified to become more onbrand, but the driving, deciding factor on all of this was timeline. Lemonis i dont know what im doing to improperly communicate to jeremy, but were standing here a month later, and i got to be honest. I think the presentation is even worse. If i had done what i normally do, which is find the space, build it out, spend the money and surprise you guys with it, i would be totally screwed right now. Jeremy these pieces were ones that we knew could be brought to the store in the 30 days. If you think a brand is going to recreate itself in 30 days with items it doesnt have before on a longterm goal, wheres the realism in that . Lemonis for exclusives, extras and business advice, vivisit theprofit. Cncnbc. Co. Jeremy if y you think a brand is going to o recreate itsel in 30 days, wheres the realism in that . Lemonis theres a lot of realism. Jeremy where . Lemonis the assignment was to come back with things with acetate. Theres no acetate on these. The assignment was to come back with things with acetate. Theres no acetate on this. Jeremy we never locked firm on that, and if there were the case, it takes 2 weeks to get it. Lemonis what do you mean you never locked firm on it . Of course we locked firm on it. This is really directed at you as opposed to the other guys. Aristotle yeah. Lemonis i didnt expect it to be, like, the finished product, like, tada. All i wanted you guys to do is come up with products that had it, and if i had the confidence, id be like, okay, but that didnt even happen. Does jeremy drive me absolutely crazy . Yes. But ultimately, this is aristotles responsibility. He was able to go to greece and get a bunch of stuff done, but the fact that he left these details slip through the cracks shows me that hes incapable of managing people, so how can i be comfortable with him managing a store . And so i think at the end of the day, like, i dont think its appropriate for the company at this point to open a store because i dont know how we would generate the revenue. Disagree . Aristotle no. I mean, you know, to guide and to lead this was very difficult, right . Lemonis no, no, no. Do you disagree with the business logic behind that . Aristotle i. Lemonis would you open this store tomorrow . Aristotle no, no. Lemonis im really conflicted in this moment because while im frustrated with some of the things that he does, im also fascinated by his hidden talent, and i see glimpses of it, and i know that the potential inside of him is phenomenal. I mean, honestly, that is a [bleep] disaster. Im not sure that these guys are are adding value. What did they really bring to the table besides he found some jewelry online, and he brought it to our meeting, and he bought a box . Aristotle what everybody brings to the table is loyalty, and theyre. Lemonis wait. Aristotle yeah, yeah, i understand. Lemonis listen, hold on. From a business standpoint, what was brought to the table, realistically . Its not a personal thing. Aristotle okay. Okay. Lemonis from a business standpoint. Aristotle its nothing. Lemonis but im not advocating that youre not friends with them. Aristotle oh, absolutely, and thats. Lemonis i think you need to know that what happened here is a failure. Aristotle right. Lemonis that doesnt mean that im walking out the door, and you need to know that you dont have to keep people around that cant help the business move forward because you feel like youre going to be alone. Aristotle i understand that. I think theres. Lemonis well, youre the leader. Aristotle yeah, absolutely. Lemonis . And so youre going to have to make the corrections. Aristotle absolutely. Lemonis . That preserve the friendship. Aristotle absolutely. Lemonis . And move the business forward. In the next couple weeks, we need to relaunch the brand. Lets plan in 2 weeks, were going to do a full product launch, and maybe we show up with some other product extensions. Okay . Aristotle fair enough. Thanks. Lemonis thank you. Hey, hey. Aristotle whats up, marcus . How are you . Lemonis today is the day that aristotle is set to present me with all of the new ellison products. With the opening of my new store, marcus, in the meatpacking district in new york city, i wanted ellison to be able to also launch their new products at the same time. Well, this is new, this light and bright. Aristotle yeah. Were going to have about 10 different color variants just in the mens purple, blue, yellow, and what we wanted to do is we wanted to bring down the cost, so the way weve done that is we changed the packaging so it travels flat, and then we assemble it upon pickup. Were actually going to be able to bring it down another probably 30 to 40 percent. Lemonis everything you got actually has more personality. So what is this . Thats kind of nice. Aristotle definitely. Lemonis at least im not talking about getting lost. Aristotle yeah, exactly, and so when you lose something, which one not the premise of this, what happens after you find a new beginning . Lemonis have you found a new beginning . Aristotle one hundred percent. You said, im not going to leave you, and that investment in confidence is what pushed me to where we are today, and i appreciate that. Aristotle this is going to be our earrings. Lemonis okay. It seems like you skewed female like i asked you to. Aristotle yes, absolutely. This is going to be a beaded bracelet. Lemonis it definitely took him a while to get to this point, but aristotle on his own came up with a number of product extensions that quite frankly im even surprised by. Aristotle this is, like, a gift box, so you could actually serve this as a sunglass and a. Lemonis jewelry box. Aristotle . Jewelry case, correct. Lemonis i really like it. The prototypes that aristotle has developed that will now get put into production show me that he really understands his business better. Its geared towards women. Its made with acetate, and theres a process in place to bring new products to the market. This really all got done when you did it yourself. Im proud of you, buddy. Aristotle thank you. Yeah, i sold these out of the trunk of my car, got it to a point where i got some good attention from some highlevel people, and now you guys are a part of that. Lemonis happy milestone. Everything good . Aristotle its awesome. Lemonis theres some customers that want to talk to you. Can you do a fitting real quick . Aristotle oh, my god. Lemonis the measurement of success isnt always big store openings or huge products launches. In this particular case, the measurement of a win is really in seeing aristotles progress. For now, were going to take baby steps, and if i could get a decent return on my investment, and he can make a solid living, i would consider that a pretty good happy friday options action fans im z melissa lee. We have a jam packed show. Airline stocks hitting some turbulence this week the jets etf falling 8 but the chart master says buckle up. The etf is ready for takeoff hes got the charts to prove it. Carter, take it away sure, you bet before we get to it, theres an important thing to say theres a difference between investing and trading, right its not about how much debt they have. Its not about whether they make it or go bankrupt. If you want to invest in airlines, im not with you but there is a trade prospect. As it gets darker and darker and