Announcer barton goes around. Taylor it was my identity. Its the only thing i knew, so losing it, i didnt know who i was. Lemonis and tensions with his father have caused a rift among the family unit. Matisun only way for you guys to work out whatever it is that youre resentful of each other is to communicate, not to have a conflict. Lemonis if i cant prepare taylor to drive this business vehicle into the future. You cant just keep saying, i dont know. You got to know this [bleep]. This familys legacy may simply run out of gas. Im marcus lemonis, and i risk my own money to help businesses. I love investing in american businesses. Woman these people are here because they care. Lemonis its not always easy, but i do it to create jobs, and i do it to make money. We have a deal . Lets rock and roll. Man yeah lemonis this is the profit. Today im at las vegas mini gran prix. Now, i have to be honest. I love gokarting. I absolutely love it, and because im already a fan of nascar, the fact that i can potentially get involved in a Family Fun Center that has karting, this looks like an amazing idea. Its unbelievable the size of this property. The first thing that appeals to me the minute i drive onto this property, its the real estate itself, and any time you can get one track of land thats this big next to a major road, it looks like it could be a solid investment. After walking the parking lot, i see trash on the ground, old tires. Flags are ripped. Parking lot looks unkempt. Theres these old motors just laying in the grass. It just feels like nobody cares. Woman yeah. Thats wonderful. Lemonis how are you . [ indistinct conversations ] this is huge. It looks nice but really dated, really dated. I mean, it looks like a 10,000, 12,000squarefoot sea of tables with a fish tank in the middle. Taylor is that lemonis whats up . How you doing, my man . Taylor oh, my god lemonis how you doing, buddy . Taylor mr. Lemonis lemonis nice to meet you. Taylor oh lemonis marcus, marcus. Taylor mr. Lemonis, oh, my god lemonis so what are you . You work in. What is your name . Taylor taylor barton. Lemonis nice to meet you, my man. This place is busy. Taylor well, its saturday. Thats what we do. Lemonis yeah. Taylor were the Birthday Party capital of the world. Lemonis this feels like it. How long has this business been here . Taylor itll be 27 years in september. My dad took over about a year and a half ago. He bought the business from his expartner. I think he paid, like, 2 million for the business, and to me, that is not good business. I would have never made that deal. Lemonis do you report to him, or does he report to you . Taylor i like to think he reports to me, but ive never had any formal training. Lemonis is your dad here . Taylor he is. Lemonis lets meet him. Jerry hey lemonis how are you . Im marcus. Jerry who is this guy . Lemonis nice to meet you, sir. Jerry boy, i thought you were a hugger, man. Lemonis okay. I am a hugger. Matisun yeah. I know. Lemonis what is your name . Jerry jerry. Lemonis jerry . Taylor this is my mom, matisun. Matisun matisun. Yeah. Lemonis matisun, how are you . Nice to meet you. Matisun nice to meet you, too. Jerry shes the better half. Lemonis she. Clearly. Lemonis are there other places like this in town that you have to compete with . Jerry no. Taylor i would disagree. We do have lots of competition. You got dave busters. You have indoor gokarting tracks. We want to tap into the 40 million tourists that come here. Lemonis right. Taylor how do we do that . Lemonis what would the business make in a year, decent money . Jerry actually, last year, we did about 2. 4. Lemonis thats not bad. I want you to walk me through where that 2. 4 million of revenue comes from, and id like to just walk the property and understand. Jerry sure. Okay. Cool. All right. Lemonis so well start over at the front door. So how much revenue comes from karting . Jerry 60 would be karting revenue. Lemonis okay. How about the video games . How much is that a part of the revenue . Jerry 10 . Lemonis okay, and how much is the food . Jerry about another 5 . Lemonis okay, so right now, were only at 75 . Jerry okay. Now we got these other attractions right here, these kiddie rides, we call them. Lemonis okay. Jerry that would probably be the other 25 . Lemonis okay. I want to understand where the real moneymaking opportunity is here. How much comes from karting . How much comes from video games . How much comes from food, the rides, all of it . Every time somebody walk through the door, how much money are they gonna spend, and how do i get another dollar out of their wallet . In order for the whole business to grow, you have to understand the parts and pieces that make it up. Whens the last time you rode the fun slide . Jerry its been probably about a week. Lemonis seriously . Jerry well, i test it out to make sure its fast enough. Lemonis you rode it a week ago . Jerry yeah. Lemonis lets go. Jerry okay. Lemonis come on. All right. Were higher than id like to be. Hey wait a second you cheated jerry thats true. Lemonis no, no, no. Ah, ah. Jerry oh lemonis that was fun oh, my god. Im already dizzy. Jerry are you . Lemonis oh, yeah. Im gonna definitely throw up. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Woman okay, so make it squish on the. [ indistinct conversations ] lemonis so do you own 100 of the Business Today . Matisun yes. Jerry yes, except for there is a note that when i bought my partner out. Hes passed away now. Lemonis and you have a land lease. Jerry land lease. Lemonis . On top of the land. Whats your rent here . Jerry 18,000 a month. Lemonis and how much do you owe on the note . Jerry 2 million. Lemonis 2 million . Jerry yeah, dollars. Its a thousand a week. Thats my interest. Lemonis so really, your rent turned into 22 grand. Jerry yeah. Thats the big monkey. Lemonis so you had a partner. The partner kept ownership of the land and building. Jerry the partner owns the land, but the business owns the building. Lemonis who owns the property today . Jerry the trust, yeah. Lemonis and can you buy it . Jerry not yet, too high. Matisun yeah, too high. Lemonis so you have no working capital. Jerry right. Lemonis so now that the bartons are dealing with an estate where they have two obligations, one to pay rent to the landlord of 18,000 a month and the second to pay 2 million loan back 1,000 a week. They should consolidate all this debt and these leases into one structure. Theyre better off owning the property instead of having 18,000 a month leave their operating entity and just go nowhere. Taylor whos supposed to clean these counters . Whose party table is that right there . Woman mine mine taylor well, can. Why do we have the table dirty . Woman yeah they just finished im gonna clean it taylor no. No. Still not done. Lemonis im standing here watching taylor just boss people around. Taylor we sell fun here, so if youre not smiling, im gonna send you home. Lemonis people dont respond well to being bossed around. They respond well to being motivated, to being coached, to being mentored. Taylor look at this. Its dirty. Come on. Lemonis one of the things that this family is struggling with is how this Succession Plan is gonna work, and in order for taylor to be effective as a leader, he has to integrate himself with the rest of the staff, but this isnt the way to do it. Lemonis im marcus. Jim hey, marcus, jim. Lemonis jim, how are you . Jim welcome lemonis nice to meet you, sir. Jim nice to meet you im great lemonis so what is your role here . Jim im the general manager. Lemonis and did you. Are you new here . Jim yes. Im the new guy to the family, been here just 9 months, trying to kind of get it figured out. Im an old food and beverage guy. Lemonis okay. As a food and beverage guy, as an outsider looking, all i see is this sea of tables. Jim mmhmm. Lemonis for the most part, its probably a rarity that every table is full. Jim correct. Lemonis and so why not bring more revenuegenerating things on the floor and have the cafeteria look go away . Jim i said the same question when i first came here, why all these picnic tables . Lemonis everywhere. Jim and jerry said, you know, jim, just wait. Lemonis now, does taylor also report to you . Jim yes. Hes actually asked me to help him become a better leader. I know that i need. Lemonis his dad doesnt coach him . Jim you know, sometimes that fatherson relationship is more argumentative. Lemonis this kitchen is massive. Taylor it is massive. Lemonis do you know what your food costs are . Taylor i dont know. Lemonis why not . Taylor my dad, he doesnt. He hadnt shared those numbers with me. Lemonis have you asked him . Taylor he didnt really want me in the business for a while. I felt unwanted here. Lemonis do you think he doesnt want you to work here . Taylor i can be a little much sometimes. I used to be a nascar driver. Lemonis and it was awesome. Taylor i lost my sponsorship in 2011. An online poker site shut down. I went through a very dark period for 2 years because thats all i knew. I dont have anything else. This is my baby now. Lemonis while i appreciate and understand how devastating it may have been to watch his racing dreams go by the wayside, losing his sponsor, its clear to me what his motivation is, which is to make something of himself, to be part of his familys business, and i have a lot of respect for that. The key for you right now is going to be learning the business from the inside out, learning the business like you know racing. Patience is essential in racing because if you try to pass too early, where do you end up . Taylor in the wall. Lemonis and if you dont pass at all, where do you end up . Taylor in the back. Lemonis right. Business is the same thing. You want to go race . You want to go lose . Taylor [ laughs ] lemonis are you ready to lose . Taylor did you eat your wheaties or something . Do you need help getting in . Lemonis no. I got it. Man hey hey matisun [ speaks indistinctly ] whoo man hey hey matisun oh, my god, you guys marcus, you got to go a little faster, buddy oh whoo go, Taylor Taylor youre better than i thought. Lemonis do you love it . Taylor its my passion. Lemonis i mean, could you do it all day long . Taylor all day long. It was my identity. Its the only thing i knew, so losing it, i didnt know who i was. Lemonis and is that why youre back in the business . Taylor one of the reasons, yeah, because they dedicated their life to me. I screwed up a lot, and so i just wanted to try to repay. I want to be one of those sons that you guys can say that i was actually there for you. Lemonis i dont think either of them feel like you have a debt. Thats part of being a parent, okay . Look, its clear to me that this business has made it for 27 years, and i know theres things that we can fix to dramatically improve the profitability, but the real challenge here i can tell early on is going to be with taylor. In order for him to succeed, somebodys going to have to actually give him the road map to succeed. So im gonna see you guys again. Matisun yay jerry that a threat . Lemonis even after spending time with you, im still gonna come back. Taylor oh, my god. Matisun aw. Lemonis but im gonna want to do it probably offsite the next time we meet so we can get your financials together so we can go over them. Matisun thank you so much. Lemonis all right, guys. Well see you. Jerry okay. Taylor all right. Matisun bye. Taylor thanks. Announcer [ speaks indistinctly ] lemonis after spending a full day at las vegas mini gran prix and being underimpressed by the facility, i invited the family to come to chicago to one of the Worlds Largest and greatest Family Fun Centers, which is the nascar track, to understand two things number one, how to create an environment that people are gonna be excited about and how all the revenue is made and to really tie taylor to his past and teach him things inside of an environment that i know hes comfortable in. Whats happening . How are you, sir . Jerry good to see you. Lemonis you ready to have a little fun . Matisun yeah lemonis well, we got work to do today. Matisun were grateful. Yeah, we got work to do. Lemonis so its time to move it forward. Taylor all right. Look at this. Lemonis so when is the last time you were at a track like this . Taylor maybe 2011. Lemonis how are you, my man . Richard marcus, how you doing . Lemonis want you to meet some friends of mine. Richard sure. Taylor hi, richard. Im taylor with las vegas mini gran prix. Richard oh, okay. Lemonis prior to coming to the track, i made a phone call to richard childress, who, in my opinion, is one of the most storied nascar owners in the history of nascar. His two grandkids are actually racers for him, and one of the things that i like about him is he understands theres a difference between family and business. He struggles with being the owners kid. Richard oh. Let me tell you, weve done that with austin and ty both and my grandsons, so its just a tough deal that you got to go out and bring yourself to do it. The main thing, treat people like you want to be treated, and youll succeed. Thats the advice i would give. Matisun thats great. Lemonis thank you, boss. I also wanted taylor to meet kyle busch. Now, kyle busch is a multichampion nascar driver who happened to be from las vegas. This is my friend, taylor. Taylor taylor barton. Good to see you. Kyle whats up, man . Hows it going . How are you . Matisun you guys know each other, right . Kyle we do know each other. Lemonis so they own las vegas speedway, the little karting place, right . Kyle yeah, the mini gran prix. Lemonis you know where its at . Kyle i know where its at. Lemonis okay. Kyle i spent many a birthdays there. Lemonis not only is kyle a racer, hes also a team owner. Kyle i mean, you guys know about how hard it is to be an owner, and the driver side is more decisions on the fly. Like, you dont even think about it, where on the business side, youve got to trust in those that you put around you and coach them to be able to go out there and do their job. See, im. Lemonis hes a little grizzly on people. Kyle im probably worse than he is. Lemonis youre better. Youre better. These guys who are really aggressive champions have one principle that they live and die by, and thats, be good to people, and i wanted taylor to understand that. Kyle all right. Lemonis well see you, brother. Matisun thanks, kyle. Kyle thank you. Lemonis thanks, kyle. Taylor thank you, sir. Lemonis i want to go sit down, and well go over the financials, and well talk about the business. Okay, so total revenue in 2016, 2. 7. It drops to 2. 4, and it stays in 2018 to 2. 4. In 2018, you made 44,000 on 2. 4 million. Jerry this is the first. 18 is the first year that i owned the place outright. Lemonis its clear to me after looking at the financials of this business that its making a profit, but it is odd to me that 44,000 on 2. 5 million seems like something is a little off, so what this business sounds like it needs is ways to make additional money that they havent thought of. Your dad runs a reputable business. Youre a part of that. Your mom is a part of it, so why are we here . Taylor i have a very different opinion about the business than he does. Jerry okay. Just relax for a second. Lets look at this. Everybody has a perception of how things should happen. Taylor well, maybe i lost my respect for my dad as a Business Owner when we started going down the wrong direction because i still think we can improve our business. Jerry well, thats how he sometimes feels, so i have my style. He has his. Lemonis all right. But do you expect me to be the mouthpiece for you, and you think i can communicate with your dad differently than me . Taylor no, thats not. Jerry hes emotional. Taylor hes passive. Lemonis i dont want to be brought into the family situation to tell you or him that one of you is wrong, and i dont want to be used for that reason. Thats not my role in life. Matisun yeah. Lemonis you guys have to figure it out. Coming up. Taylor sometimes i dont feel like i have a day off. Lemonis taylor. Whoa. Taylor im always thinking about this. Lemonis whoa, whoa. Your attitude, i want to throw it in the trash. paul at spr sprintern lidays are a paul. R giving. paul aw thanks. 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Lemonis i dont want to be brought into the family situation to tell you or him that one of you is wrong, and i dont want to be used for that reason. Thats not my role in life. My role in this process is to help shepherd taylors progress along, but what i dont want to do is be the judge and the jury on whos right and whos wrong. So i dont have any interests in being your partner in the business. And so where i think theres an opportunity is on the real estate side. Matisun mmhmm. Lemonis for me, thats where it gets interesting. If you can get them to agree on a settlement for the property, ill loan you the money. What im essentially encouraging jerry to do is to go back to the estate that owns the land and holds the loan with the business and try to negotiate one number that they can buy everything for. I want them to go in and know that they have an opportunity to do a deal with that landowner using my money. And as long as theres a good operating business that sits on the property, then i know the cash flow will be there to give me a good return on my investment. My offer is to do business with you guys in an unconventional way, where i want to help you retire the 2 million loan you have and buy the real estate by going to the current landlord and lender, call them the same, and offering them 3 million to buy the property and get rid of the note, and so your payments would be less. Jerry thats true. Thats a good scenario. Lemonis today, they pay 18,000 a month in rent to the landlord, and they also owe that landlord 2 million for all the improvements that are made. The benefit to the barton family is that they can consolidate all this debt and these leases into one payment and own the property. Youre gonna make a rent payment, id rather you make a mortgage payment. And then you and i will form an entity. Well be partners in that real estate deal. Jerry okay. Cool. Lemonis if they bought the property for 3 million, the bank is gonna want at least 20 down, 600,000. The company doesnt have the excess working capital, so doing a deal with me would either provide them the cash they needed for the down payment, or i would prov