Lemonis if i cant get this young c. E. O. Up to speed and get his mother to trust me. No matter what you try to do to push me away, youre not going to be able to do it. This Cookie Company could crumble. My name is marcus lemonis, and i risk my own money to save struggling businesses. Were not gonna wake up every morning wondering if we have a job. Were gonna wake up every morning wondering how many jobs we have to do. Its not always pretty. Everything is gonna change. Everything. But i do it to save jobs, and i do it to make money. This. Lets go to work. Is the profit. Cory nieves started mr. Corys cookies when he wanted to buy his mother a car. I put this in here when i was 6, and i said i wanted to get this for you. Lemonis only 6 at the time, cory worked with his mother, lisa. Cory they will go in the oven once this is ready. Lemonis . To develop a recipe for an allnatural cookie. Cory perfect. Lemonis then he packed up his red wagon and started selling to local businesses in his new jersey neighborhood. Woman thank you. Cory thank you. Lemonis soon the world took notice. Lisa you know, tomorrow were gonna go to this increasing your chance of getting more clients. Cory of course. Lemonis and mr. Cory was finally able to get his mother that car, but without the infrastructure in place, the company was unable to meet the overwhelming interest. Lisa make it work. Cory yep, like we always do. Lemonis leaving cory and his mom unable to rise to their own potential. Lisa [ speaks indistinctly ] crap. I forgot that. Lemonis Everybody Loves cookies, and theres a ton of money to be made if you have the right product, and so i thought id stop by one of the places cory sells his cookies, the local car dealership, to check it out. Well, hello. Cory hello lemonis im marcus. Cory how are you . Lemonis what is your name . Cory mr. Cory. The founder of mr. Corys cookies. Lemonis okay. Are you also cory or is it only mr. Cory . Cory cory, yeah. Yep. Lemonis okay. Well, nice to meet you. Cory thank you. Nice to meet you, too. Lemonis you look sharp. Cory you look sharp, too. This is my mom. Lisa cookie mom, lisa. Lemonis im marcus. Lisa how are you doing . Lemonis nice to meet you. Tell me whats going on here. Cory okay, so today we actually have a popup shop and customers come, they get a cookie. They sit down and wait for their car. Lemonis are we generating revenue . Or are you giving them away . Cory the company buys them and then we give them. Lemonis very smart. Whose idea was that . Cory both of our ideas. Lemonis okay. Now more importantly, i love cookies. Cory so you got to try them. Lemonis so im a really tough judge, though. Cory okay. Okay. I got you. Lemonis okay. Cory okay, this is the chocolate chip. Theyre all natural, and they have no preservatives added. Lemonis the chocolate chip was amazing. Cory thank you. Second, this is a double dark. This is like the brownie. Nice and soft in the middle. Lemonis its delicious. Cory and sugar cookies. Lemonis is there orange in this cookie . Orange peel . Cory its a secret recipe. Lemonis okay. Let me just tell you right now. Lisa oh, no. Lemonis if we do a deal, im gonna need to know the recipe, right . Cory yeah. Yep. But youre gonna sign a contract. Lemonis oh, im gonna sign a contract . Cory mmhmm. Lemonis okay. So three original flavors . Cory no. We actually have way more. Lemonis and where do you make them . Cory so we bake out of a commercial kitchen. Lemonis and what do you sell a dozen for . How much . Lisa 15. Cory three for 5. Lemonis so how much does it cost to make a dozen . Cory well, a dozen is around. Im thinking, thinking. Okay. Okay. Lemonis you dont know. Cory i havent studied yet. Lemonis how do you do in math at school . Cory i dont really like math. I just like counting money. Lemonis i like the fact that cory dresses the part, but he has to know his numbers. I always wanted to pull a red cart through the dealership. Whether hes a 13yearold boy or a 48yearold man, the requirement with me to know your numbers doesnt change. Man ill try a chocolate chip. Cory perfect. Man thank you. Cory thank you. Enjoy. Thank you. Lemonis so this is your first business. Cory yes. Lemonis and 20 years from now, what do you want to be doing . Cory 20 years from now, i want to be nationwide, possibly a worldwide c. E. O. Of the brand. Lemonis and what title does your mom have . Cory shes a coo. Lemonis okay. She reports to you . Cory yes. Lemonis are you sure your mom is not the boss . Cory she signs the checks. Lemonis you know what they say, whoever signs the checks calls the shots. Cory yeah, so i guess shes the boss. Lemonis you dont believe that, do you . Cory no. Were both the boss. When im 18, then ill be officially called the boss. Lemonis okay. Now, i went on to your website because i wanted to order the product. Cory oh, yeah. Lemonis i couldnt buy it. Cory so thats the thing right now. You cant buy it now because theyre all fresh. Lisa meaning theres no preservatives added in. Lemonis whats the shelf life . Cory two days. Two days. Lisa thats one of the problems because he has, like, United Airlines who wants his cookies, target, qvc, walmart, whole foods, but we cant fulfill what they want. Lemonis the fact that the cookie is fresh and it has no preservatives in it makes it different for me because its a challenge. The challenge is how to get it to the most amount of people without altering the integrity of the product. What do you hope for this business . Lisa well, for mr. Corys cookies, i see so much. I see an opportunity for a lot of mothers. Like, we want to hire 70 inexperienced single mothers because i had him young, so. I was, like, 16, and i was in foster care. Well, i ran away, and then i got pregnant with him. You know, when youre young, you dont know what youre doing, and then as i got older, i just had to survive. And then, you know, the cookies came into play, and i was just, like, i didnt think. Lemonis how did it come up . Cory we needed a car, and i wanted to give my mom a car. Lisa our friend allowed mr. Cory to set up shop and sell hot cocoa for a dollar. Cory when we first started the Cookie Company, like, when i was selling it outside, we had a lemonade recipe and hot chocolate, and then we just focused on the cookies. Lisa i told him to do it for college. I felt like my son was too young to take on that burden. Lemonis take on what burden . Lisa to want to buy me a car. Cory and then Ellen Degeneres helped us and got us a car, which was really amazing, and we still have it. Lemonis and how do you have time to do this . You have a fulltime job in addition to this . Lisa no. I just run this. Lemonis you run this business . Cory yeah. Lemonis and then when hes in school, youre doing most of the work. Lisa yeah. Lemonis how old are you . Cory 13. Lemonis really . Cory yep. 13. Lemonis youre not 30 . Cory no. Im 13. Lemonis are you sure . Can i see your i. D. . Its very common in Small Businesses that the business doesnt necessarily have an office yet. They work out of their home, so lisa, corys mom, invited me to go back to their house where they run their business. Cory all right. Thank you. Bye. Hello. Lemonis how you doing, buddy . Cory good. Good. Good. Lisa hi. Lemonis thanks for having me over. Lisa yeah. This is my el caso. Lemonis your el caso. There you go. Lisa this is where it all started. You want to show him your room . Show him your room. Cory yeah. This is my room. This is my crazy room. Lemonis is that you . Cory yep. Lemonis how old were you there . Cory 2 or 3. Lemonis 3 . Lisa yeah. Lemonis then whats all this . Cory this is goals. Lemonis talk to me about these goals. Do you mind . Cory mmhmm. Lemonis walk me through them. Cory some of them we didnt get, and then some of them we actually got. So, like, a car we got. So we want to get a store and a kitchen. We want a big wholesale account. Meeting the c. E. O. Of jpmorgan. Lemonis so you want to meet jamie dimon at jpmorgan . Cory yeah. Mmhmm. Lemonis okay. Most kids that are 13 would be like, i want to go to the world series or win a trophy at my soccer tournament. Corys list is i want to meet the chairman of the Worlds Largest bank. Hes got a better plan than i do. Ill see you at the commercial kitchen. Ill see you at the commercial kitchen. Cory perfect. Nick welcome. Nick prastos. Lemonis nick, how are you . Im marcus. Nick nice to meet you. Lemonis nice to meet you. Is this an event space . Nick its an event space, and then next door we have our commercial kitchen where mr. Cory does his cooking. Cory hello. Lemonis is this where the magic happens . Cory yes, and i actually have a gift for you. Its a shirt. Lemonis okay. Cory oh now, that looks nice. Lemonis so you know that im people, process, product guy, right . Cory mmhmm. Lemonis so the people, were square. Cory yeah. Yep. Lemonis we got good people. I need to understand the process and how the product works. Cory okay. Lisa so dont mix it too much. After that, just mix it. You dont want it too creamy. Lemonis where did you learn how to bake, lisa . Lisa school of hard knocks. Lemonis you want me to still leave it a little chunky, right . Lisa yeah. Just like that. Yep, and then youre gonna take four eggs and crack them. What kind of cracking was that . Lemonis what do you mean . Lisa you got to crack it one time, and youre putting eggshells in here. Like that, one egg. Go ahead. There you got it. Thats it. No more cracking eggs. Lemonis have you ever looked for a copacker . Lisa we have a copacker we just got with. Lemonis oh, you did . Lisa yeah, but its more of a license agreement, so its not really a copacker if that makes sense. Lemonis okay, so i would like to meet them. Lisa all right. Lemonis okay. Now, what do all the ingredients cost to go in here . Lisa for one batch of dough, 41 cookies, it cost us 5 to make with packaging included. Lemonis 41 cookies cost 5. How much in labor . Lisa theres no labor because its just me. Cory because we dont have payroll. Lemonis well, youre worth a lot. Lisa but i dont pay myself, to be honest. Lemonis lisa, are you a dreamer . Lisa daydream, yeah. Lemonis what do you daydream about . Lisa that im in an Office Building with a suit on. Bossed up, you know, walk to my office. See my store actually selling cookies, like, really selling cookies. Lemonis and how do you see yourself getting there . Lisa i keep open when opportunity comes. I just keep putting myself in places. Like, i go to networking events, but i have put my trust on some people and i got hurt. Ive let the guards down, and i said i dont ever want to do that again. Lemonis why not . Lisa because ive been burned a lot. When you grow up in the system, you cant trust nobody. You got to always fend for yourself, or maybe thats a baggage that i always hold. Lemonis you have to have a little bit of faith in yourself before you put any faith in anybody else. She has no problem admitting that she doesnt trust people, and shes gonna keep her guard up. And i always tell people to trust the process, and i think in this particular case, im gonna have to actually trust her process. Cory mmm. Lemonis i feel like the next time we get together, id like to go over the financials and really understand what exists. You prepared for that . Cory yes. Lisa no. Lemonis youre not prepared . How come . Lisa because it dont look good. Lemonis well, its my job to help you. Thanks for today, by the way. Cory thank you. Lemonis i had fun. Lisa you did . Lemonis i did. Lisa awesome. Cory thank you. Lemonis i dont think im gonna have another cookie tonight, but i had fun. Hi, guys. How are you . Cory hello. How are you . Lemonis good to see you. Lisa how you doing . Lemonis look how nice you look. Lisa yeah. I have a suit on. Lemonis new business suit . Cory i put on my suit. I saw a picture of you, so i put on, like, the same gray suit you wore. Lemonis the same gray suit, black tie. Cory yep. Lemonis well, i thought maybe we could go over some financials. Cory we have a few. This is our profit and loss statement for 2017. Lemonis okay. Cory and this is 2016. Lemonis okay. Cory 2015. 2014. And then i have the Balance Sheets for 2016. Lemonis okay. Ive probably met with over 100 businesses, and very rarely does somebody ever show up with four years of Financial Statements and a balance sheet. Who puts this all together . Cory me and my mom. Lemonis so in 2014, you did 12,000 in business. Shows that you made 7,000. Cory yes. Lemonis in 2015, you did 16,000 of business, and it shows that you made 8,000. Cory yes. Lemonis in 2016, you did 28,000 worth of business, and you made 10,000. Cory yeah. Lemonis so whats nice about it is every single year, you sold more. Cory yeah. Lemonis you went from 12,000 to 16,000 to 28,000. Is there any debt in the company . Lisa the company has no debt. Lemonis okay. So what i want to do focus on is things that are easy to execute that dont put all the burden on your mom and dont take you away from your studies or playing or being with your friends, and you can still be the face of the business with your mom. Cory okay. Lemonis does that make sense . Cory yes. Lemonis okay. Id like to take a chance on you guys. So what id like to do is put in 100,000, and ill have 40 , and youll have 60 because youve created the idea, the product, and the demand. I dont need to have control of you. I trust you. That money is gonna go into designing packaging, building brochures, rebuilding a website, coming up with Product Development and launching the product. Cory thats awesome. Thank you. Lemonis do we have a deal . Cory i guess we do. Lemonis whoa, put your hand back. Lisa that was fast. Never shake too fast. Lemonis yeah. Lisa dont get desperate. Im just nervous because ive been just by myself for this long. You have other people talk to us and say, the moon and the skies and the sun, and then boom. Lemonis what i need you to try to do, lisa, is to trust me, and i know thats hard for you because im sure youve heard people say that to you before, right . Lisa its like, agh. Im not really important in this situation. I feel like its about the business and its corys, so this is what im trying to do for him. I dont know. Its never really about me. Thats why im keeping it real. Im just talking. Lemonis so ill keep it real, okay . Lisa please do. Lemonis the biggest opportunity i see is with you because this Business Needs a leader, and i feel like with the right training, that you are the real superstar here because in my mind, youre important. Lisa i just got to go. Im sorry. Can i get up . I just got to go to the bathroom. Im sorry. Lemonis so you guys already have a deal in place . Lisa yeah. David its a straight licensing deal with a royalty through our company, clever cookie. Lemonis so you have an exclusive with them . David yes. Lemonis i feel like with the right training uh, fifteen minutes could save you 15 ain . Or more on car insurance. I think were gonna swap over to over seventyfive years of savings and service. What, were just gonna swap over . Yep. Pump the breaks on this, swap it over to that. Pump the breaks, and, uh, swap over . Thats right. Instead of all this that ive already . Yeah. What are we gonna do with these . Keep it at your desk, and save it for next time. Geico. 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The bounce wrinkle guard shorts have fewer wrinkles and static, and more softness. Its the worlds first mega sheet that does the job of three dryer sheets. It also comes in unscented. If you dont love bounce wrinkle guard, well give you your money back. vo thewith every attempt, strto free itself,piders web. It only becomes more entangled. Unaware that an exhilarating escape is just within reach. Defy the laws of human nature. At the season of audi sales event. That you are the real superstar here because in my mind, youre important. Lisa i just got to go. Im sorry. Can i get up . I just got to go to the bathroom. Im sorry. Lemonis will you do me a favor . Will you go order us two more milkshakes at the counter . Cory okay, sure. Lisa i cant do this. I just cant. This is so hard. Im trying to do it for cory. Lemonis lisa, you okay . Lisa im sorry, im just. I dont know why i deserve it. I feel like i dont. Cory hey. Lemonis thank you, buddy. Lisa thank you. Its emotional for me because, you know, when you dont have somebody seeing you and they look past you, its hard for you to grasp when somebody says, oh, youre beautiful, when all your life youve been called ugly, right . Just imagine it. All your life youve been called ugly, and then. Lemonis i was always called fat and ugly, but it worked out okay for me, so i get to laugh at them. All the people that gave you a hard time, lets laugh back at them. Weve all been in a place in our lives where we wanted people to take a chance on us, and every time that had ever happened to me came rushing back, and i felt like this was the moment where i was gonna take my resources. Thank you. And bet on somebody that nobody else ever bet on. So my offer is 100,000 for 40 of the business. I think you need to make a salary from the company. You cannot work for free anymore. Do you agree with that . Lisa yeah. So i want to keep the product natural in the way it is, as the integrity as possible. Lemonis you dont want to change the philosophy of the company, which is a natural product. We have a deal . Lisa its a real check. Lemonis yes. Lisa we want to do the deal under one condition. Cory we need mentorship. Lisa mentorship. Lemonis were gonna get a team of people together that are gonna help you. You are not gonna be alone. Lisa good people, right . Lemonis no. Theyre all bad people. Lisa oh, i aint messing with you. We have a deal because my handshake is the contract . Cory okay. Lemonis okay, buddy. Guess whats coming next . Math. You ready . Lisa yeah. Born ready. Lemonis lisa told me that she found a copacker to help her massproduce the cookie, and she did a licensing deal with them, and i quite frankly want to meet them so i can understand the terms of the deal. How are you . David hi, how are you . Lisa hi. David dave wild. Lemonis dave, nice to meet you. If that company was able to make the product without compromising the quality, then im open to it. How did you guys meet . David lisa