Its not always pretty. Ill take the shower. Jen, you take the toilet. I dont do the toilet in my own house. Really . But this is business. I do it to save jobs, and i do it to make money. This the profit. [upbeat music] ecome is an allnatural cleaning product started by Robin Kay Levine in 2006. With the partnership of her childhood friend jen mihajlov, a 12 owner, they built ecome up from a small, doityourself cleaning kit to a 17piece cleaning line, including doggrooming products. This product is sold nationwide at stores like whole foods and target, and last year they did a half a Million Dollars in sales, with only six employees. I personally use this product in my own home and find that it works extremely well. To stay in business, robin has leveraged friends and family to find every penny she can, and theyre nearly a half a Million Dollars in debt. Im really freaking out right now. Household cleaning is a multibilliondollar industry, and environmentally conscious products are becoming more popular with customers every day. Ecome has a great environmental product. And if they dont turn around their finances, theyre gonna have to close their doors, and all their workers will be out of jobs. With the right changes, i can make ecome profitable and turn this into a multimilliondollar business in no time. I see the potential to make a lot of money. Ecome has a small, 2,000squarefoot warehouse, and there isnt any significant machinery to be seen anywhere. What i see is a lot of work being done manually. I already see big problems. Hi. How are you . Where do i find robin and jen . Right through this door. Are you robin . Im robin. Robin, im marcus. Very nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. You guys have this place branded well. Thanks. Oh, this is jen. Oh, hey, jen. Hi. Marcus. How are you . Nice to meet you. So, is this pretty much. Well, this is the front office. Okay. This is my office, and when jen comes into towncause shes based out of the east coast oh, wow. And she works in here also. I cant imagine having a coworker, an employee 3,000 miles away from where our business is. Look, i understand phone and email, but nothing replaces human interaction. What i want to know about is, why did you start the company . So, in 2005, my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer. We were like, how did she even get cancer in the first place . I went back to be with my family and help my sister through her treatments, and there was one day where i said, mom, im not gonna go with you guys to the doctors. I need a break. And she said, you know what . Your sister doesnt get a break. And i was like, wow. Talk about, like, a waterworks moment. And she said, why dont you just clean her apartment . Make it really nice. When she comes home, it can be nice for her. And i was just opening up that cabinet under the sink, and im just staring at all the chemical stuff and the smell of it, and i said, oh, my god i cant clean with this stuff. I dont want her to continue to get sicker. And i went, and i got vinegar, baking soda, olive oil. I googled, like, how to make your own stuff, what to do, and that just really started a snowball, and i totally pulled jen in ive never done sales and marketing, but thats your background. You have to come with me. So you oversee sales . Yes. So i went. She went. And that was it. I was hooked. She was hooked. Robin, so this isnt really just about the products on the shelf for you, is it . No. No. No. Ecome is part my identity. It is part of who i am, and we work these days to obviously make money to put in our pocket and feed our families, but to do something that means more, its pretty awesome to be a part of that. You guys have a lot of your own money in the business . Yeah. How much debt in total exists . If you were just roughballing it . Well, close to 500,000. Wow. Last year was the year i was supposed to get paid, and it didnt happen, and its incredibly hard for me, feeling the responsibility, to pull any money from the company when i know that i havent paid people that are working and following my lead. When is the last time you got paid . It varies, but even if i were back to november still with you, though. Yeah. Yeah. Whats your biggest fear . That this company wont survive. If you dont raise money, is that a possibility . Yeah. Of course, yeah. Its always a possibility. Look, robin and jen have a great starting point with this company, and as you can tell, this business means a lot to them, and theyve done a good job, but its time for me to delve into the details and look at people, process, and product to see what needs to be fixed. Id like to learn a little bit more about the product. Its just vinegar water, a little solubilizer, and our essential oils. Its the most simple, clean, effective product on the market. Each of the product has a name. For instance, where they pick up a floor cleaner, it says dave, and they say, oh, my grandfathers name was dave. Phil isour toilet bowl cleaner is named after one of our distributor reps, so it really is catchy, and it sticks with the consumer. So the name of the product is emma or ecome or so the story is that there is an emma, and these are all named after our friends and family what is the actual truth . Is there an emma . There is an emma, yeah. There is an emma. A toilet bowl cleaner called phil . A laundry detergent called emma or emily ori cant even keep it straight. Ive never seen a marketing plan this bad. So, robin, im a big people, process, product guy. The product itself is good. It has good purpose, a good mission, and it works, but as a business guy, its really im struggling with this. I think its terrible. You got to have a brand, not kate, jack, emma, dave. Its just too much. Mmhmm. Make sense . We dont want to be like everybody else. This brand is very personal to me, and it was built on our friends and family, and in the marketplace, people know emma. They know bill. What matters is whats inside. What matters is what the customer sees on the shelf. Well, the customers not buying much of it, so. cause to me, pride of authorship is a very dangerous mistake that people make in business. I know you have your opinion, and i respect that, but i dont fully agree with it. Its good to be passionate about your business, but when you have a pride of authorship that clouds your judgment, youre gonna get yourself into real trouble. They need to understand their idea isnt working. Can you guys give me a tour . Yeah. Sure. The Office Next Door is joyce frenzel, and shes our director of operations. Hi. Im marcus. How are you . Im joyce. Both nice to meet you. Thanks for coming. Do you love it here . Oh, absolutely. Did you just say that cause the cameras are here . No. My boss is right there. She said that because im here. Because your boss is right there . You dont want to get fired. This is our warehouse. We basically have drums that we do all our batching in. Should i think about this like a big recipe batch. Absolutely. Adding ingredients like a Mad Scientist . Both yes. Okay. But were not mad. Were happy. [laughter] this is a big, plastic tote of castile soap, and its one of the best castile soaps you can buy. So whats Something Like this cost . What is a tote . 4 grand. 4 grand. 4,000 . Yes. Right. How much production can you get out of this . Just under 5,000 units. We dont have a ton of room here, so were buying one tote at a time, where maybe we need four totes to manufacture, you know, 5,000 to 10,000 units. But space is one confinement. Yeah. For not having more of this. Whats another confinement . We need more people. Yeah. I mean, its just a fact. Jen is our sales team. What have you been doing . Manufacturing the formula, you know, you name it. You understand that running your business that way is. Yeah. Not good for you. Its not good for the business. Its not good for anybody. If you dont have the working capital, if you dont have the human capital. Yes. You will totally crumble. Absolutely. Yes. This business is facing a slew of issues, including the production process, the lack of machinery, and the lack of manpower, but im mostly concerned about their ability to sell. Jen is a sales team of one, and she lives 3,000 miles away. Let me meet up with these folks for a minute. Sure. Okay. Hey. How are you . Im marcus. Hi, marcus. My name is raul. Nice to meet you. Raul, nice to meet you. Veronica. Both nice to meet you. Are there ever days when you come in here and you wonder, can the business make it in this tough economy . Yeah, thats been in the back of my mind. I know it can grow, but will it grow . So tell me about your process. Come get the bottles. Okay. So we got a blank bottle. Then we take it to label it. These labels are probably too big. The roll is too long, so it will not fit on that machine here. What are you, rigging the thing . Yeah, because the roll is too big. Not only do you not have the automated machine, this machine doesnt even work for what you have. Right. How long does this normally take . On a good day, we can probably get maybe 1,200 bottles. This is just a bull[bleep] process. Very long, very tedious. Now lets see over here. What happens over here . This is the filler machine. You have one. One. Wow. These machines are small and jerryrigged, and the workflow is slow and inefficient. If they can only fill 1,200 bottles on a good day, it would take them several weeks to fill a 10,000bottle order. This isnt gonna work. I want you to take me through how this works. You have to turn on the machine. [machine humming] you set it down on the floor. This is how we set the time for the fill. Its a guess, isnt it . Until we get it accurate, yes. These look full, but not really. No. Theyre a little short. Theyd be short. So what does this need to weigh . These should weigh about 35 ounces. See, thats over. So, when its over, what we would dopour it out. Now youre still over. Im over. So i pour a little bit out. Im still over. Uhhuh. This process is crazy, and its inefficient. It took over a minute to fill a single bottle, and that doesnt even include the labeling. Inefficiency will kill this business. Joyce, what is your title here . Director of operations. So i oversee all of the operations. Im basically responsible for everything that takes place on the premises. If you owned the business, what would you change if you were me . Oh. One thing. Definitely sales is what concerns me the most. Do you think jens qualified to run that sales group . Yeah . Kind of . You know, this is only the third time ive ever met her. [chuckles] so, to be honest, i have not spent a lot of time with her. How many years have you been here . Five years. And this is only the third time youve met her . Correct. This is a Sales Organization, right . Yeah. Its not anything else, and life is about selling. So, if you dont have your sales stuff in order. Yeah. Thats definitely the numberone concern. Joyce has only met jen three times in five years. How could you run a Sales Organization from 3,000 miles away . It sounds to me that sales are a much bigger problem than i originally thought. Your role in the company is the sales. Do you think it matters that youre not actually in california with the rest of the team . Youre in new york. Do you think that makes a difference . No. No problem . No. It seems odd to me that somebody would be in charge of sales and not be where the product is and not be where the team is. Do you feel like youre good at sales . Is this something that you feel like its a strong suit of yours . Yes, i do when i go to do these shows and im talking to a buyer, i could pretty much hold any product in my hand and sell it. Are you freaked out a little bit right now with where the companys at financially . Um, yeah. I mean, its just been a tremendous roller coaster. Its just been very difficult. Look, there are some flaws in this business, but i still like the product. Im gonna go in and talk to robin, who appears to be the decision maker, to see if we can cut a deal to save ecome. So heres the good news. I believe in the product. Okay. I love the people that are here, but i think your process is terrible. I think you lack efficiency and equipment. You also need to sell more. So heres what i have in mind. Number one, i want to get this company to 10 million in sales. Number two, i want to be profitable in a very short period of time. It sounds great. Im willing to offer 500,000 to help this business not only survive, but succeed. Mmhmm. Ill finance the inventory. Ill finance whatever equipment we need for the warehouse. I will pay off the debt and fund working capital, but i want 20 of the business. That is an awful deal. For who . For us. For me . No, you have a great deal thats a great deal. Youre crazy. Youre asking me to give up 20 of this company, give up everything that weve worked for . You need money. We do need money. And you need help. We do, but i would say 250,000 is easily worth 10 of the company, and that gives you enough equity in the company so you feel secure that youre part of it, but youre not taking so a company that does 500,000 a year in sales and loses 200,000 is worth 2. 5 million to you . The valuation of our company i dont care about the valuation. You need money. This is my child. This is my company. Its everything. I appreciate how personal it is, but without my money, without my help, this business that you loveit all will go away very fast. Coming up. You cannot get to 1 million, because youre not good at it. No, i am good at it. No, youre not. This is about putting people in the right place. You are not a salesperson. Shouldnt you pay less when you use less data . Now you can. Because Xfinity Mobile gives you more flexible data. You can choose to share data between lines, mix with unlimited, or switch it up at any time. All on the most reliable wireless network. Which means you can save money without compromising on coverage. Get more flexible data, the most reliable network, and more savings. Plus, get 200 off when you buy an eligible phone. Thats simple, easy, awesome. Go to xfinitymobile. Com today. Without my money, without my help, this business that you loveit all will go away very fast. Look, robin, the deal is very clear to me. I will do 250,000 in debt. Mmhmm. Which means that im essentially funding the equipment. Mmhmm. And funding your inventory. Mmhmm. And i will do 250,000 in equity for 20 . Thats a total of 500,000. Thats my deal. Thats my offer. Take it, or you leave it. Every inch of this business, every second from beginning to end, its me, and when you say, like, oh, can you give up control over something . Yeah, i can, but i dont want to. This business is in my blood. So, if it doesnt make it, its devastating. I cannot imagine a World Without ecome. I reallyi really cant. Do we have a deal . Lets do it. Okay. The purpose of me being here is to help you fix the business. Mmhmm. And for the next week. Mmhmm. Im in charge. You cant fire any of my employees. But when i tell somebody that im in control for a week. Mmhmm. And then they start backpedaling and telling me, well, but you cant do this, and you cant do that, and you cant do this. I just had one stipulation. I know, and im saying no. Yeah, but weve just met. But im just giving you 500,000, and im asking you to trust me after i told you i would trust you. But im turning over my entiremy child. For a week. My child. But for a week. But for a week. Im babysitting for a week. I know. Let me tell you the thought process behind the employees. You come in, not emotional. Its not your baby yet, and you say, you know what . Soandso might be better in a different position, and i dont know if were ready for that position cause i might want to outsource that. Its a business, robin. Of course its a business, but these are peoples livelihoods. So you either trust me or you dont, and if you cant do it for a week, i cant do the deal. Hear me out for a second, okay . Okay. For me to give you 500,000. Mmhmm. That trust has to be really earned over a course of a week. And when the week is over. Mmhmm. The keys are back to me . Yes. Okay. But at the end of the week, if you dont do what you say youre gonna do. Mmhmm. And you dont follow through, my 500,000 and me will both evaporate. Okay. Okay. So make it out to ecome . Ecome. We have a deal. Okay. Thank you. Wow. Thats crazy. Thats a real check. [laughs] its a very real check. Yeah. Its exciting, but its a little bit unnerving. Hes got some really good ideas, but he has some ideas that i know were gonna butt heads on, and i have concerns, obviously, but we do need the help. Hey, everybody, can i borrow you for a sec . Good morning. Good morning, marcus. Morning. If you could stand over there with the team, that would be greatthank you. Ive had a chance to meet all of you this morning. I wanted to tell you that robin and i have cut a deal to be in business together. Ive committed to put a half a Million Dollars in your business. What . [claps] wow. Now, i know that the process is broken and the product needs some tweaking. The packaging is bad. But its the people process im worried about. This sales teamits the biggest problem i see. All of you have a lot to lose, but if we execute on the things that im telling you we need to do, we will go from 500,000 in sales to 10 million in sales. Ecome is a great product. I love it. But its poorly, poorly marketed. The packaging is bad. The merchandising is bad. Were gonna redo all of it. I dont want to be in one store on one shelf. I want to be in every store on every shelf. The strength of any organization is about its people, and in this organization, its about its salespeople. Can jen actually handle this job . Can she do it from 3,000 miles away . Im not sure. And lastly, our supply chain is broken. We need to improve the process. We cant use a machine that has a Maximum Capacity of 1,200 bottles a day. Im gonna invest in equipment that can turn out 1,200 bottles in 20 minutes. This will increase production immediately and put us on the path to generate 10 million in sales annually. For the next week, i have complete control of the business, 100 control. Anybody can be fired. Anybody can be demoted. Anybody can be promoted. Whatever it is that i want to do, im gonna do. Does anybody have a problem with that . cause today is the day to leave if you do. No. So, if youre ready to go to work, im ready to start. Absolutely. Were ready. Thank you. Good luck. Its gonna be a bumpy ride. The first thing im gonna do is get ecomes equipment up to date. This is where we make highspeed equipment. Im taking robin and jen down to accutek, one of the premier companies that produces bottling equipment. So this is the machine. This is the same type of head right now that i think you have, right . Yep. This is a neck grabber. What it does, it ensures that the bottle neck is centered to the nozzle so you dont accidentally crash in between bottles. Right, okay. You could do 60, 70 a minute on this. Wow without even thinking about it. So where do the labels go on . After the bottles been cappedwell send one through here, and then its gonna travel down here through the labeling machine, and that willl