And help his wife and partner come into her own. I know you have it in you. Aimee i do. Lemonis . Jd Custom Designs could just disappear. 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. Everythings 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. Jeff jd customs. Lemonis in 2009, jeff and Aimee Dougherty started jd Custom Designs, a display Manufacturing Company that handles everything from design. Jeff 26 and 7 8s. Lemonis . To fabrication. The Company Started out strong. Aimee where do you want me to put this on the work order board . Lemonis reaching 2. 4 million of revenue in 2010 by focusing on displays primarily for the cosmetic industry. But a lack of working capital has left them in a constant catchup mode. Jeff we need to develop something right away, cause it needs to be going, like, right now. Lemonis now machines are breaking down. Jeff the whole [bleep] drive that actually drives the terminals. Man the controller . Jeff fried. Lemonis delays are piling up. And the sales are down to nearly half of what they were at the peak. Jeff and aimee are fearing the worst. Aimee we gotta take care of this. Ay, yi, yi. Lemonis every Retail Business needs displays to show off their product and improve their sales, so turning this company around and having it inside of my portfolio could be a huge win for all of my businesses. Jeff hey. Lemonis jeff. Jeff how are you . Very nice to meet you. Lemonis im marcus. Jeff yes, i know exactly who you are. Lemonis nice to meet you. Im a little confused. On the front door, theres two brands there. I thought i was coming to jd custom. Jeff you are. The other company on there is my biggest customer. Lemonis what kind of business is the owner . Jeff nail polish. This is one of their lines. Lemonis and so theyre a nail polish manufacturer . Jeff they have several lines, yes. Lemonis so did you guys design this display . Jeff i designed this, yes. Lemonis and what about all this stuff in the back . Jeff if i didnt design it, i had a major part in designing it. Lemonis very cool. Is everything you do makeup oriented . Jeff no, but it is definitely our biggest market. Lemonis is this whole display made of acrylic . Jeff yes. Lemonis different colors . Jeff different colors, all different colors. Lemonis you came up with this, too . Jeff yeah, that i came up with. Lemonis now, would this be considered an elaborate design . Jeff yes. Lemonis what makes it elaborate . Jeff you got the halfinch thick gauge acrylic. These are actually removable. Lemonis uhhuh. Jeff because most of my customers want to update their plates. Same thing here. These all these plates are removable. Lemonis and you designed this, as well . Jeff yes. Lemonis everything seems very much the same. While looking at most of the displays with jeff, you can tell that theres a little bit of a problem. Theyre all makeup related except for this one display that has pipes and water. Jeff they said their shoes are the industrial look. Lemonis this is a shoe display . Jeff yeah, for converse. They wanted that industrial look. Lemonis yeah, they got it. When companies are making a product for one specific industry, when you get outside of that, its difficult, because you have to think differently, youre working with a different product. Its probably outside their comfort zone. And when did you start this business . Jeff in 09 09. Lemonis 2009 . Jeff yeah, i believe it was. I have to check with my wife, but im lemonis is your wife in the business as well . Jeff yeah, thats my wife. Thats aimee. Aimee hi, marcus. Lemonis how are you . Aimee nice to meet you. Lemonis really nice to meet you. Now, are you an owner in the business, as well . Aimee yes, sir. Lemonis what is your percentage . Aimee 50 . Lemonis so 5050 . Aimee yes. Lemonis whos in charge . Jeff i am. Lemonis you are. Jeff i pretty much run everything other than paperwork. Shell tell you, you know, he needs to stay out of the paperwork part of it. Lemonis why is that . Why would she tell me that . Aimee hes very creative. He works well with his hands, he needs to stay over here and out there. Lemonis do you ever tell him that . Aimee oh, all the time. Lemonis does he listen . Aimee no. Ive known jeff for. Jeff she used to be one of my customers. Aimee i was one of his customers. He was a single dad raising his three kids, and lemonis wow, thats honorable. And your kids in the business . Aimee yes. Jeff my oldest son. Lemonis is here . Jeff yes. Lemonis can you take me to the shop, id like to jeff absolutely. Lemonis meet him, see the shop. Jeff come on out. We have about 4,200 square feet. Lemonis its not exactly an organized place. Jeff no. I will give you that, no. Lemonis and the place looks like total chaos. Theres crap everywhere. Am i the only one that sees the irony that a display company should actually display their own things and have them look right . Jeff back here, we have a threehead machine that we use for prototyping or use it for production, also. This is my machine thats down. Lemonis and are there jobs backed up because of it . Jeff im starting to get backed up. Lemonis how much money do you feel like you need to spend on new equipment . Jeff laser is about 30,000. Large format cnc router, probably right in the area of about 40,000. Lemonis and then you got to fix some stuff you have broken. So how much is that gonna cost . Jeff 15, 20 grand. Lemonis 85,000 and youre up and running. Jeff approximately, yeah. Lemonis how are you, sir . Jeff this is rogelio. This is marcus. Lemonis marcus. Rogelio hi, nice to meet you. Lemonis nice to meet you. And you have a lot of training on the cnc machine . Jeff he actually went to college for it. Lemonis oh, wow. Jeff yeah. Lemonis where are all your Raw Materials . Jeff cant afford to stock them. Lemonis and how much are are your lead times delayed today . Aimee we say four to six weeks. Lemonis so if your machines both worked and you had the Raw Materials, what would your time quote be instead of four to six weeks . Aimee three to five weeks. Lemonis and over the course of a year, how much more business could you do . Aimee [ chuckles ] a lot. Lemonis who does the estimating here on the jobs . Aimee he does. I have no accounting experience. My background is sales. That was my realm. I love sales. Lemonis are you good at it . Aimee im very good at it. Lemonis aimee, who has a background in sales, is actually not involved in the sales process. And jeff, whos more quiet, more shy, hes the one handling sales . It seems like a role reversal. So what is all this . Aimee these are all samples and prototypes. Jeff well, actually, no, marcus, these are displays that actually get reran. Lemonis why does it look like this . Jeff if she could find me the time to do it, id do it in a heartbeat. Lemonis are you the only person that can do it . Aimee he has to touch everything, and he just he wont stop. Jeff i know, i know. Aimee maybe he could not be down here all hours of the night and be home with his family and have dinner together. Thats all the kids ask. Jeff but i dont have a choice, marcus. Sometimes were at a deadline, and a machine breaks down, and i cant miss that deadline. My family is everything to me. Thats why i do this, thats why i stay all night. Lemonis business is one thing. Your family, your health, thats more important. Business owners, in one breath, theyll talk to you about the fact that everything theyre doing, all these sacrifices that theyre making are for their family, and i believe that. In another breath, theyre absent from their family, and theres really blurry lines between home life and work life. And in the case of jeff, sounds like theres no difference. How you doing . Wes good, how are you . Lemonis im marcus. Wes im wesley, nice to meet you. Lemonis nice to meet you. Youre just cranking out stuff, huh . Wes uh, yes, sir. Lemonis you like it . Wes oh, i love it. Ever since i could remember, i would come in and watch my dad do it. You know, just take one of those sheets of plastic and turn it into something, like, amazing. Lemonis right. You like working with your dad . Wes yeah, i love it. Being able to spend time with him, cause you dont see him two or three days cause hes down here. Lemonis do you want to be in this business in the future . Wes oh, of course, yeah. Lemonis is that what you see for your future . Wes yes, sir. Lemonis what would you like to do here . Wes i mean, i know i wouldnt be able to do half the stuff my dad does, cause he runs the front, back. Hes all over the place, you know. Lemonis he is all over the place, isnt he . Wes stresses me out. Hes gonna put himself in the ground the way hes going right now, trying to do everything by himself. Scares the hell out of me. Lemonis i think that youre here helping out your dad says a lot about yourself. Wes thank you, sir. Lemonis okay, my man. Wes nice meet you. Lemonis good talking to you. And ill be here, so if you want to talk about anything. Wes thank you, sir. I appreciate it. Jeff okay. Lemonis howd you learn how to do autocad . Jeff by myself. Lemonis youre selftaught. Jeff i got the program and just started doing it. Lemonis you loved it, too, though, didnt you . Jeff yeah, i did. Lemonis do you are you as precise as you are because you spent years not being precise and youve learned . Jeff ive always been precise. When i was a kid, when you come home and my stepdad was drunk, you say one thing thats wrong, phew. So ive always tried to maintain so much control over what im doing, and when i feel out of control, it bothers me. A lot of people tell me youve gotta put more faith in your people. But its my name thats going out on that product. Lemonis what happens is the time that you spend doing that takes away from something else. The companys so onedimensional because jeff pours all of his time into doing everybody elses job, as opposed to allowing people do to their job, which gives him the free time to develop new ideas, develop new products something that isnt makeup. Ill see you in a little bit. Jeff all right, buddy. Lemonis so lets dig into the financials. 2015, 1. 045 million in business. 2016, 1. 471 million. And it says the company made 242,000 last year. 433,000 owed in payables. Jeff i didnt think it was that much. Lemonis 40,000 in credit cards. 43,000 in business loans. Plus the car loan of 52,000. You have assets of 175,000 and obligations, liabilities of 568,000. 393,000 is the delta of the two. You owe more than you have. Jeff correct. Lemonis okay. Youre, unfortunately, on paper out of business. So for that alone jeff can i just have a second . Lemonis yeah. Jeff is that cool . Lemonis yeah. Jeff thanks, man. Aimee its a very sensitive subject. Lemonis the pressure of keeping this business up and running is overwhelming him, and he doesnt want to show me or aimee how hes really feeling. But, frankly, he should be very proud of himself, because hes sacrificing his own self for everybody elses benefit. Hey. Jeff there you are. Sorry. Lemonis listen jeff im sorry to cut you off, i just lemonis listen, listen to me. Jeff okay. Lemonis you have nothing to apologize for. Jeff i just feel like im failing, and it just takes away my soul, man. And im trying im trying my ass off, but i just hitting a [bleep] wall. Every time i turn around, theres something else. Lemonis you have to decide if you want to bust through that wall or not. Jeff oh, i do. And i will. Lemonis okay, now you gotta figure out can we do business together, can we outmaneuver the wall together . Jeff exactly. Exactly. Lemonis okay . Lemonis lets get in there. Jeff all right. Lemonis im a people, process, product guy. I know i need the product for my current businesses. I know that i can fix the process. And any time somebody is as humble and heartfelt as jeff is, i know i dont have a people problem. The fact that the business is just in a working capital death spiral, youll see that when you put money in, it will start to solve things really quickly. So i want to make an offer for 300,000. Pay off the credit cards, get all the equipment working, buy Raw Materials, pay the vender down in a very big way, and put some cash in the bank. I feel like i have enough products in my portfolio plus businesses. Jeff mmhmm. Lemonis . That can benefit from what you do. Jeff i agree. Lemonis im still not convinced that you guys are creative enough to solve all of those problems, but i think you can solve a lot of them. And i know that you built this business with your blood, sweat, and tears. But i couldnt it for any less than 50 of the business. Aimee oh, where do we go . You know, what do we do if this doesnt pan out . Would you be willing to do 6040 . Jeff i definitely wouldnt have more than one of these. Aimee but youll put a big dress on there . Jeff no, this is what were doing. This is how its gotta be done. Lemonis jeff, youve totally taken the fun out of this. This is the yes, a new way to shop thats completely tailored to you, with hundreds of your favorite fashion brands. Tell us what you love and what you dont. The more you yes and no, the more we get you. We will build a shoppable feed thats so you. No two feeds are alike. This is shopping made genius. Download the app and shop in a whole new way. This is shopping made genius. Aimee what do we do if this doesnt pan out . Would you be willing to do 6040 . Lemonis no. Only because i feel like theres a lot of heavy lifting here. And if i end up bringing 50 of the business to the table from all the companies, i want to be able to enjoy 50 of the profit. Do we have a deal . Aimee lets do it. Lemonis okay. Aimee lets do it. Lemonis okay. Jeff thank you, buddy. Aimee can i hug you . Lemonis yes, you can. I want to remind you both, when you take my money jeff i know, youre 100 in charge. Lemonis no, no, no, with you, im 150. Jeff okay. Lemonis this is a fresh start. Jeff okay. Lemonis all right, lets get to work. See you tomorrow. Jeff thank you, buddy. [ exhales sharply ] lemonis good morning. Man good morning. Lemonis my name is marcus lemonis. And last night, we made a deal for me to invest 300,000 into the business. The goal behind the money is to improve the work environment. This warehouse needs to be cleaned up. Its a mess. And to improve the equipment and develop new products. We want to be able to do anything that any company wants. But we ultimately have to change the culture. Jeff correct. Lemonis and that starts with you. Jeff correct. Lemonis letting go and trusting your team. Jeff right. Okay. I got it. Lemonis all right . Lets go to work. Thank you, guys. One of the big concerns that i have is whether jd customs can be creative and they can be nimble. I want them to start thinking outside the box, thinking away from makeup. And i also want to see jeffs process. So im taking them to a local toy store, and im gonna challenge them with something theyve never done before. What i want the two of you to do is to each pick 10 products. Were gonna make one Large Display that can be used at a Retail Business. If you can prove to me that you can make something that has proper branding, proper coloring, proper signage, and can carry lots of different products, then well move on to something really big. Aimee lets do it. Lemonis okay, lets go. Jeff im confident. Aimee are you sticking to, like, an age group . Jeff you pick yours, ill pick mine. Aimee okay. Girl anything crystals. Aimee what kind of science experiments would you say are fun . Lemonis jeff, why do you look so intense . Jeff im just trying just. Lemonis is this your fun face . Jeff no. Lemonis okay, whats your fun face look like . Jeff this is my fun face. Lemonis did anybody tell jeff that we were at a toy store . I think you have to take on the personality of the product that youre building the display for. If you were building a medical device, then i get it, be serious and technical. If youre building a toy display, let loose, have some fun. Youve now picked 10 each. Jeff mmhmm. Lemonis and you need to get to 10 total. So how do you narrow it down . Aimee i think we need a book, though. Jeff dont think we should do anything with books. That would be a totally separate display. I definitely wouldnt have more than one of these. Aimee but youll put a big dress on there . Thats not taking up room. Like, these could take up less room than the dress. Jeff i understand that, aimee, but these are basically two of the same products. Why would you want to showcase two of the exact same things . Aimee because were trying to do a full age group, from infant to adolescent. So i think its gotta be a couple in each category. Jeff no, this is what were doing. This is how its gotta be done. Lemonis jeff. I gotta be honest with you. Youve totally taken the fun out of this. Jeff i know. Im trying to get my mind on visualizing it. Im so sorry. Aimee see, hes doing the construction in his mind. Lemonis no, hes not, actually, cause he was arguing not about shape or size. He was arguing about a unicorn. Aimee true. Lemonis what he cares about is controlling the process from the beginning to end, including picking the toys, because he knows better. And everybody elses opinion almost doesnt matter. I picked a toy store because i felt you would actually lean on her to make the product display, because who buys the toys for the kids . Jeff yeah. Lemonis and youre arguing with her like, no, no, no, you dont know what youre doing. Jeff i get the point. Would i like to be able to lean on more people and get yeah, i would. Its hard. Its really hard for me because its a comfort for me. Lemonis it, singlehandedly, could kill the business. Jeff got it. Lemonis were ready to ring out when you are. Lemonis in five days, i want to see the final fixture, finished with all the toys on it, as if its gonna move into a retail space. Jeff okay. Lemonis thank you so much. I own another business in the area called bodhi leaf. And aimee has told me she wants to oversee sales. But im not sure if she understands what that entails or what my expectations are. So ive asked her to meet me there so we can really talk about that. Whats the sales process gonna look like, and how is the revenue gonna get generated . Whos gonna lead the sales charge . How am i gonna get a return on the money for myself, for you, for your family . Like. Aimee i could go out and sell. Its natural for me. Im a people person. Lemonis you feel like you could sell anything to anybody . Aimee for the most part, yes. Like there i noticed the tshirts. Lemonis lets walk and look. Aimee okay. Lemonis so what would be your pitch . Aimee i think you need to display your product better. Lemonis i think my product sells fine here. Aimee i dont see anyone looking at the coffee when theyre waiting to purchase their coffee. Lemonis okay. Aimee if you had a fixture of some sort to display your coffee. Lemonis what am i gonna get . Aimee my commitment. Lemonis money. Aimee darn it. Okay. Lemonis do you believe in your company . Aimee yes. Lemonis prov