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