Saturday, March 15, 2014

The Profit Returns

The Profit with Marcus Lemonis on CNBC

Marcus Lemonis returns for season two of the The Profit, which features Marcus hunting for struggling businesses to turn around.  Marcus puts his own cash on the line and offers his expertise in return for a share of the business.  The Profit is one of our favorite business shows here at Unlimited Net Worth with its focus on key business principles and its offering of solid business tips in each episode.

Episode 1
Episode 1 features Athans Motors, now known as AutoMatchUSA, a used car dealership in the Chicago suburbs.  Athans Motors is struggling due to a lack of inventory and a misguided focus on investing considerable sums into the embellishment of the dealership.

Episode 2
Episode 2 features A Stein Meat Products, a family owned meat distributor, which offers a variety of meat products to local restaurants, hospitals, schools, etc.  A Stein has successfully delivered meat products since the 1960s, but due to a lack of diligence around collecting receivables, weak hiring decisions, and poor operations, A Stein has hit hard times.   

Although Marcus offers sound business advice and is effective at turning around many of these businesses, his advice comes at a steep cost.  Marcus typically takes a large share of the business for a fraction of the capital needed to start a new business from scratch.  Although Marcus keeps the doors open, the business owner would probably have been better served by paying a consultant to help turn around operations, without giving up an equity stake.