The profit

[bargainman]

I'm curious, has anybody watched this show on CNBC?  I was at the gym this afternoon and this episode was on:

 

http://www.cnbc.com/live-tv/the-profit/full-episode/amazing-grapes-wine-store/220369987529

 

I actually found it quite fascinating.  I'm not sure what the guy's background is, it was very interesting how he went in and basically fixed up A dying or almost dead business. I think what was most fascinating was how terrible of a businessman original partner and owner was. 

[bmichaud]

I know I'm a bad value investor for admitting that I watch tv and don't read 10Ks 24/7, but I think the show is phenomenal. I've learned a ton from watching, as Marcus provides a great blue print for going in and fixing up poorly run small to medium size businesses. People, Process and Product! It's a great platform for him to get in cheap and expand massively. I'd love to see some follow ups in a couple of years showing how much he has expanded. For example he took a car dealership in NYC and franchised the business model across the country. Would love to see more of that.

 

Yesterday they had him on cnbc and he briefly mentioned that he is not invested in a single public equity. Thought that was super interesting. Talk about needing to truly focus on owner earnings and reinvestment rates!

[hyten1]

i do watch it and enjoy it very much.

[CorpRaider]

I like it.  Like that he doesn't seem to try and create drama for drama's sake.  Always wondered why the real estate investing, business running/investing shows were totally ignored by CNBC.

[fareastwarriors]

I watched it occasionally as well. My brother loves it. This and Shark Tank... I know Shark Tank is a bit more dramatic but it is pretty interesting.

[HJ]

I watch it too, love the show.  Would love to see follow ups in another 2 years on how the businesses are doing then. 

 

There's also the restaurant fixer upper shows, which I catch once a while. 

[brker_guy]

"Products.  Process.  People".  You got to love that catch phrase.  :) I love the show too!  We need more rational CEOs like this guy who put these P's before themselves and their golden parachute.

 

Marcus Lemonis has an interesting bio:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Lemonis

 

I think Shark Tank has too much prima donnas factor built into it.  A little bit too much of Mark Burnett's Survivor flavor in it which I don't think is realistic. 

 

I will surely miss "The Profit" once I cut the cable cord later this year...

 

[fareastwarriors]

I think American Greed is good too.

[wescobrk]

I've seen shark tank and find it entertaining but I've only caught snippets here and there.

I don't understand why Cuban invests 100k in a business with the promise of how he can help them.

Seems like a massive waste of time for him but I suppose he enjoys the action.

[DCG]

Like that he doesn't seem to try and create drama for drama's sake.

 

 

This sounds like the complete opposite of CNBC.

[yadayada]

http://kickass.to/ for the people without cable or outside the US.

[CorpRaider]

Like that he doesn't seem to try and create drama for drama's sake.

 

 

This sounds like the complete opposite of CNBC.

 

Yeah, and most reality tv shows.  I'm sure some brilliant producer will try and get him to take it up a notch after a season or two.  I really think most people see through that and get bored with it.

 

Shark tank is alright.  Everytime Cuban talks I just think "broadcast.com."

[yadayada]

yeah whats up with that? I read he had a bunch of crappy online businesses and managed to cash out luckily in the height of the dot com boom, is that true?

[siddharth18]

managed to cash out luckily in the height of the dot com boom, is that true?

 

For the most part. He was entrepreneurial from the beginning though. So it was very likely that he'd succeed...it's just that you couldn't have told that he would make a few hundred million or BILLIONS. He was at the right place at the right time and convinced (to Cuban's credit) the right sucker (Yahoo) who handed over billions to him during the dot com frenzy. Maybe Mark was smart or maybe he got lucky or both, but he was definitely NOT dumb!

 

To quote Pabrai, Mark "only drank half the kool-aid of the dot-com bubble" and was smart enough to get out at the top. I think he made the right moves after that pay day - he bought puts to lock in his profits and then bought a bunch of other assets to make sure he stayed rich.

 

 

See http://www.bloomberg.com/video/bloomberg-game-changers-mark-cuban-FAScYey5RIiO~5MyEg1yGw.html

[timidbid]

How does Marcus exit these companies?

[hyten1]

would be interested in learning more about the deals he make, how profitable or not are they

 

also maybe he can start a fund, the fund will be used to invest in these deals.

 

hy

[bargainman]

How does Marcus exit these companies?

 

Who says he exits these companies? Does Buffett exit the companies he buys? If he has his money tied up in high return on investment companies gushing cash, why would he try to exit them?

[Aurelius]

http://kickass.to/ for the people without cable or outside the US.

 

Using torrents, is there something special I should be looking at, to ensure it's safe?

[siddharth18]

I love American Greed!

 

 

A few of the episodes on "The Profit" have left me wanting for more. They spend almost an hour telling me about a specific business, the negotiations, etc but the final outcome isn't well described. For example, the "Key West Key Lime Pie" describes a nice "turnaround" but doesn't mention how well the business did on the first day. Revenue, profit, etc would've helped. I guess it takes a while for the revenue/profit to ramp up and for the business to gain momentum after it has experienced a tremendous makeover...so I'm hoping Markus will share some numbers of his previous deals on forthcoming episodes!

[jouni1]

http://kickass.to/ for the people without cable or outside the US.

 

Using torrents, is there something special I should be looking at, to ensure it's safe?

yes, you should make sure you don't download copyrighted material (like this tv show) as it's stealing and you become a distributor of illegal content while downloading. other than that, it's pretty safe. turn on encryption in the software if you want to stay private.

[yadayada]

And use Qbittorent. Alot of these torrent clients are filled with spyware. So always take the Freeware ones.

 

Also if they dont want us to steal it, they should make it available for download or streaming more easily and for a small fee. These fking companies are too greedy, and that is why i end up stealing it. I will  not pay for some expensive cable package to only watch 1 or 2 shows every once in a while (with commercials). You want it all? You get NOTHING.

 

Im not even sure if I can watch it legally  outside the US?

[LongHaul]

"yes, you should make sure you don't download copyrighted material (like this tv show) as it's stealing and you become a distributor of illegal content while downloading. other than that, it's pretty safe. turn on encryption in the software if you want to stay private."

 

 

+1

[infinitee00]

Thanks for the suggestion OP. As a fan and investor in turnarounds, I watched a few episodes and I am hooked. Marcus's modus operandi is pretty typical to turnarounds and CNBC threw in some extra drama to make it more watchable. There are a ton of things to learn in each episode and I like that every episode is not a success story or something that 'works out' eventually ( recent Skullduggery episode) and Marcus sometimes walks from the investment after taking a small loss ( this is a learning by itself). I try to understand and learn how Marcus values every business ( although sometimes, I admit, his offers leave me a little baffled). It would be great to get brief updates about these businesses as the show progresses.

 

For those interested in decent business shows ( Shark tank has already been suggested) can check out The Mentors and TechStars on bloomberg tv.

[fareastwarriors]

And use Qbittorent. Alot of these torrent clients are filled with spyware. So always take the Freeware ones.

 

Also if they dont want us to steal it, they should make it available for download or streaming more easily and for a small fee. These fking companies are too greedy, and that is why i end up stealing it. I will  not pay for some expensive cable package to only watch 1 or 2 shows every once in a while (with commercials). You want it all? You get NOTHING.

 

Im not even sure if I can watch it legally  outside the US?

 

 

that doesnt justify it... but i used to download software all the time so i'm no saint either.

 

 

http://www.cnbc.com/live-tv/

some full episodes are posted online to stream on cnbc.  does the link work for you?

[bargainman]

So I watched a few more of the episodes available on CNBC.com. I am left with a couple of impressions. I am still amazed at the level of incompetence and the lack of self reflection among a lot of these people. The two episodes that stick in my mind are the skulduggery and worldwide trailers. In both those episodes Marcus actually decides to walk away from the deal, which was actually very warranted. The only question in my mind was why he didn't walk away earlier. That actually had me wondering how much of the show is a show, that is how much of it is scripted, and how much of it is reality. I am sure that there is a little bit of both. Especially given that you can actually find these companies and they are Live companies. I also wonder about his level of due diligence, since there is usually the scene where he puts his offer on the table, and then later he has to go back and check out the corporate papers etc.

 

Another thing that had me confused was just how he calculates his offers out. In particular for the world wide trailers he offered I think it was 700,000 for 50% of the business, where the business I think was almost a $2 million revenue and supposedly 400,000 in income business. But then for the skulduggery business which seemed like a horrible business, again with almost 2,000,000 in sales, but multiple tens of thousands in losses over the last two years, and 1.1 million in debt, he offered to pay off the debt and invest in another million dollars for only 50% of the business. The idiotic brothers who run that place Were insulted with the offer believe it or not. And after that Marcus came back with a deal for just paying off the debt and getting 30% of the business. That made me wonder how much he does for the purposes of the show. Since obviously there's some pressure for him to keep the drama going until later in the process so they have a show. If he walked away at the very beginning, there would be no show.

 

Anyway so far my favorite episodes were wine place, the key lime place, and Sweet Pete's. Although I agree with one of the earlier comments that with Sweet Pete's he really didn't have enough time to give solid results as to whether the turnaround really worked. Anyway I still find the show pretty fascinating.