About “The Profit” Awards

CNBC’s “The Profit” has completed its third season.  each episode featured Marcus Lemonis investing his time, money, and expertise in an effort to turnaround family owned businesses that make and sell everything from cars to candy.

It may have appeared that each of these businesses was a “train wreck”, but they have each enjoyed past success, and have beaten the odds of owning a business that survives more than 5 years. Studies have shown that there is a 50% probability of business failure in the first 5 years and a 75% chance of failure in the first 10 years.

That said, the business owners featured on “The Profit” have not been able to continue their earlier successes. They have not been able to keep up with changes in technology, marketing techniques, cultural trends, demographic changes, increasing regulations, global competition, changing competitive landscapes, etc.

Add to this the owners’ changing personal priorities, lavish spending, lack of focus, and poor management skills and it’s easy to understand why these folks needed help.

Marcus clearly faced real challenges in Season 3. Most of the entrepreneurs had declining sales and increasing debt due to the factors cited above. The key to Marcus’s success was the entrepreneur’s mindset.  If they were flexible and open to change, there was usually a happy ending. The owners who were “willing patients” and accepted and embraced Marcus’s help did well. The others, not so much.

The purpose of this blog is to highlight the Best (“Beat Profit Expectations”) and Worst (“Missed Profit Expectations”) of the show.  It is intended to help entrepreneurs avoid the many potential pitfalls of owning and running a business.