The latest The Profit installment had Marcus Lemonis diving into a seafood business, only to be navigating some rough waters when the business was more like a bickering family.
The Crabby Shack owners Fifi Bell-Clanton and Gwendolyn Woods reached out to the CNBC series wanting to grow their Brooklyn restaurant into a national brand. But they felt their growth had stalled, and hoped Marcus would come in as a “strategic partner” to get them over the hump.
SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers from Tuesday’s latest The Profit season 8 episode.
Here are the business lessons we learned from this week’s installment of The Profit:
001. Is The Profit evolving?
The Profit is primarily about helping struggling businesses; Marcus even says that in the show’s introduction. But The Crabby Shack was far from struggling. Marcus evaluated the business at no less than a million dollars after finding out the company had improved its business during the pandemic and had zero debt.
Instead of being on the rocks, this was another regional business looking to go national. And that’s definitely a challenge and there’s nothing wrong with that challenge—it’s just a different kind of challenge. All TV shows grow and change over the years, so is The Profit being more open with the kind of businesses it accepts, and now becoming a series about taking your business to the next level instead of just keeping your business together?
002. Business and family aren’t the same thing
Anyone who’s watched The Profit or other shows like it (i.e. Kitchen Nightmares, Bar Rescue, Hotel Impossible) has seen an episode where the host comes into a family business and tells someone that at work, this person isn’t your spouse/child/significant other, they’re your employee. There has to be a clear division between the family relationship and the professional relationship.
The Crabby Shack had that problem from another direction. None of the people involved were family but they acted like it. There was one scene that put the “fun” in “dysfunctional family” when one of Fifi and Gwen’s employees threw another one under the bus in front of them and Marcus. She didn’t hold back at all in publicly criticizing his work, even though she loved him as a person. Fifi and Gwen also had a close relationship but were bickering like sisters, too.
A lot of people work with family, and a lot of people find a surrogate family at work. Both of those things are awesome. But you still have to know where that dividing line is and give yourself some breathing room so you don’t ultimately spoil those relationships.
003. Believe in yourself.
Marcus turned therapist this episode with several people as he coached them to believe in themselves. There was a great scene where he pointed out that comparing themselves to their friends and colleagues would only give the owners heartache. They needed to focus on what they’d achieved and not be measuring themselves against anyone else.
It sounds like the most obvious thing, but it’s not always easy to find your value. It’s even harder if you’re looking at what everyone else has or how successful they are. But as Marcus pointed out, being able to build a business and the effort you put into it is an accomplishment in and of itself. If you believe in yourself, it’ll take so much weight off your shoulders. It’ll also help others to believe in you. That was a heartwarming bit from The Profit this week, and a reminder why this show is so engaging.
The Profit airs Tuesdays at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on CNBC.
Article content is (c)2020-2023 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram.
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