Planet Popcorn

Planet Popcorn on The Profit Show

Gourmet Popcorn Business - Season 1 - Episode 3

Planet Popcorn seen on The Profit Show in
Season 1, Episode 3

 The third episode of the Profit Show was with Planet Popcorn, a popcorn business generating millions in sales and yet losing hundred of thousands of dollars every year. The Planet Popcorn Business started out with one location and mushroomed into a $2 million business employing over 30 employees. The majority of revenue was being generated from a Disney contract that guarantees a steady flow of popcorn lovers always willing to buy. Considering the profit margins are extremely high within this industry, it made perfect sense for Marcus Lemonis to investigate Planet Popcorn during The Profit Show.

The owner of Planet Popcorn is Sharla McBride, who appeared on The Profit because of growing this all cash business from the ground-up into $2,000,000.00 in annual sales. With all this money laying around, literally, Marcus has a hard time believing this business is not only "not making a Profit", it's piling up debt at an alarming rate. During the taping of this episode #3 of The Profit Show, Lemonis discovers $200,000.00 in debt Sharla acquired when she remortgaged her Moms house. You would think with your Moms house on the line keeping track of every dollar would be an extra high priority. But when you're making so much cash you can't even keep up with counting it, other things might seem a little more important than just counting and keeping track of all your money.
Considering this was only the third episode of The Profit that ever aired, to be honest, I wasn't sure if all that money laying around might have been staged for the Show. But as we learned later in the episode, and several others that followed, Marcus Lemonis doesn't need to stage anything when it comes to some of the entrepreneurs The Profit Show finds.

Marcus decides the Planet Popcorn is worth his time and investment into making this a successful and profitable business. He invests $200k for 50% of the business after what seems like a lot of drama. One of the first things Lemonis does is hire a forensic accountant to find out why this multi-million dollar business is losing so much money. The Profit Star soon learns Planet Popcorn isn't losing any money, but, in fact, the records show it made a $300,000.00 profit instead. Imagine that, all of a sudden Marcus's $200k investment looks a lot more promising if they can only find where it went. It can't be in the bank because there's no money there either, and Sharla swears she doesn't know where it's at, She doesn't even seem surprised at the amount missing. Marcus's new business partner confirms she controls all the cash and she's not a thief. No one implied that, but that's what she said.

Aside from hundreds of thousands of dollars that seemed to have vanished, Marcus still decides to honor his deal in turning the failing Planet Popcorn business into a successful business. Lemonis, as always, rolls up his sleeves and begins implementing his "People, Process, Product" method used in all his successful businesses. First off, get rid of the non-profitable sideline businesses and concentrate on the Popcorn Business. Seeing the potential to sell Planet Popcorn on the Internet, Lemonis does a simple domain search and discovers Planet-Popcorn.com is available to register. Knowing the value of an exact Dot Com name for "any business", Marcus registers the name along with PopOne.com. He's completely upfront with Sharla what the plans are for developing commerce style websites to boost further sales.

Marcus Lemonis and Sharla McBride going over the books
on The Profit Show

Now grant it The Profit was still a Brand New Show exclusively seen on CNBC, so maybe that's what Sharla was thinking when trying to go behind her new business partners back. Lemonis flat out told Sharla He bought those domains for Planet Popcorn and already had a developer building out the sites. Apparently, she did a simple whois search showing who controls the domain name, which, of course, belonged to one of several of Marcus Lemonis businesses. Son of a gun if she didn't get a hold of the company that owns the domain and tried to buy it out from under The Profit Star. Obviously He was informed immediately about his new business partners intentions trying to screw him on his own Show. Imagine that. Personally, if I were in Marcus Lemonis shoes, I would've played it out a little longer to see what McBride would pay for the domains, considering the business was broke, right?

Either way, that was the last straw when it came to investing in Planet Popcorn and Lemonis wisely ends their business agreement investing in this struggling company.  How could you possibly write a better script about what "not to do" when making business deals on National TV.

Planet Popcorn Update after The Profit

After this episode of The Profit Show aired Sharla not only didn't get a deal with Marcus Lemonis, She also lost the lucrative contract with Disney selling the Planet Popcorn Brand. After the massive set-back most people probably wouldn't recover from, McBride focused on rebuilding this once very profitable business from the ground up. Lemonis did an update with Sharla after several email exchanges and decided to bring her back to The Profit for a second chance.

After confirming several positive changes McBride has started implementing, She asks Marcus to give her another chance and invest in her business. In the end, Lemonis writes a check for $50,000.00 in exchange for 40% equity in Planet Popcorn. It may only be a quarter of his original offer, but the main thing is He didn't give up on Her with a second chance of a lifetime.

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