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Change to the winner's prize next year. |
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#26 |
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Join Date: May 2010
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Apart from the 14 odd tasks to do before hand, and apart from having to compete with a handful of other candidates, and apart from having 1 "dragon" to pitch to, and apart from having to do 4 interviews yeah your right it is pretty much like Dragons Den.
I'm not saying it's exactly like Dragons' Den, but with the prize becoming strikingly like the one on Dragons' Den the whole process loses a lot of credibility in comparison and the title "The Apprentice" becomes somewhat redundant, don't you think? It's gonna be more like "The Business Partner" now. |
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#27 |
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Join Date: Apr 2010
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Can't beleive people are saying this is a poor prize. It's an unbelievable opportunity for the winner.
The prize isn't a 250k investment in someones current business it's 250k to start up a new business. 250k plus sugars contact book and probably the use of his infrastructure is a huge opportunity. I started my business with 5k, no contacts and a bedroom office! |
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#28 |
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Nottingham, UK
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On what planet is getting given 250k to start up a business. and maintaining a 50 percent share a bad deal.
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#29 |
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Join Date: Aug 2009
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Well if you're looking for someone to invest in you, you're much better off going on Dragons' Den where there's 4 people to invest in you instead of 1, you don't have to do endure the whole 14 weeks and you don't have to give up your job.
I'm not saying it's exactly like Dragons' Den, but with the prize becoming strikingly like the one on Dragons' Den the whole process loses a lot of credibility in comparison and the title "The Apprentice" becomes somewhat redundant, don't you think? It's gonna be more like "The Business Partner" now.[/quote] Its nothing like Dragons den, the only similarity is the prize. The prize is not discussed on the show (the apprentice). All you hear its a job with a 100K salary - thats it. I do agree the title is all wrong. Maybe the prize should be, you work with Sugar for a year, learn something from him, and then you get the £250K to start/continue your business. |
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#30 |
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If you kept 51% then I might agree, but giving away half means you effectively don't have control any more.
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#31 |
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: London
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I still don't see how they can offer someone £250k to start a business unless you've got a business plan or at least a rough idea of what you want to do?
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#32 |
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Join Date: Aug 2005
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Thats what I dont understand@ slapmatt
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#33 |
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Join Date: Oct 2009
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I still don't see how they can offer someone £250k to start a business unless you've got a business plan or at least a rough idea of what you want to do?
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Thats what I dont understand@ slapmatt
Maybe the candidates were asked to submit a business proposal as part of the selection process - or at least for the very final rounds. |
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#34 |
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There is bound to be an enormous quantity of small print that will restrict what business can be started and I would imagine Sugar has a veto.
Maybe the candidates were asked to submit a business proposal as part of the selection process - or at least for the very final rounds. Sugar is no idiot, he will have covered his back - the money will only go to someone who Sugar thinks will make him some money. |
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#35 |
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Join Date: Feb 2008
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Given that so many Dragon's Den deals fall through - and these are with established businesses - I can't see how this will work.
The most obvious business to set up is a consultancy, which is what so many failed Apprentice contestants do, but given Alan Sugar's famously vocal hatred of them I can't see that happening either. |
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#36 |
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Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 34,226
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R.I.P Apprentice as an entertainment show
It makes no sesne this prize. Its either too generous or not generous enough. £250000. Couuld you imagine Joanna being given 250k for a 50% stake in her business. Its probabaly worth 50k if that. Or Stuart getting the same for his Blue Wave, which he said has turned over 3 mill. He would laugh in Alan's face This prize would mean that you would have to get 12 or so serious people all with viable businesses that need investment and that are worth investing 250k, unless of course it is UP TO 250k in investment Should make a good business program but unmissable viewing, maybe not However, lets wait and see Or you would have someone like Michelle - with their own business up and running - competing against someone unemployed, someone working in something else like banking or medicine, someone already working in sales or marketing and someone just out of education. Michelle wins on day one as she's proven what they need to prove already....... |
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#37 |
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Join Date: Mar 2009
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Haven't watched this programme for years but this change does change the point of the show completely.
So Lord Sugar will now be looking for a business partner instead of an apprentice? hmmm... |
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#38 |
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Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 149
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The reason for the change is that Alan Sugar doesn't really have much left in terms of businesses that he controls that it would actually make sense having an Apprentice winner working in. Winning the Apprentice and then being given a job at Viglen or Amsprop isn't exactly an exciting prospect, and Sugar will probably gradually be selling those off over the next few years to fund his retirement.
If I won I would set up a very small business which paid me a salary of £249,999 on the first day, and then I would wind it up. |
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#39 |
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Join Date: Jan 2007
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The reason for the change is that Alan Sugar doesn't really have much left in terms of businesses that he controls that it would actually make sense having an Apprentice winner working in. Winning the Apprentice and then being given a job at Viglen or Amsprop isn't exactly an exciting prospect, and Sugar will probably gradually be selling those off over the next few years to fund his retirement.
If I won I would set up a very small business which paid me a salary of £249,999 on the first day, and then I would wind it up. As for the last paragraph, I've no doubt LS will have put safeguards in place against crooks like you. |
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#40 |
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As for the last paragraph, I've no doubt LS will have put safeguards in place against crooks like you.
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#41 |
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Join Date: Oct 2009
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What kind of safeguards? As a director I can choose to do whatever I like with the money in the company.
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#42 |
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What kind of safeguards? As a director I can choose to do whatever I like with the money in the company.
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#43 |
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What kind of safeguards? As a director I can choose to do whatever I like with the money in the company.
You don't know much about company law, do you? |
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#44 |
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Join Date: Oct 2009
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A director who, through his actions - like drawing an overly large salary - causes the company to become insolvent is deemed to have defrauded the company - and that's also a criminal offence.
However, even if a director (or group of directors) has 75% of the shares there are certain things that he/they cannot do - things that would be legally termed 'a fraud on the minority'. |
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#45 |
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I don't think that's true in general. It's often the case that companies that have become insolvent have been paying their directors large salaries up until the very last minute.
However, even if a director (or group of directors) has 75% of the shares there are certain things that he/they cannot do - things that would be legally termed 'a fraud on the minority'. |
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#46 |
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Join Date: Oct 2009
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Yes. It's up to the insolvency practitioner to notify the authorities if he or she suspects fraud. Many times, in cases of voluntary insolvency, the directors appoint a "friendly and flexible" insolvency practitioner. However, I doubt that paying oneself the whole of the company's cash reserve (which is actually the amount invested by the other shareholder), in one lump sum, would pass muster even with one of them - or that many directors did such things.
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#47 |
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Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 202
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I would never enter a program like this.
These candidates will presumably be submitting business plans as part of the process of the series, I very much doubt that Sugar is the type of person that would sign an NDA. No big businessman I have ever come across does NDA's hence why I would never deal with them. With his wealth he could easily see some businesses he likes from the business plans and start them himself without the candidate. With my business anyone who is going to be privy to information has to sign a watertight NDA. |
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#48 |
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Join Date: Aug 2009
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I would never enter a program like this.
These candidates will presumably be submitting business plans as part of the process of the series, I very much doubt that Sugar is the type of person that would sign an NDA. No big businessman I have ever come across does NDA's hence why I would never deal with them. With his wealth he could easily see some businesses he likes from the business plans and start them himself without the candidate. With my business anyone who is going to be privy to information has to sign a watertight NDA. |
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#49 |
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Inactive Member
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 202
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Quote:
I doubt very much he would steal an ideal from a candidate. He would have far much to lose.
"The Brand" talked openly in a show about a tracking device for dogs, now unless Baggs has a patent on that idea the fact it is now in the public domain what is legally stopping Sugar from hiring a designer to develop one and maybe make a few million from it ? nothing |
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#50 |
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Inactive Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 3,089
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"The Brand" talked openly in a show about a tracking device for dogs, now unless Baggs has a patent on that idea the fact it is now in the public domain what is legally stopping Sugar from hiring a designer to develop one and maybe make a few million from it ? nothing
The bagginator may have fooled people here into thinking he's technically savvy (and he may well be in one very specialised area) but anyone with the vaguest understanding of RF communication knows that there is no way in the world you can get enough power to the chip in a micro-chipped dog to track it. (At least with today's technology.) |
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