Just been taking the time to read a few of the other threads in this forum and something occured to me...

I am not a great believer in TA as a serious attempt at finding a new employee or business partner for LS but I gotta say that it DOES seem like this series has tried to focus on tasks with more real-world opportunities for entrepreneurs.

They often seem to highlight the amount of cash that it takes to embark on the tasks and the amount of profit they yield and Alan Sugar often labours the point that certain tasks (such as the cosmetics one and the food-selling one) can yield a relatively large profit from a small outlay.

I wonder if, given the current economic climate, LS has deliberately insisted that the show tries to create incentive for people to embark on similar ventures of their own?

I mean, if I thought I could get up in the morning and buy £200 of fruit and then make £200 in profit per day by flogging fruit-salads to commuters it'd certainly be something I'd consider persuading a couple of unemployed mates to get together and do.

In the end The Apprentice is a glorified game show, i fail to understand why people take it so seriously.

Don't forget that from that £200 you would have to deduct money for containers, pitches and licences and - and this is the thing they conveniently ignore on TA wages for those (including yourself) doing the work.

True enough but I suppose it shows how, say, 4 unemployed people could stick £50 each into a kitty and then, at the end of a long day, go home with more than they started with.

To be pedantic (in the case of the fruit-salads) I was wondering about the legalities of flogging food in containers with clip-on lids and without all the correct information about the ingredients as well.

It does seem (to me, at least) that they're making more of an effort this year to point out that with a bit of initiative a person CAN find opportunities to make a living that involve very little capital though.
Sign of the times?

If you follow LS on twitter, this is one of the points he makes...how easy it is to setup a business. In reality there is a lot of hoops to jump through, and upfront costs, as others have mentioned.

Another thing, takeaway the tv cameras, and they wouldnt sell half as much. I can bet a fair few people buy something in the hope they will make the cut and get on tv.

On the other hand, a real business would have economies of scale. They make a lot of mistakes (often costly) because they are doing it for the first time. And often they wouldn't actually need so many people.

It might be an interesting variant if they did have to pay themselves an hourly rate, and had the option of saving money by sending unwanted candidates back to the house.

Can you imagine? Some of them would just sack their entire team. And Edna would just hire you... and you.... and you!