Apprentice candidate Tom Pellereau's business is reportedly in debt and making a loss.

M&P Consulting - which specialises in giving advice about designing, prototyping, manufacturing and supplying to inventors - has debts of over £15,500 and made a loss of £1,215 last year, the News of the World reports.

Nasty stuff. Goodbye and good riddance, NOTW

He has been in the boardroom alot and from what it seems he has only been kept in because of his previous "successful" inventions.
If Lord Sugar finds out about his debts in the interview, he is going to be in alot of trouble.

Those figures for debt and loss are trivial.

Agreed.

I had to look twice at the figures because the way the article is written I thought they were talking about millions! With Lordsuralun guiding him those losses would soon turn into profit.

Totally agree
A drop in the ocean for any business, the figures are hardly worth mentioning.
Typical headline grabbing stuff with no real substance to it.

Tom's debts and loss are surprisingly low, which is good. Anyway, debts are normal for a typical new company to have (providing that forecasts are sound). Typically, some new companies fold within the first two years, and those that survived those first two years are likely have debts and small losses for another two years. It's fine as long as they have enough incomes to pay off monthly repayments or interest. That piece of news is much ado about nothing, imo.

The press would have us believe that most households have about the same amount outstanding in the form of loans and credit cards so it's not exactly a scary sum. As a previous poster has mentioned, most businesses would not expect to be in profit for a year ot two and I think Tom is playing the long game anyway with his inventions. I would imagine you have alot of fees to pay upfront in his business for patents/laywers etc before you ever see any gain. It might be different if he'd opened a sandwich shop where you might expect a quick cash return but he hasn't so I'm not going to worry about this article. Actually it shows that he is prepared to take risks and understands business. Good for him

Successfully backed businesses on Dragons Den have had debts that dwarf Tom's - no way would Lord Alun be worried about them.
Mind you if Tom went out of his way to hide them, then that would be a cause for concern - but I doubt he did, no matter what "a source" says...

+1. In business terms, £15k is nothing. And of course it may not even be true ....

Correct me if I'm wrong as I only skimmed the NOTW article but it says (at the end of course) that the debts are loans to Tom himself and his partner which is perfectly normal business practice.

This non-story says more about NOTW half-truth-journalism than about the health of Tom's business.

His business is only 'advising' others.' M&P Consulting - which specialises in giving advice about designing, prototyping, manufacturing and supplying to inventors - has debts of over £15,500 and made a loss of £1,215 last year, the News of the World reports'.
Not sure why he needs patents and lawyers for that.

Exactly - a pathetic non story. A £1,000 loss and only £15k of borrowings for a new business - not really even material!

A prime example of why this low life trashy newspaper will not be missed by me!

Lots of businesses don't make a profit. No profit= no tax.

I suppose his business is to help people, inventors like himself. They usually dont have money, and most likely he is never paid. Unless the invention 'hits' off which most dont. He doesnt mention marketing inventions which is the most important. I suppose LS could be interested in such a type of business, but not with Tom at the helm. LS has had many disasters in his business, not everything sells, but at least not all were. Anyone could have told him an emailer would never sell even at a loss and could never make a profit from users. He is already old and I dont think at his time of life is really interested in 'risking' again.

I like Tom but he does not inspire confidence in the business sense. He should stick to what he enjoys, inventing and detail, and let someone else run a business.

what he ought to have done (I believe he hasnt) is to make sure that all inventors paid up front for all the work he has to do with their inventions. No different to a solicitor whom you pay by the hour. This would be really similar to a solicitor meaning it would be a one man business, much too small for LS to be involved in. The figures given are very very small. Unless he has his own 'super' invention I cant see where LS comes in.

Good old NOTW.

This isn't an issue. If he wins, LS is unlikely to just hand him the money and say 'off you go'. You can guarantee that the tightest control LS keeps is financial, which will really benefit someone like Tom.

Have you ever been in business? One of the biggest bugbears of business people is getting those they supply, to pay on time and not effect their cash flow.

Looking over his website M&P Consulting doesn't seem to be the only thing he is involved in,

http://www.harrietpellereau.com/
http://www.stylfile.com/

It is just a guess at where the debts might come from. However, I do know from watching Dragons Den that they do not like to invest in anything that hasn't been through the patents process and properly registered. They also like to see that all the costs have been properly worked out and the production processes /R & D have been exhausted. This is the part where the inventor has put in all the time and money/effort over (sometimes) years letting the Dragons pick up an (almost) guarranteed risk-free investment.

I realise that in order to bring these things to the mass market you do need investors but I often do feel very sorry for the people that have done all the work and taken all the risks. (this is assuming there is a mass market for the items, I 'm not talking about all the rubbish that they have on the programme)

For that reason alone I think there is a market for a Tom type business if it stops people making silly mistakes or backing their shirts/hoyses on a loser. It is often hard to see what others see when you have put your heart & soul into creating something. If Tom is there to guide them through the process, then good for him

Sorry, those bits in bold are the funniest and most optimistic comments I read today. My dad's an entertainment lawyer and some of his clients still haven't paid up. Not consistently, anyway. There are some solicitors who refuse to work until they're paid upfront, but they are a rarity. It's apparently not practical nor realistic.

Solicitors offices in the high street will insist ordinary folks pay cash like £290 per hour, on the day of the consultancy in their office. Consultancy for celebs would be a different situation.

If Tom had know-how of undoubted value and beyond compare, he can always insist on payment on the day.

The winner has already been chosen and I'm sure Sir Al would have been aware of this anyway so its probably not as if they're revealing something he wasn't already aware of.

Also, why say "When Lord Sugar realises this, it won't reflect well on Tom" - are they dropping a huge hint there??

Good riddance NOTW

My dad doesn't deal with celebrities. He deals with ordinary people who own rights to literary works, music, photos, videos or whatnot, and ordinary people who need legal advice on intellectual property, contracts, performing rights or similar. Cruise singers, social club bands and the like.