That must be like having a 10 point lead at the top of the Premier League and completely blowing it on the last day of the season.

The most consistent candidate, but, when it mattered, she blew it, and her last-gasp Plan B just reeked of desperation.

Having said that, I'm sure she'll have no worries finding a job.

Yeah and Tom's business plan was utterly irrelevant anyway - Sugar's not going near that idea with a bargepole so looks as if whatever she'd chosen she'd would have lost.

She's got a job, she went on extended leave from it.

Her idea to run a PA service was such a let down. I think it highlighted that Helen isn't really an ideas person.

Even if she'd put forward her plans for a bakery, what would have been special about it? How would it stand out from other bakeries?

I see Helen as more of a troubleshooter. Someone who goes into existing businesses, fixes problems and makes things run more efficiently.

She has a job. She has enjoyed a great opportunity and had a lot of fun, why should she be gutted?
I think she would be hopeless running a business, stepping aside from the fact that her business idea is rubbish.

LS did say in any other year she'd have won by a country mile. TBH, she's not an entrepreneur, but she's one heck of a worker and will be gold for any employer.

I didn't know she had a job or was on extended leave. But considering she was the best candidate (just based on tasks won), she must be a tad disappointed after weeks of hard work.

LS is going to chop and change Tom's chair, revive the curved nail file, and possibly do a deal with Susan as he hinted. So he is going to deviate from Tom's winning business plan any way. By inference LS has no appetite for going into the bread and cakes business where no doubt Helen will be efficient.

It would be pretty difficult to bring in something new to take market share from the Greggs of this world. Not that Helen should not be allowed to suggest a last-minute switch of business plan, but that she did not present an attractive alternative plan. If LS adopted it, it would be entirely on trust in Helen.

Would I do it? I adore Helen, but I am committed to success.

But if you were LS for instance, you'd look at all the options, so that you wouldn't miss anything which might turn out to be a goldmine. Helen's bakery business could easily be a success given the chance.

I think she was gutted all the same, and I did feel for her when she desperately tried to bring in her plan B. She wanted it so badly, and it must have hurt badly to have ballsed it all up at the final hurdle.

If he gives 250K to Tom I think you can call it a dead loss. Tom just isnt a business person. Ideas dont make money unless people are prepared to pay for them. At the moment Tom's business is to help others with ideas and not doing at all well. So it seems he hasnt that many himself. LS must be getting old to trust him with that kind of money. Although I think it's just a way out for LS. I would trust Helen with it any day once I was satisfied with her business plan. She may not be 100% in the real world as the tasks have shown, but I believe once she gets into it, doing a job like running her own bakery she will thrive.

I think she was gutted at the time but doubt she is now and it was obvious that she was highly rated in the series.

Helen was a PA with a PAs mentality. Get things organised efficiently.

But she wasnt an ideas girl. It was right she didnt win.

I'm not entirely convinced that Helen's idea was quite so bad.

I'd have liked to have known more details.

I think the germ of her idea could be seen in the pitch she did in France. She said 'modern women like us will pay for convenience'.

People with money are willing to pay for services, like personal shopping, and I think Helen's plan was to bring this idea to the mass market, in some form.

Until someone mentioned it in this thread, I didn't know that Helen worked for Greggs. If anyone reads the financial pages you'll know that that Greggs isn't any old bakers; it has been one of the best performing companies in the country.

She's a smart woman, and has one heck of a background.

Yes martyboy - but there all already dozens of firms out there already doing what Helen was proposing.

Concierge Services are nothing new - my hubby and I were subscribed to one when we knew we needed a lot of work doing on our house - and didn't have the time to find builders/ organise supplies etc etc. The lass who looked after our account was very good - BUT as one of the new interviewers pointed out - these firms rely on contacts. They have tame contractors on call for the sort of work we wanted doing, and have the time to find things for us (eg we wanted a self catering holiday in Northern Spain - and she found us one, and booked everything for us.)

Helen's idea seemed to be offering a glorified PA service for people who don't have a PA - but TBH it wasn't really thought through properly, and its a highly competitive field.

Helen will do OK out of this. Her employer may find it hard to keep her as I'm sure the job offers will be pouring in this morning. I would have no hesitation in hiring in an Operations or Logistics role - where there is a clearly defined job and it needs someone to make sure it is done properly.

If I was Tom then I'd make it part of my business plan to hire Helen as my Operations Director. They work so well together.

There are plenty of other "lifestyle management" companies out there (e.g http://www.tengroup.com/page/1266/lifestyle-concierge) either offering services direct to people or to corporates to offer as a perk (most major banks and law firms use them) but it's not really scalable to a nationwide, mass market, product.

So could the combined forces of Tom's nail file and nail file related ideas and Susan's cosmetics business. Helen's idea was just an idea, whereas Tom's business was an already-running business with a product on the market, sold in the largest chemist chain in Britain and the largest supermarket chain in the world, while Susan's business plan was mostly solid, if overly ambitious, and consisted of an already-trading business selling products which have a huge mark-up. Combine them together and you've got a business with its foot already in the door of the largest retailers in the world able to sell products which can make absolutely massive profits.

I'm pretty sure Sugar knows what he's doing.

There are plenty of other "lifestyle management" companies out there (e.g http://www.tengroup.com/page/1266/lifestyle-concierge) either offering services direct to people or to corporates to offer as a perk (most major banks and law firms use them) but it's not really scalable to a nationwide, mass market, product.
They seem to have a lot of vacancies there. Perhaps Helen can find her niche there. Looking at the site it seems impossible to start one overnight from scratch. It would take years to get so many contacts.

They all wanted it badly. She ballsed it up when she
A. Entered a contest with inadequate experience and knowledge
B. Believed her own hype
C. Had a terrible business plan
D. Bitched at her colleagues and delighted in their difficulties during the process
E. Grovelled with an even worse business plan

So, ifs she's gutted she only has herself to blame.
But you should have noticed by now that one of the things missing is any ability to be self afacing.

He'd be better giving me the 250K and allow me to stick it on a horse at 100-1.

But she'd still think she was better than him.

I liked Helen all along. She was head and shoulders above the others in most tasks.

In the final, however, I was really disappointed in her. It wasn't just the dire business plan. I thought she came over as a real bitch. Could have been the editting, I admit, but between interviews she just seemed to be slagging off whoever wasn't there. I guess, in the end, she was just as insecure as the others.

Suprisingly, I thought Susan had it in the bag in the final. She came over very well and actually had business ideas.

Loved Tom though. Well done!

Yes tenUK was the concierge service we used for around a year..... Hubby got it at a special rate through his work - and i will admit that they were useful....

We used them to do all the searching and organising for various projects we were planning - but didn't have the required hours to spend running round getting everything together. However their services weren't cheap to hire, their tame contractors weren't the cheapest on the market, but what they do offer is TIME which we didn't have enough of.

Starting up something like that from scratch - and trying to get middle England on board with it would be incredibly difficult in these days when we are all tightenig our belts.

I think Helen would be a fabulous employee - and would have walked the show last year (although it would be interesting to know just HOW much she did on the non PM tasks she won compared to the others... I think the 10 wins out of 11 was more by luck than judgement, and I don't that she was solely responsible for each win!). However both of her business plans - her concierge service and her bakery were ill thought out and she was dead in the water the moment they realised what she was proposing.

I am actually surprised that she was the runner up - Susan's business plan - however over inflated her profit projections might have been was actually the only one which would have hit the ground running. I have a feeling that she will have dragons heading towards her door today - if she hasn't alreay accepted LS offer on You're Hired last night! I can only think that the 10/11 wins was what put her above Susan.

Given LS' offer to Susan - its actually clear that the final decision was actually between Tom and Susan - not Tom and Helen.

I'm sure she's gutted but she was only in the final two because of her performances in the tasks. That should have been forgotten as we reached the final when it should have been based on the interviews and business plans alone.

I think Sugar should get all four finalists together: Tom for ideas and nail file whatsname, Susan for her cosmetics, Helen to "run" the business and Jim to sell. A ménage-à-quatre made in heaven!
Last edited by Mub : 18-07-2011 at 11:04

As Karren said, Tom probably had the most to gain from winning. It looked to me as though he'd taken the nail file thing a long way, and got it into some big retailers, so people do value it, but somehow he'd not made as much money from it as he should. I suspect people like Boots walked all over him much as Melody did. Now with Lord Sugar telling him what he should be asking for, and perhaps even doing some negotiations for him, he'll start getting more of the value for himself. Lord Sugar can help Tom and Tom's business from being such a push-over.


Presumably, having patented the nail file and chair, he'd learned a lot about that side of development and was using it to help others and maybe make a bit of money. It was just an opportunity he had. It seems like he has ideas, but not much money.