I was disappointed he didn't choose Fran. Helping people keep fit and helping them dance is preferable to Botox in my book. I would have chosen Fran and probably Luisa although I really don't like Luisa. I would have been as gutted as LAS at Neil's business plan. I still think he could have saved himself if he'd have admitted he could change it and not be dogmatic it would work, but that's Neil for you.
A shame that Jordan wasn't found out earlier. I would have loved to have seen Myles or Jason be interviewed!

It would be argued by some that its associated with vanity, targets the inadequate, creates irresponsible spending and debt, and is a waste of a doctor's training when the NHS is falling apart. Its not a business for a labour political character to be involved in. Nor is it a great statement that the best product he can find in a nationwide search is botox injections. It also comes with a medical and legal risk factor. The headlines write themselves. Sugar to offer beauty treatments over a picture of his Lordship, or, in the worst case Sugar ruined my looks

He might decide to ignore all that - as she seems a good proposition and needs the money more than Luisa. He's got no real arguments running against Luisa, though apart from her being too successful , if her idea and presentation hold up. He's already said he would have taken Neil, who was more manipulative and forceful, and less willing to listen.

I was surprised Fran didn't get through because I thought her and her idea were a better option. I can't see LS wanting to invest in Leah's business due to the risk, but Luisa as a person is too much of a risk. Would he want to invest in someone who puts pictures of herself half-naked on the internet? She must have known they would leak, and that is not professional behaviour or thinking.

Leah is onto a loser - I think Luisa would have to f**k up alarmingly.

Whilst it could be a money-maker, the potential for scandal and adverse publicity is significant - botched surgery or catering to plastic surgery addicts.

It's a mine-field for someone who's in the public eye like Sugar and who would potentially have a lot to lose - reputation etc.

Moreover, Botex is currently used as a pretty successful treatment to Parkinson's. However, if you use it prior (for example on your face), your body will build a tolerance to it and as a consequence, the treatment is less successful,

Surely too risky for him to fund?

Hmmn, what's with the (non-working) link at Amstrad.com for the Integra Face System, certainly looks like Botox?

http://www.amstrad.com/default_noflash.shtml

I, like another FM earlier in this thread am confused about what Luisa's plan actually is. And while I don't think that Botox is "unethical", frankly every dentist round my way has a Botox and dermal filler specialist on the premises, so wonder where this huge market for a newcomer is.....

I thought the interviewers had Luisa pegged. One said Luisa was after Shuggs little black contact book, the other said she was after his cheque book. When they said it, all the others agreed.

LS himself told her in the summing up that he had reservations about working with her, as she had shown that she didn't like being told what to do.

She's not as much of a shoo in as it would appear.

The comments about Leah coming racing up in the latter stages were very telling, and if LS didn't like Leah's idea, he had Francesca as an alternative - and even he said that the dance studio idea had legs. I also thought that the fact he put Leah through first, then told the other two that he had doubts about them personally, Luisa that he had doubts about her ability to work with him, and Francesca that he didn't think she could take the business forward.

I'm not entirely sure that Luisa's turnover figures were that accurate either... They seemed rather high for what is basically one shop selling cupcakes, and an online shop selling baking equipment... Leah on the other hand seemed to be entirely on top of her subject, knew her plan inside out, and didnt have to resort to stupid statements (apart from maybe those on her looks and hair!) to get herself noticed.- and even then, they were relevant to her proposal - after all as someone pointed out elsewhere, would you go to a beauty clinic run by an ugly person???

It will be interesting to see what happens next week - and what Luisa was crying about at her launch.

exactly

I thought that too!

An online business selling cupcakes with a turnover of £40k a month seems ridiculous, but if true then I am changing career!

I think she has won, that's why she got a team of computer boffs to take off her nasty photos off of the internet. It was on DS a few weeks ago.

They film two endings and don't tell them who has won until just before broadcast, so she wouldn't have known that long ago whether she had won or not.

That's what they make us believe.

They are all after his cheque book. He is after money from their idea. Luisa has more need of his contacts as he may be able to get her into talks with caterers and big concerns. I would imagine he's not going to be asked for his phone numbers so Leah can ask all his friends if they need something injected.

The reservations are the show story - there would be no compettion left otherwise. He may not actually have any real ones. . He seemed to see no risks employing Neil, and he's accused Neil of being manipulative in previous weeks, and had just fired him for refusing to listen to advice. Neither Luisa or Leah is that headstrong. It might be significant that they have ignored Leah's Dubai task in the last 2 look back shows - which means the same issue, helpfully, isn't raised for her. However, the last , why I fired them, show almost ignored Leah , and added more to Luisa's story - which may suggest the opposite.
The odd bit is why he raised Leah's risk factors and his doubts about Luisa so openly. Whichever way he goes now, he looks as if he is avoiding risk, and, if Leah wins, he has an almost impossible job explaining away the risks he raised himself.

There is no clear clue in who he picks for the final first. I looked, and he's only done it like this 4 times before. Twice it was the eventual winner first named, once the runner up. The fourth time it was Katie - and who knows whether he named her first to get rid of her , or because she was his first choice?

There's no reason left to doubt Luisa's figures. if they were false Claude would have found out, and it would have been the killer issue.

The crying is fascinating.. Several clips, including the one at the end of the interviews show, and one Friday, suggest her presentation goes wrong. But is that a bluff, and it doesn't matter? Or not what is seems? If she's offering bakery supplies, why is she making cupcakes? Is she demonstrating cupcake making, or mixers breaking down and needing Luisa's replacement service? Is she crying because she thinks she's blown it, or because it went well? Truth, Bluff, Double bluff??

Not so much his contacts (which are most likely to be in electronics and property) as his name, though it comes down to the same thing. When he phones, people take the call. Perhaps his experience too, since Lord Sugar spent decades making deals with component suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers, albeit not in the food industry.


Leah looks close to snapping as well. It may be just the stress of the final (with £250,000 plus as many millions as they choose to imagine up for grabs) and extreme tiredness -- a number of candidates have seemed out on their feet recently.

The quality of assistants may not be that high, either. Who would you pick to be on your team? Neil for pitching, except Leah and Luisa would be expected to pitch themselves. Alex has been quite creative but tends to go off at a tangent. Launch events often use dancers, so Francesca might have some experience. What do the rest offer?

If Leah worked on Sugar then she could become richer than him overnight.

The risk is - from what I could glean about Luisa's business plan - that she is not selling cupcakes but proposing to sell supplies to retail bakers and supermarkets.
Problem is that there is NO GAP in the market - the bakery wholesaler supplier market is at over capacity with firms merging and taking each other over.

A "one stop shop" for bakery supplies would be a big warehouse full of boxes of fat and sacks of flour etc - hardly Luisa's forte. Think distribution = Hillary Devey = pallets.
It has got nothing to do with a simpering bikini-babe making pretty cupcakes.

If she is supplying "what you need to decorate cupcakes" then for bakery customers there are 3 main competing National companies that deliver weekly to smaller customers, with minimum order of only £100 and no delivery charge.

If she is looking at home baking market - then she is up against Dr Oetker who took over the main UK home baking brand of Supercook. Dr Oetker are a huge German conglomerate - No. ! in nearly all European markets.

This would be like Sugar backing a startup car company that was going to take on BMW.

Leah's business is a no-brainer business-wise the only risk is the PR side of things

If I was choosing, I would go with Leah's business. It is a growing market and he knows he won't get an apprentice with her skills again.

If only there was some way to confirm someone's age.

They stopped doing that when the business plans reformat occurred.

He might say that there will be certain conditions and limitations to the business as well as a very strong ethical approach to avoid bad PR and litigation. I am sure that he has consulted his legal advisers and together they might tweak Leah´s business plan.

If the scope for such market is that big I am sure that profitability won´t be an issue if it is ethically regulated, they would still be bagging themselves a good share of the market, even if profitability is reduced it will still better than going for a greedy option resulting in bad PR and lawsuits that ultimately could damage and terminate the business.

No they didn't Luisa & Leah were on Daybreak yesterday & they said neither of them know who's won yet & iirc, Tom & Helen et al said the same thing when they were doing the press rounds during series 7.

Since forever! There are plenty of horror stories you hear of (yes there are plenty of success stories you don't hear about I'm sure but that's despite the point). The ethics of being told what is beautiful has been debated since such a thing came into being. Society as a whole has a very limited and fixed idea of what beautiful is and young girls in particular keep trying to conform to society's view of beauty because they want to be told they are beautiful.

However as much as I disagree with the principle of botox, as long as the patients are fully consenting adults who are fully aware of the risks etc that is their choice to make. The age concern to me does seem a little silly to me as there are plenty of security measures in place to stop underage girls getting such procedures done. There are very few places in the UK now a days, that I know of, that will not take anything other than either passport or driver's licence to verify age as they are some of the hardest to create successful fake IDs from. My point is it would be very hard for an underage girl to be treated as more often than not with these sorts of procedures they would ID people who normally wouldn't get ID for drinks any more the paranoia has reached so high on treating underaged girls.

I don't really understand the objections either. Teenage girls who are insecure about their looks will want surgical procedures. What teenager thinks they need botox? Leah's target audience will be mostly middle-aged women or at least over 30s with their first crow's feet showing.

I have to agree with the OP - though I would choose Leah and then quietly get her to change her business (as LS did with Tom).

Must say, although Luisa's business is certainly the "safe bet", the way that LAS put Leah through first and was almost continually muttering about how he's a "gambler" and a "fighter" and how he's not frightened of a risk etc, I don't think it's as much of a slam-dunk as some people are thinking.

I mean, I'm sure he'll he'll make damned sure any contract he has with Leah will protect him from compensation claims from customers who end up with trout-pouts and windblown faces, so why not give it a go if there's money to be made?

Beyond that, Maybe the fact it'd be a business run by a level-headed professional like Leah, rather than a growly weasel like Luisa would be enough to convince him?