Whom should LS choose of the three girls. ( I am including Francesca although it may be only academic).
Without moral judgements purely in business terms whom should he choose.

Who will give him the most profit on his investment.
Who is the least likely to garner competition which he will have to combat.
Who will give him the least headache.
Who will run their business the best.
Which startup will be the easiest.
Who will he be least likely to fall out with.
Who will not go over budget.
Who will need the most of his time or of his staff.
Who can best manage on their own.
Who will get started the first.
Who will not likely give up in the middle.
Which business is least likely to fail.

I rate Francesca on all counts. I am pleased to see in her tweets that she is already receiving investment offers and still considers that she has won. Or the way she puts it third is first.

I am sure there are other criteria which I hope others will add.

Please reply regarding the other two what you think about them purely from a business view.

http://www.handbag.com/celebrity/new...-work-out.html

Will keep my comments here I think.

She has really taken to it! She hasnt gone off to the East to 'relax' like the others. But instead got down to it.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...a-English.html

I suppose this explains everything. Maybe this has been going on a long time and LS knew about it. This is the best I can come up with for LS's actions.

Most profit -- all could be profitable
Competition -- Leah, then Francesca since they need local monopolies whereas Luisa needs to be national
Headache -- all could give headaches, for three different reasons
run best -- hard to say
easiest -- Leah
not fall out -- Leah and Francesca
budget -- Leah and Francesca
his time -- Francesca
manage on their own -- Leah
started first -- Leah or Francesca
not give up -- Leah or Francesca
least likely to fail -- Leah

Leah and Francesca can expand into one town at a time. If there is too much competition in one town, they simply move on to the next. Francesca can expand faster because the only constraint is her time, whereas Leah will need to pay for the next one out of the profits of the last one. Luisa, on the other hand, needs to get big quickly to fill the gap before the established players do so.

The doubt about Francesca is not about her vision but about whether she will need too much hand-holding -- someone else to actually implement the plan. Lord Sugar does not want to run the winner's business himself. Maybe she should give Jordan a call.

Dragons Den.

People say Jordan was on the wrong show but maybe it was Leah and Francesca.

And the Dragon they should choose is Duncan because he has experience of rolling out health clubs and nursing homes (cf Leah's botox clinics) and franchising drama schools (cf Francesca's dance classes).

Do you honestly think LS is so shallow? If so he would have fired Luisa long ago because of her history on the internet. But she is in the final. He is astute enough to know himself, or his advisors having told him, the exact background on everyone. Get real! He didn't rate Francesca's business plan. Full stop. His perogative, and not yours to question as you haven't seen the full business plan for any of the contestants.

I tend to agree.
Do you realise you havent given Louisa a single plus.

to Tom
I dont know what you mean by shallow. It is you who believe everything you hear and see not me. Not sure what Louisa has to do with it. He did rate her business plan, he said it had legs. She now seems to be going out into everything she possibly can counting on her 'success'.
I dont believe myself what I wrote about Stella. It sounds too far fetched. They must be both scheming against him.
And I would add that I also believe that Francesca is likely the more angry of the two. She will be out to show him. I only hope she doesnt over reach herself.
She seems to be a real heroine in Yorkshire and totally gutted by not winning. And I may add with good reason.

Don't be so presumptuous that my name is Tom. It most certainly isn't!

Perhaps you asked the wrong questions.

I would have liked to have seen Francesca in the final two over Luisa, but oh well - at least she's going ahead with her business plan.

I think you will find that quite a lot tweeted on twitter who the winner is. One cant be sure if they are telling the truth but it is surprising that they all said the same person and no one so far that I have seen has said the other.
Maybe they saw one saying so and they all copied who knows. I doubt it though.
So I believe we have the winner.
I did begin this thread with questions and a poster replied that she thought Leah was best then Francesca. Louisa seems to be good for nothing.
I cant agree so I will give my rating.

Who will give him the most profit on his investment.
I think it will be Francesca for the simple reason that there is more demand for her services than the others. In other words more customers.
Who is the least likely to garner competition which he will have to combat.
Again the same person. It needs proper premises and large ones. Highly trained staff etc.
Who will give him the least headache.
She is already doing it so it will run 'itself' best.
Who will run their business the best.
I think she is the most capable of running a business on past performance.
Which startup will be the easiest.
Since she is already doing it another branch should be simple.
Who will he be least likely to fall out with.
Since there is really nothing new being done again ditto.
Who will not go over budget.
ditto. for the same reason
Who will need the most of his time or of his staff.
I believe she is the most capable. The most sensible for asking something 'attainable' . If Louisa has lost she will be very sorry for not asking just for a few cupcake shops.
Who can best manage on their own.
ditto.
Who will get started the first.
ditto she is already doing it similar to a previous question.
Who will not likely give up in the middle.
ditto definitely. She is doing nothing else at the moment.
Which business is least likely to fail.
ditto again.

So on all counts I say Francesca is the winner.

I think that's extremely likely. As far as I know, there has been one unfortunate incident of a former reality TV show 'star' tweeting a selfie with one of the finalists, stating the 'result' - and I suspect it is this that many people have jumped on and spread virally. The references have since been removed. It's clear that said person is an attention-seeking moron, as befits a 'star' of Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents, who self-importantly proclaims himself on his twitter profile as 'that boy off the telly'.

As any good journalist will tell you, though, one source does not make a reliable story. Particularly not one as self-serving as this one.

I don't know who they're saying wins - and I don't want to know - but I would love it if it was the other person to who they are saying.

https://twitter.com/CIANMH

I suppose you mean him on facebook. Someone there says he saw it there.
I saw it elsewhere.

Actually, no I didn't mean Facebook. Is it really necessary to post a link that gives oxygen to this idle twerp?

I like 'twerp' as a word. So underused these days ...

I so agree! I love the word squit as well.