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Their Business plans are so rubbish....


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Old 11-12-2014, 19:18
PaloAlto
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Does anyone else feel underwhelmed by some of the plans we've heard on the show? These people are supposedly some of the most creative people and so far we've had...

An app for lawyers (?!)
Healthy eating restaurant
Social networking site for gym users

Hardly screams modern day entrepreneur does it? I imagine most just want the publicity/profile and come up with these ideas on the hoof to get on the show...
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Old 11-12-2014, 19:26
Tallywacker
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Social networking site for gym users
With Sanjay in charge, you'd think he'd just use Grindr
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Old 11-12-2014, 20:34
Vientre
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I wouldnt invest £250,000 with any of them.
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Old 11-12-2014, 20:42
RoseAnne
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None of the ones I've heard sound any good. Do we know what Bianca,Daniel,Soloman's plans are?
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Old 11-12-2014, 20:47
Dan-Bevis
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I think it's abit rigged that Sugar knows about their business plans from Day 1 [especially if obvious ones will never gel with him - Lawyers and Bankers beware].

Surely the Interview stage in Week 11 is when he should ideally hear about them first [from his advisors, and then from the candidates themselves]?
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Old 12-12-2014, 08:55
Maxatoria
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I think LS has basically the introduction to the plan and thats it, so he knows you want to open a site to do x/y/z and thats it, its down to the interview team to get all the numbers checked, ponies counted etc as I doubt LS has much interest in sitting there ringing up uni's, totting up figures etc
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Old 12-12-2014, 09:26
Shrike
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I don't think any of the fired candidates have gone onto "You're fired!" and stated that they have such confidence in their plan that they are going to do it anyway. I do wonder if the contestants first think "I wanna do Apprentice" and then try to think of a business plan.
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Old 12-12-2014, 13:15
walterwhite
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I don't think any of the fired candidates have gone onto "You're fired!" and stated that they have such confidence in their plan that they are going to do it anyway. I do wonder if the contestants first think "I wanna do Apprentice" and then try to think of a business plan.
Most of them have said they are going to crack on with the business plan.
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Old 12-12-2014, 13:54
The Rhydler
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Almost every BP is a website of some description.

Quite sad really. I just want to see someone do something more practical that doesn't depend on (but doesn't entirely exclude either) the online world.
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Old 12-12-2014, 14:08
Philip Wales
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Most of them have said they are going to crack on with the business plan.
The two last night didn't.
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Old 12-12-2014, 14:09
slouchingthatch
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Most of them have said they are going to crack on with the business plan.
That's true, although there's a big difference between them saying it for TV and actually doing it.

From the sketchy details we've heard from candidates so far, I'd have major reservations over most of them, although it's entirely possible that some could turn into successful small businesses without the weight of expectation of having to deliver returns against Sugar's £250,000 investment. Just because something is a poor investment doesn't mean it's necessarily a poor business idea (although I do believe most of the ones we've heard about so far are pretty awful).
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Old 12-12-2014, 19:40
haphash
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I think LS has basically the introduction to the plan and thats it, so he knows you want to open a site to do x/y/z and thats it, its down to the interview team to get all the numbers checked, ponies counted etc as I doubt LS has much interest in sitting there ringing up uni's, totting up figures etc
I'd be very surprised if he hasn't been over them with a fine tooth comb before the series even started. The last thing Sugar wants is someone to slip through the net and make a fool of him. He is very conscious of his own image and reputation. He will know about all of the business plans in detail and you can tell that this sometimes influences his decisions in the boardroom.
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Old 12-12-2014, 19:43
george.millman
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I'd be very surprised if he hasn't been over them with a fine tooth comb before the series even started. The last thing Sugar wants is someone to slip through the net and make a fool of him. He is very conscious of his own image and reputation. He will know about all of the business plans in detail and you can tell that this sometimes influences his decisions in the boardroom.
No, he specifically said in the opening boardroom that he knows the basics, but not all of the details. This is how some people's plans turn out not to work, like Neil's and Jordan's last year.
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Old 12-12-2014, 19:44
haphash
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No, he specifically said in the opening boardroom that he knows the basics, but not all of the details. This is how some people's plans turn out not to work, like Neil's and Jordan's last year.
He might say that but I'm not sure that I believe it......
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Old 12-12-2014, 19:59
george.millman
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He might say that but I'm not sure that I believe it......
But you said that he will have gone through them all so that no one slips through the net and makes a fool of him. Surely it makes him look even more of a fool when someone gets to this stage and it turns out their business plan is completely unworkable. There are so many threads on this forum saying, 'Why were they allowed in then?' Well, the reason is because Lord Sugar probably didn't know at the time, but that doesn't make a difference when it turns out he's let people through with poor business plans at the expense of others that could have done better. If he'd gone through them all that carefully, he'd have been able to make decisions that would make the public respect him more.
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Old 12-12-2014, 20:04
Dission
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Most of them are rubbish, which I suspect that the production team lets them through just to make good TV, but then surely Sugar may have his eye on one or two from the beginning that he marks as the potential winners. That will then influence the whole process and the decisions in the boardroom. Poeple with shit business plans are more likely to get rid of, and those with good business plans can go through until the interviews.
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Old 13-12-2014, 09:09
walterwhite
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The two last night didn't.
That was the two last night, lots of them have said they plan to continue.
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Old 13-12-2014, 12:25
Masterjonboi
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With Sanjay in charge, you'd think he'd just use Grindr
Quite A Nasty Nasty Quote!
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Old 13-12-2014, 14:30
DarthFader
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With Sanjay in charge, you'd think he'd just use Grindr
Your username suits you.
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Old 13-12-2014, 16:51
Samantha_OBrien
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Pamela is going ahead with her BP, albeit, without the App at this stage. Saw it on her twitter, going into schools and uni's and into big businesses providing strategies for people with dyslexia and other learning disabilities in the workplace.
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Old 13-12-2014, 16:59
Takae
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Does anyone else feel underwhelmed by some of the plans we've heard on the show? These people are supposedly some of the most creative people and so far we've had... [...]
I currently work in licensing (intellectual property rights, patents, trademarks, branding, etc.) and believe me, the majority of proposals are just as mundane or bad as those candidates' proposals. Some are much worse, too.

The stupidest so far: an electric-shock collar for a child.

It's designed to improve the child's behaviour in public. When the child goes crazy in a restaurant or whatnot, the parent uses a remote control to give the child a "very gentle electric shock" to calm the child down.

You should have seen our faces during that presentation.
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Old 13-12-2014, 17:02
walterwhite
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With Sanjay in charge, you'd think he'd just use Grindr
Bless you. What a lovely comment.
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Old 13-12-2014, 21:42
Cats_Eyes
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That's true, although there's a big difference between them saying it for TV and actually doing it.

From the sketchy details we've heard from candidates so far, I'd have major reservations over most of them, although it's entirely possible that some could turn into successful small businesses without the weight of expectation of having to deliver returns against Sugar's £250,000 investment. Just because something is a poor investment doesn't mean it's necessarily a poor business idea (although I do believe most of the ones we've heard about so far are pretty awful).
99.99% it does and I can't see a "partner" taking that chance.
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Old 13-12-2014, 21:49
Maxatoria
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Some of these will require major investment to get started...equipping the healthy eating restaurant will probably require 10's of grands just to get started before the first plate ever leave the kitchen and i think LS likes stuff thats very much staff free so its more about what you can do and you alone so employing 10 chefs and support staff will give LS the willies straight away
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Old 13-12-2014, 22:41
slouchingthatch
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99.99% it does and I can't see a "partner" taking that chance.
That wasn't really what I meant. I was referring to the fact there are thousands of perfectly good small businesses out there which can succeed perfecttly well, but they wouldn't be good candidates for an investor because the criteria for success are different. A small business only really needs to turn over enough to pat salaries and keep going - but once you have an investor put money in, there's an expectation of growth and generating the level of profit required to give that investor a suitable return on said investment.

So, for instance, Sugar isn't going to put £250,000 into a corner shop, because (a) it doesn't need it and (b) unless they're going to expand into a chain if shops, they're never going to repay Sugar his £250k plus his expected return.
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