I would.

She'd better hope there's loads more of those idiot diamond dealer types out there.

Solomon's was just an idea. There was no business plan to discuss. Roisin at least presented projections but she didn't have enough funding for the scale of her proposed launch.

BPs are much more than a guideline. It's what you are aiming for. It is a projection so involves some guesswork. But it must be reasonable guesswork. Something you can defend when pushed by a potential investor.

I thought Solomon's idea was poor. Who is going to go to a 23 year old with no experience for advice on launching a business. Daniel's had more going for it, especially as it was building on his existing business. The most solid idea was Bianca's. It's the classic idea of fulfilling an unfulfilled demand.

Roisin's was worse because she did all the financials BADLY. First of all she somehow believes the prize money is £750k. Solomon's targets are very young entrepreneurs like himself who are potentially still studying...

Roisin would have done well if the show had the old format because she would obviously make a good employee. She came across as very naive with her business plan. Sugar obviously wants someone with a good idea and low overheads who can grow a business rather than thinking they can start big. I wasn't at all surprised that Roisin wasn't successful.

Doing something badly is better than forgetting to do it at all. Her figures no doubt added up correctly, which is how it was clear the money would run out. But she didn't think she was getting £750K prize money. She thought she would get far more credit from suppliers than she could possibly expect. Having been told that was a non starter she thought she could get a bank loan instead. Her problem was she didn't look at her figures critically and re-design her plan to make them better. They were what they were. That's why she is an accountant, not a business person.

Solomon's plan wasn't actually a plan at all. It was a wish. I can't see how anyone can give it any credence whatever. Nice bloke, probably going to be an ideal employee and have a successful career in someone else's business. But entrepreneur? Not at all likely.

Don't you think it's beyond ridiculous for an accountant to produce a BP based on projections that were taking into account funding (over and above the LS £250,000) that is theoretical?

I agree. Under the old format, Roisin would have strolled it. The last few seasons, none of the winners would have been successful if it was still looking for someone to work for LS.

IMO Neil would have won last year and Helen in 2011. Not sure who would have won in 2012 but I don't think it would have been Ricky

Yes, absolutely. She was trying to be clever and use supplier credit to offset unfunded costs. If she had realised the problem when writing the plan and adjusted the scale of the start up to match the initial investment it might have added up. But it was still a rotten product that had already been beaten to the market.

But Solomon's proposal was even further beyond ridiculous. If he had put some costings in there might have been a discussion with Claude, but it still wouldn't have gone well.

I think she misunderstood the nature of the 250k investement. LS wanted someone who can start and grow with that seed money, not someone who'd run off to the banks and get a huge loan. She'd be setting herself up for a massive failure. He wants lots of small businesses with control, not a project run amok.

Solomon's was an insult to BPs everywhere.........I struggle to understand how someone so intelligent could fail so spectacularly at something so important?

I think she was in a permanent state of 'misunderstanding'.........a literal mouth-breather.

The bank loan idea was to cover the financial black hole in her plan that Claude uncovered. It wasn't part of the business plan, otherwise Claude would have mentioned it.

Not when it's your area of expertise it isn't. At least Solomon has never claimed to be a financial whizkid but as an accountant Roisin should be the one to have excelled in the BP if not the idea itself.

You can be very intelligent and have no common sense whatsoever. Had he googled "business plan" he might have realised his mistake.

https://www.gov.uk/write-business-plan

Wasn't that 'black hole' pretty obvious? Why wasn't she thinking about this when doing her plan? I don't know what she was thinking.

An accountant would do that? She would spot a hole in the finances and think how to cover it. Her problem, I thought, is that she thought she had a really big idea, and that he wuold invest more in a really big idea , and accept bigger risk - because the return wuold be big. She also seemed to assume that a big idea would see them look for financing from external sources, and/or his connections opening doors and helping financially. .

I think his concept is entirely different. He wants something where his winner adds the value, its not diluted by paying many staff, or bank interest,not reliant on his connections, and where it involves the least money invested , and risk, possible, and the maximum safe return on the investment.

Her problem is that her idea is unproven, and may not work, its on too big a scale for him, its risky, and there's good returns ,for much less risk, available elsewhere.

The black hole only emerged because Claude said she wouldn't get the credit from suppliers she envisaged. She mentioned something about assuming her suppliers invoices would be paid 50% up front and 50% later, when she could afford it. In other words she thought her suppliers would fund her product launch.

Depends on what the job on offer is. Neil would be a natural successor to Lee, but arguably not Yasmina, and certainly not Michelle. Selling to tube bosses may need different skills- than selling to schools medics, or running an IT related project

Things change as the casting relates to the new job. Not sure why Roisin would want the old job prize , and why Leah or Luisa would even apply? Luisa doesn't want to work for him, and Leah doesn't want to give up medicine to sell advertising screens. .

Helen was interesting- as she may have applied before the prize changed and she was doing well anyway. If he wanted amscreens sold, to some clients Jim might have been your man?

The value for many of the candiates is positive exposure - you wonder who wants the job really - and sometimes it looks like he excludes a lot of the high flyers who will fly higher elsewhere?

I don't think she planned to draw him into investing more than £250K. That was never mentioned as a possibility.

She should have noticed the cash in her plan running out and adjusted the plan accordingly. Had she done that she might have got to the final two. Maybe if she'd been auditing someone else's plan she would have noticed. But she didn't audit her own plan.

There's nothing unusual in the concept you describe for Sugar. He's a 50% partner in the venture and doesn't want to see his investment pissed away. He wants it to make money for him and whoever wins the show. On the other hand he doesn't want "safe" as that won't make enough money. It has to be able to grow bigger.

Roisin's idea is far from unproven. Several companies are already in this marketplace. One was pitched on Dragons Den in 2013 and Peter Jones invested in it (but even then it wasn't new, he just liked the brand name). But it's niche, for people who see food purely as fuel for low carb fitness regimes and who don't care how unpleasant it is to eat.

Or that his Lordships connections would help his Lordship out.

If anything she is over confident in the potential of her product ,and its attractiveness to others. She may also have an idea of his clout ,and the nature of 2014 business, thats too optimistic.

On the other hand, she may have knowledge of that sort of deal happening, and there's an argument that if no one took risks,or bet more money on big ideas, an awful lot of big ideas and companies would never have happened.

Not to mention with all the publicity from the Apprentice, those Dukan pots manufacturer will be able to very quickly add some more flavours and launch quickly.

Weight watchers will also probably jump on it as people who've never heard of it will be interested now.

Absolutely, I think the media exposure is worth far more than any job would be. Anyway, Sugar doesn't run businesses he can offer people a £100K job in any more. The first few jobs were to manage projects to grow new areas of business. The current prize isn't really that different except now the winner defines the business idea and has a 50% stake in what is being created.

With respect that wasn't mentioned by Roisin (or Claude). She made a false assumption about when the bills would be due and as a result her plan fell apart. You can't assume she was relying on Lord Sid to bail the business out.

There's some ambiguity in whether 250k is the limit.- he's implied more can flow before, but he's recently been talking about only 250k. i think she has bigger ambitions - which may well be risky or unrealistic. I think she thinks he can make things happen - she's bought into his hype, and she sees weight loss as the big issue it appears to be in the health statistics.

I think he is interested in safe. In the first three series everyone is doing the job they have experience in and/or are qualified for. Your point about scaling up is an important one - but its limited to Tom developing a second and third project, Ricky cloning himself and finding more customers , and Leah adding clinics. There's no one going from nothing much, to national presence , or starting, so far, in a new field., or creating demand for something new. There's also a market that will pay a high mark up on a cheap product, or pay a lot for a service. He's not interested in restaurants or dance clubs scaling up - because the bills and profits are limited, and the wage costs are high,.

I think her idea is unproven - because she sees it as something bigger. If she had offered it on a smaller scale, I can see him saying it was impossible to cover set up costs with fewer sales, and redepoying the Katie arguments - that she was in new terrirory, and would never give him the scale of returns he wanted. He talked about big bucks, so she offered him them - and assumed it would work, and he would risk enough to get them.

Like Neil last year, we had an excellent candidate who came up with a hair brained business idea that could not possibly work.

To make ready-meals you need to either set up your own factory - and for high risk foods this is astronomical.
OR you get someone else to make it for you - the Levi Roots route to market.
Either way 250K will go nowehere fast.