Has anyone established if there is a demand for Bianca's coloured tights at the prices she'll be charging? It's one thing to say you'd buy them, but another when you discover they will be 5 times the price and only last as long as the off the shelf tights.
Sugar will announce a winner and then tell us he's got the winner to do something slightly different to that in their original plan.

Ridiculous simplification. Far more places in London would need to be covered. Probably every borough. And why only one store in each area? If that outlet got their marketing messed up her business would be screwed.

Remember Bianca had a problem with giving shops exclusivity in one task, lol. Best not to keep things to restricted.

The point I was making is she DOES NOT need to be in say, Plymouth, or Inverness- so she can specifically target her efforts were they will bring the most rewards, That must reduce costs,

Anyway- It seems she pinched the idea from someone she met a couple of years ago- so I now hope Mark wins (see I've been mugged thread)

Whilst Mark is only doing what many others are doing, he hasn't claimed to be the only one ever to do it. Bianca's idea is identical to someone she met 18 months ago.

Lord Sugar might find himself getting sued for plagiarism if he goes with Bianca's idea (at the very least a whole lot of bad publicity, which has already started)

`That's a trivial problem. There are no new ideas on the table - and the only "new" thing to have won was a nail file- that looked a bit different You can't go around investigating whose friend, sister or mother gave them the idea. Letting Mark win, means backing someone doing their old job and taking the profits from it- rather than someone else doing it. it couldn't be less novel, unique or new. Mark is also a very controversial candidate - one of the worst game players the show has seen, and the final 9 contestant with the worst show record this year.

I don't think he's a bad game player. I think he has played the game very well - it has got him to the final. If anything, he has been a fantastic game player.

If I opened a restaurant tomorrow, no one could sue me.

However- if I decided to call it 'Waterspoons' and my menu was identical to Wetherspoons, and I even used the same type of meal deals, I think Wetherspoons would probably sue, and win.

Agreed- there's is practically no such thing as a completely new idea- but- if the manufacturing process is identical- even down to 14 types of skin tone- and it can be proved you bought a sample 18 months ago- then you have taken that persons idea.

Now- I agree- no patent- no protection in law- but a helluvalot of bad publicity for Lord sugar if this woman won't shut up (and why should she?)

Yes but you said London could be covered by just three stores. London would need full coverage, as would all major cities.

Bianca hasn't stolen anything by the way. You can't sue someone copying your idea unless you own copyright or a patent. So Lord Sugar won't be getting himself in trouble. Mark's business idea isn't his own either.

BIB, I agree, but isn't that exactly what happened with Ricky Martin?

As far as I can tell, that range has three shades. That's far short of the 15 or 30 shades Bianca planned. Reading the comments, I'm seeing: "The colour was slightly darker than preferred"; "I ordered the brown but was sent this coffee shade which is a bit to dark for me but wearable"; "They are a better colour match than the dreaded 'barely black' but perhaps still a little too dark for my skin tone". So that's at least 3 of 7 who would be in the market for more shades. All the comments make it clear women care about getting a good colour match.

Bianca:-
Perhaps she should start with a smaller range of varieties and increase the variety as sales came in. How many would a manufacturer want to make of each type to make it worth their while? 10,000? Multiply that by the number of varieties and that is a huge initial outlay.

Mark:-
Is he going to be able to give customers the "personal touch". He will have somebody going all the way to say, Aberdeen or Belfast or Truro etc, just to get one potential sale. During the time the salesperson is travelling to/from there, they cannot do anything else.

Which something that should have been noticed - not least by Bianca - long before she got to the final. By reducing her range (she'd already halved it, AND abandoned her 'shapewear' products) and thus no longer offering the exact skin tone match, she becomes just another tights supplier, the entire point of her business negated...

I figured it was part of why she felt she needed to charge a high price. Essentially, you aren't just paying for the pair you buy, but the several other pairs she also had to stock in case you had wanted to buy those instead. She needed a high margin, which would be easier to find in a high-end item.

Logically, Bianca ,to fully provide her usp, needs a production line that can produce small batches, to order, in a wide range of very specific colours- you would think that was now possible. Her second problem is shops stocking it . and either avoiding the shops entirely, by going on line . or limiting their need for storage/display - that needs a two stage process - identify your colour , and order it How. and whether. that will work , and if the only answer is to go for a much smaller range, looks precisely the sort of Issue Lord Sugar ought to be able to sort out for her. But he couldn't be bothered to explore. let alone do, it .

Mark's worker bee is not going to go to Aberdeen - possibly not to Watford either . The focus will be London. And what will turn up will be somone on 20-25k a year. Its essentially sending for a plumber at 3 times the hourly rate, and getting the plumbers mate.