The Apprentice - THE FINAL - Sunday 21st December

36 of 37

Wallasey Saint

22-12-2014

Originally Posted by Old Endeavour:
“Sorry but all you use this place for is advertising you blogs elsewhere.

THIS is the place for posting what you think, not self-advertising your own place.

It's all you seem to do here.

Obviously someone who thinks their opinions are greater than anyone else's.”

Originally Posted by slouchingthatch:
“Yes, of course. I don't actually participate in any threads at all. And, to be honest, as someone who has worked in a variety of businesses for over 20 years, I do happen to think I have a valid opinion. Do jog on now.”

I can't find it but think constantly posting links to blogs is against forum rules.

Friendly Face

22-12-2014

Originally Posted by Annsyre:
“She's the one who advised the other females to tart themselves up and wear short skirts.”

I thought she wanted the other men to do what she'd done!

Friendly Face

22-12-2014

Originally Posted by ladyloulou:
“I cannot believe that they do not have a business name in advance, to let the other muppets name your business is utter madness.”

Agreed. They say they have been thinking about the business for a long time so it's amazing that they have only now considered the name.

I would have thought that Bianca would have considered the price competitors were charging years ago. It looks like an idea she's come up with a few minutes ago.

Simply saying something is a premium brand doesn't make it a premium brand. Everything about it shouts cheap.

Friendly Face

22-12-2014

Originally Posted by ladyloulou:
“Surely on any business plan you cannot suddenly halve the selling price? Everything you have done is to the original price, to drastically change it would invalidate all your calculations.”

They don't talk about costs at all in the final. Maybe considered too boring.

In selling a product manufacturing costs and quality are so important. They seem to talk about selling price in isolation.

Friendly Face

22-12-2014

Originally Posted by divingbboy:
“She's certainly fixated on those tights being "a luxury product", which plainly they're not.”

They are to her cheap mind.

Friendly Face

22-12-2014

Originally Posted by thenetworkbabe:
“Now we know what the price level is. It takes a lot of investment to get £20, wheras Mark is going to take 3k from some sap for a few hours work.

Its being set up more for a brilliant Mark presentation too.”

Who spends £3k a month on SEO unless you are a really big company. £500 a month is unusual on Google Adwords never mind just the SEO.

Friendly Face

22-12-2014

Originally Posted by square_eyes:
“A Personal account manager and 2 personal visits a month is pie in the sky.”

What can you discuss in a personal visit - that with travelling could take hours - that you can't discuss over the phone in a few minutes?

Friendly Face

22-12-2014

Originally Posted by Psycho_Ned:
“Realistically Marks idea is more in Sugars usual ball park than Tights, tech was his original area of expertise after all.

Plus with Biancas business I couldn't even see £250k touching the sides of the required advertising budget let alone getting the business off the ground.”

With Marks idea you can pull the plug without too much waste. I think that is Sugar's idea given he has to go with one of the ideas.

Friendly Face

22-12-2014

Originally Posted by Super Frog:
“I have to admit that if something isn't in the top few results on Google I probably won't ever see it. Unless Marks company can get you in the top 5, it's a waste of time paying for the service.”

It's all bullshit. It depends on keywords. Blogs and links are only part of it. If you talk to this SEO morons that phone you up it all falls apart as soon as you ask any questions. That's even after you are passed to somebody who is supposed to know what they are doing.

You are much better off going on a course - not the ones costing hundreds of pounds - or buying SEO for Dummies.

Friendly Face

22-12-2014

Originally Posted by ladyloulou:
“How many staff would you need to accomplish that? He is selling himself, perhaps he is going to be cloned”

He talks about outsourcing. The business will have quality issues and spend the £250k within a few months. Nobody will want to pay more than a few quid for their service.

Friendly Face

22-12-2014

Originally Posted by Lyricalis:
“3k order? Didn't the chap just say that this was what he was currently paying for a similar service that wasn't as personal?”

He wanted to be on TV so he said the first thing that came into his head.

Friendly Face

22-12-2014

Originally Posted by CrazyLoop:
“I agree but every business can't be in that top 5/page can they ”

They can be if they pay "Lies R Us" money.

Friendly Face

22-12-2014

Originally Posted by rhumble:
“The winner will be the one that Sugar will make the most money out of,, this process has nothing to do with it, i imagine Sugar has had his people look through the ideas with a fine tooth comb, he wont give them £250 k of his money on what the applicants say their business will make”

The £250k is written off as a business expense of making the series. I don't think Sugar expects to get it back from any of the idiots.

Friendly Face

22-12-2014

Originally Posted by ustarion:
“But they get both .co.uk and .com”

My business owns domains with co.uk, com and a few others but I only publicise co.uk

Friendly Face

22-12-2014

Originally Posted by thenetworkbabe:
“Its an arms race . You pay it- the competition pay for it - you redo it. Its like Leah. Botox in- sags again - put in more botox.”

You tell them: "I want a contract which states I get a full refund if you don't achieve your claims" and they run away.

Friendly Face

22-12-2014

Originally Posted by SaddlerSteve:
“It was a choice between tights and tech.

Sugars background is in tech so it was a no brainer.”

The shareholder agreement will say that Sugar makes all the decisions.

Eve Elle

22-12-2014

Originally Posted by Dix:
“Hope not as we have enough of them in CBB!

If it did happen, who would you suggest as potential Candidates, and would they want to take part? ”

Not sure who would participate, and I don't know if it would work considering the celebrities wouldn't be getting any appearence fees since it would all be for charity. I do think it could be potentially very entertaining though.

Or how about Apprentice All Stars? The best (and worst!) candidates return for one more chance at working with Lord Sugar.

Friendly Face

22-12-2014

Originally Posted by Mrs Teapot:
“Most business people are like that Old, even an odd colleague if they think being an arse will make them look good against others.”

Business people are not like that. You are thinking of inadequate morons.

Friendly Face

22-12-2014

Originally Posted by tigragirl:
“It can be to some
I have worked with the average Jo on the street trying to find a way out of unemployment. They don't usually have much money to invest, have an idea, get a business plan and support and then try to make a go of it.
They know that the first year will be tough but are determined to give it a go.

This is what we should be discussed, who stands the loss? LS did say tonight, there will be no running to bank of sugar if they run out of money.....read into that what you will.

Unfortunately the average Jo doesn't have that money (40-50k)to fall back on, be it from a bank, investor or bank of parent”

I started out by working on a night after my day job then switching to part time working. It took me years before I was working on my business full time but it was worth the effort.

MrSuper

22-12-2014

Originally Posted by uncle_adolph:
“Strange, because myself and my wife felt exactly the opposite. I thought she came across as a thoroughly obnoxious person; her putting down of the sub-team when she was looking at the video edit was rude in the extreme and gave an indication of the type of person she would be to work for.”

Did no one see her on You're Hired directly after with Dara where she sat there for at least 25 mins and came across as the most loveliest girl ever. Great personality and doesn't seem like she had an utter bad bone in her body!

SequShor

23-12-2014

Originally Posted by Lyricalis:
“3k a month? I'm in the wrong business!”

I know this was discussed live but only just watched the final - there was a VERY sharp edit immediately after the guy said 3K {CUT] so I don't think you could hear what period he was referring to after that. Later in the show it was brought up as 3K / month but I just can't get my head around that spend for a bricks and mortar business, although at the same time I can envisage a greater spend than that over a 12 month period.

kaybee15

23-12-2014

Originally Posted by Friendly Face:
“What can you discuss in a personal visit - that with travelling could take hours - that you can't discuss over the phone in a few minutes?”

Someone should probably tell Mark about Skype and FaceTime at some point...

Thrombin

23-12-2014

Originally Posted by kaybee15:
“Someone should probably tell Mark about Skype and FaceTime at some point...”

You are joking? No sensible, professional business would consider meeting it's clients over skype or facetime (or phone). The face-to-face is very important for establishing customer confidence and a proper rapport. He is selling a personalized service not telemarketing.

trebanos

23-12-2014

Originally Posted by Thrombin:
“You are joking? No sensible, professional business would consider meeting it's clients over skype or facetime (or phone). The face-to-face is very important for establishing customer confidence and a proper rapport. He is selling a personalized service not telemarketing.”

A great salesman, like Daniel, would use the opportunity to upsell. Eventually the customer wouldn't be looking forward to 'Google Boy' visiting.

kaybee15

23-12-2014

Only semi-serious

. Nothing beats a genuine face-to-face of course, but given Mark's promises regarding two meetings per month or whatever it was, with seemingly scant regard for distances and timescales, he may find himself quickly having to use his legendary sales skills to convince customers that a FaceTime chat is, technically, face-to-face. It's in the name and everything...

36 of 37