He is targeting local businesses. I have seen this before. You can do it yourself with key words on your own website. My business is on the front page of Google if you put in my business type and local area. I have not paid anyone to do that.

Anyone who is wanting to look for national customers are up against Amazon and that's never going to work. As a small business you will only appeal to local customers and Google will find you on its own without paying ££££ a month to some wide boys with big salaries. Google has also changed its algorithms and weeds out the faked up links which used to push firms up the search results.

Every time I get contacted by these people I tell them to put my business type and area into Google and they soon shut up.

I can't believe small local businesses pay for this type of service which doesn't pay for itself. If you have a small business do your homework. How much of your custom comes from recommendation and footfall. How much has your income increased from the extra marketing. Has it paid for itself?

Personally I would never have anything to do with them. They prey on peoples ignorance of how the internet works.

Thing is though that people do pay for it.

Generally there isn't a need, but if you're in a big area and/or have lots of competitors (e.g. a builder) then it can be worthwhile, especially if a rival is paying.

You can still do SEO easily yourself of course, but I imagine a lot wouldn't know how or - more importantly - not have the time to do it.

This is a business based on a fallacy - that it is possible to deliver search engine results in return for money. The truth is that SEO guarantees nothing. Couple this with the fact that Google do not want companies to do this and keep changing the rules to make it difficult and you have a big problem.

The only way Mark can stand out is by offering a personal service and here he falls into the biggest trap that every new business person falls into. You want the business so much, you are willing to do anything to get it. What he should be asking himself is 'why are the competitors not offering a personal service'.

The reason - it's too damn expensive to send salespeople in for a meeting every month.

This business will fail - it's out of date, relies on impossible promises and he is over promising on the service element - a trifecta of business mistakes.

Agree. The salesmen idea is not financially viable. 2 people to cover the whole of the UK? Wages & travel costs will eat into profit. If successful as a business model then there's more pressure for personal visits & increased staffing levels & increased costs.
Can't believe no one has highlighted it.

He's never said he intends to cover the whole of the UK, has he? I expect he'll focus on London and the south-east. It's the same as with any small marketing or PR agency - they typically focus on clients that are geographically accessible.

Then its a limited business idea, even if this is the business heartland of the UK.

Avoid London. It's the most competitive area in the South East if not England for SEO spammers.

Wright would be better off if he focuses on major towns outside London and other cities.

Of course it's limited - but that geographic radius includes one hell of a lot of businesses. And I've worked with plenty of agencies who have maybe 10-15 people, that narrow a geographic focus and make plenty of money. He might fail - but there's nothing about his business model that stops him from succeeding.

I doubt it. He works in London - it's what he knows, and it's still where the big numbers are - which is why there are so many companies operating there.

Someone I was in school with set up her own design boutique online and worked her ass off to get the site on Google's first page. It paid off for her too, when she opened her FB account the boutique had about 50 likes now it's coming up to 40,000 and she's getting orders in from all over the world so it can be done BUT it does take a lot of time, patience and energy.

I'm sure he mentioned 'global reach' on more than one occasion. You can't have global reach and a personal service.

Also, this whole personal service thing seemed to come from the market research and had little thought behind it.

Then, in the boardroom, he started talking about outsourcing SEO work, which is hardly personal service.

Writing blogs and keywords, which were two things he mentioned, are so very out of date as well, but i guess most people won't know this, so you can still sell the idea of them to the uninitiated.

I don't remember him ever saying that. And there's potentially a big difference between what he says on task and whatever plan he eventually agrees to implement with Sugar.

While there's no such thing as a sure thing, there's nothing fundamentally wrong with the business idea. Whether Mark succeeds or not is an entirely different question.

He won't last long ,as the established big boys in the business will cut their prices and wait till the £250 k runs out !

Big players rarely if ever do that - to do so is cutting off your nose to spite your face, as you're giving away profit to take out a small competitor who barely registers as a threat anyway.

A small player in an overcrowded market!

He offers a lot but will deliver little because ther are more established experienced players out there already.

Biancas tights are where the money is - as long as she goes for the mass market with a price to match! Lord Sugar will regret this decision - added to which - Mark is a snake!

You make some interesting points but he got the seal of approval from the manager of Google UK according to Sugar. That indicates some confidence in his business model?

Let's wait and see! Mark is surely savvy enough to tailor what he does, as necessary, to stay ahead. The businesswoman on the You're Fired panel approved wholeheartedly of his business model, as well as the head of Google UK. So I feel that a few comments here are unduly pessimistic.

I would take Sugar's spin with a pinch of salt so to speak, I'm sure Google man would have been interested in Mark himself not his business plan.

You never know, maybe Google are desperate to have Google appear higher up on the page on Google.

Why would Google want to see a company like Mark's be successful?

Actually that makes more sense.

They want to be number one on Bing?

Lord Sugar should have listened to Nick.

Well on the show he did say that he intends to go global.

People don't want to fund the big brands or companies all the time, local businesses is where the heart is.