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The Final Five: Business Plans


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Old 08-12-2016, 23:18
Zarla
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What do we already know about the Final Five's businesses and business plans?

Jessica owns https://www.prodigalfox.com/, an online fashion store with several different ranges and two lines she's worked on with celebrities ( I use that term loosely)

Alana owns https://www.narnascakes.co.uk/, a tiny cake business offering six different types of cake for sale to the public and to wholesalers.

Courtney owns http://www.bubblegumstuff.com/shop an online shop selling over a hundred novelty items.

Grainne's website is http://grainnemccoy.com/. She's a make up artist who travels around doing demonstrations.

Frances runs two shops selling children's clothes, called Little Puds, but when I clicked on her website, this came up:http://www.thepudstore.com/maintenance.php

So, what do we think? Which business will be most attractive to Lord Sugar?
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Old 08-12-2016, 23:36
Salcy
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My money is on cakes, but if I was Lord Sugar, I'd spend it on the horses instead of anyone!
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Old 08-12-2016, 23:38
francie
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My money is on cakes, but if I was Lord Sugar, I'd spend it on the horses instead of anyone!
I'd prefer a bloody good holiday.
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Old 09-12-2016, 00:20
Zarla
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Has anyone ever taken the money and just spent it on cars or a house? How carefully do his people monitor the business later on?

Grainne is probably hoping to expand into making actual make up products, even though the market is practically saturated. Maybe she has a unique angle - who knows?

Maybe Alana wants to expand to offering ten cakes instead of six.

Courtney and the Prodigal Fox already seem to have quite big ventures going on so to my mind it's more likely to be one of those two.
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Old 09-12-2016, 00:28
DUNDEEBOY
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My money is on cakes, but if I was Lord Sugar, I'd spend it on the horses instead of anyone!
Didn't he reject cakes with Luisa though wonder what cakes will be different this time
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Old 09-12-2016, 00:42
Rutakateki
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Courtney owns http://www.bubblegumstuff.com/shop an online shop selling over a hundred novelty items.
My word, look at all that cr@p!

Some of it is literally cr@p... I've got a lot of junk in my flat, but even I can live without an emoji poo mug
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Old 09-12-2016, 00:56
keeping_it_real
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Didn't he reject cakes with Luisa though wonder what cakes will be different this time
Maybe cake mixes? The ones you can buy in supermarkets currently don't seem to have moved with the times/huge baking revolution.
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Old 09-12-2016, 03:03
Zarla
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I think he rejected Luisa because he thought she was too diversified with a website, shop and a book. Alana literally sells just six cakes at the moment - £12.99 for six.
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Old 09-12-2016, 03:39
thenetworkbabe
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Didn't he reject cakes with Luisa though wonder what cakes will be different this time
Luisa was moving beyond Cakes into baking supplies . But fell because she wanted to continue her existing business. Alana has an existing business - why would she give Sugar half what she's built up since she was 17?
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Old 09-12-2016, 03:57
thenetworkbabe
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Has anyone ever taken the money and just spent it on cars or a house? How carefully do his people monitor the business later on?

Grainne is probably hoping to expand into making actual make up products, even though the market is practically saturated. Maybe she has a unique angle - who knows?

Maybe Alana wants to expand to offering ten cakes instead of six.

Courtney and the Prodigal Fox already seem to have quite big ventures going on so to my mind it's more likely to be one of those two.
Does Grainne's product offer positive overlap with Susan Ma's?

But Trishna's overlapped with a past winner too in speclalist recruitment, and he could easily have saved her.

Frances, Jessica, Grainee and Alana all work outside London. so geography may not be our guide - as it has been since Tom. Though Grainee has worked in London , Trishna was the female canddate who fitted the geographic norm for winners. I discount Courtney as he would look a ridiculous winner on his show performance and TV edit - but he does LIve in essex, and Lord Sugar has picked poor perfomers before.

Alana should win on show merit, but when was the winner last the best performer of the final 6.
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Old 09-12-2016, 05:47
spkx
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None of them exactly scream 'invest in me' as they are. All in hugely competitive markets, and it's hard to see how they would scale.

Alana's looks bizarre, quite frankly.

God knows why you'd spend £12.99, plus £3.99 delivery, for six slices of cake to arrive no doubt smashed to pieces when any local shop will do them so much cheaper. They're not even vegetarian, vegan, nut or gluten free or anything like that.

Frances' clothes shop seems a very outdated idea given the way the high street is currently going.

i can only assume they may have other ideas lined up for the investment, related to their current business.
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Old 09-12-2016, 07:44
lammtarra
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Has anyone ever taken the money and just spent it on cars or a house? How carefully do his people monitor the business later on?
Lord Sugar has helpfully supplied a summary of how the previous winners are doing, which has been discussed in the Where Are They Now? thread.
http://www.amshold.com/social_media/...portunity.html

As you can see, they all seem to be doing very well though I am not sure how involved Lord Sugar was in the conception and birth of Tom's and Ricky's children that are mentioned in the list.
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Old 09-12-2016, 08:02
oilcat
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Hmm, thats interesting about the Pudstore website..........New Website coming soon
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Old 09-12-2016, 08:23
lammtarra
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Alana -- mail-order cakes -- surely the market is already saturated. I'd hope her business plan is for something different.

Jessica -- online designer clothes -- her existing site looks so bad and yet is apparently successful, that it is easy to see how Lord Sugar's cash and his team's expertise could make it a far more professional undertaking. Is Jessica herself a bit too high-maintenance though?

Courtney -- online novelty tat sales. This may be the dark horse as it is a bit like a small-scale version of Amstrad: think of a product, have it made in the Far East, sell it.

Grainne -- can't see how her makeup demo business scales and she is not well-known enough to franchise it, so unless she pitches a different idea, Grainne is toast.

Frances -- hard to say as her site is down.

But based on previous years, it is quite likely some at least of the final five will have business plans that are not related to their existing businesses, so the above may be no guide.
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Old 09-12-2016, 08:23
Skyrah
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Jessica's clothes line looks cheep & tacky

Alana's cake business is a sound bet, but the 6 lines looks pretty boring and average

Courtney's novelty items made me smile... I loved the Emoji Poop Cupcakes Mould & Freshness, I LOL when I saw them

Grainne's website looks so boring, what is her business plan... something to rival Avon *yawns*

Interesting France's website is under construction 🤔
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Old 09-12-2016, 08:28
melodymalone
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Alana's mail order cakes are way overpriced. I can't imagine who would buy them.
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Old 09-12-2016, 08:36
DiamondDoll
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I am shocked that the winner will be one of these people.

Not one of them has shown any real business acumen, flair or originality.
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Old 09-12-2016, 09:01
lammtarra
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I am shocked that the winner will be one of these people.

Not one of them has shown any real business acumen, flair or originality.
It does look a poor year with no outstanding candidates -- whether for good or bad reasons.

None of the magical sales people like Ruth or Jedi Jim, none of the hyper-efficient administrators like Stella or Helen, none with the obvious commercial eye of, say, Susan. Not even a cartoon villain like Katie H, or with the film star looks and charisma of someone like Liz or Syed. I wonder if Lord Sugar gets this far and then wishes he could have another look at someone he fired in week one or two.
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Old 09-12-2016, 09:13
DiamondDoll
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It does look a poor year with no outstanding candidates -- whether for good or bad reasons.

None of the magical sales people like Ruth or Jedi Jim, none of the hyper-efficient administrators like Stella or Helen, none with the obvious commercial eye of, say, Susan. Not even a cartoon villain like Katie H, or with the film star looks and charisma of someone like Liz or Syed. I wonder if Lord Sugar gets this far and then wishes he could have another look at someone he fired in week one or two.
I clearly remember each candidate you have mentioned, yet in spite of watching it just last night, I have no strong memory of any of this year's finalists.....and I don't think I'm going senile just yet.
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Old 09-12-2016, 09:25
thehordeoftrav
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I don't see Frances' business of children clothes stores taking off. Prices are likely to be pretty high and overpriced, to make up for the lack of customers as an independent store.
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Old 09-12-2016, 09:58
Maxatoria
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Assuming they are carrying on their normal job then only Grainne would have the interest with LS as he's not the person to have loads of stock sitting around doing nothing.
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Old 09-12-2016, 10:23
inothernews
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Frances runs two shops selling children's clothes, called Little Puds, but when I clicked on her website, this came up:http://www.thepudstore.com/maintenance.php

So, what do we think? Which business will be most attractive to Lord Sugar?
I have a horrible feeling it's going to be Frances.

There was one episode (probably the one when she was in the boadroom) when she gave Karren a knowing look, as if she knew she wasn't the one who was going to get fired.
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Old 09-12-2016, 10:25
melodymalone
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I have a horrible feeling it's going to be Frances.

There was one episode (probably the one when she was in the boadroom) when she gave Karren a knowing look, as if she knew she wasn't the one who was going to get fired.
How would she know that?
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Old 09-12-2016, 10:26
inothernews
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My word, look at all that cr@p!

Some of it is literally cr@p... I've got a lot of junk in my flat, but even I can live without an emoji poo mug
Sounds like Reggie Perrin's Grot Shop.
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Old 09-12-2016, 10:37
inothernews
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How would she know that?
Maybe one of the production crew told Frances that Lord Sugar likes her business plan?

'Knowing look' doesn't mean she knows Karren, just that it was like she knew she wasn't going to be fired.
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