The Apprentice 2014.......................

[FourWheelDrift]

[Zad]

Nice to see she's brought her 2 mates with her.

>Fans self<

[jammy_basturd]

I see no one else has yet picked up on that little gem from Sugar:

"The whole point of this is to prove to the country that we can stop dreaming of other people's money and we can start a business with £250,000".

Say wut?!

1. "We can stop dreaming of other people's money" - but here is £250,00.
2. It suggests to start a business on just £250,000 is quite difficult. I would LOVE just a tenth of that amount to kickstart my business!

[schmalex]

Bianca should walk this. There is f*** all margin in Mark's business. He's going to have to ditch pricing to elbow his way into a massively competitive market. If Bianca gets it right, she's got a licence to print money.

[JD PH]

Zad said:

Nice to see she's brought her 2 mates with her

I hadn't noticed... Maybe. Any red blooded males currently not watching "you're fired" may want to retune...

[Oakey]

jammy_basturd said:

I see no one else has yet picked up on that little gem from Sugar:

"The whole point of this is to prove to the country that we can stop dreaming of other people's money and we can start a business with £250,000".

Say wut?!

1. "We can stop dreaming of other people's money" - but here is £250,00.
2. It suggests to start a business on just £250,000 is quite difficult. I would LOVE just a tenth of that amount to kickstart my business!

Yeah I laughed at this as well.

£750k, £250k, what's the difference when they're both figures unattainable by the majority of the average Joe?

Also, a few things, am I right in thinking Piers Linney used to be involved in this interview stage?

Also, Roisins idea with it's secret ingredient, I swear I've seen a similar product being pitched on Dragons Den (might even have been the one he pulled out from under the table)

[Tony2or4]

Oakey said:

... am I right in thinking Piers Linney used to be involved in this interview stage?

I don't think he was: his appearance on Dragons' Den was the first time I'd come across him.

[robsco]

schmalex said:

Bianca should walk this. There is f*** all margin in Mark's business. He's going to have to ditch pricing to elbow his way into a massively competitive market. If Bianca gets it right, she's got a licence to print money.

I can't quite work out what Bianca's USP is supposed to be?

[jammy_basturd]

robsco said:

schmalex said:

Bianca should walk this. There is f*** all margin in Mark's business. He's going to have to ditch pricing to elbow his way into a massively competitive market. If Bianca gets it right, she's got a licence to print money.

I can't quite work out what Bianca's USP is supposed to be?

I think Bianca will take it too. Mainly because I think Sugar prefers a product based business.

[schmalex]

robsco said:

schmalex said:

Bianca should walk this. There is f*** all margin in Mark's business. He's going to have to ditch pricing to elbow his way into a massively competitive market. If Bianca gets it right, she's got a licence to print money.

I can't quite work out what Bianca's USP is supposed to be?

Hosiery for darker skinned ladies. From what I took from it, most tights are coloured for Caucasians, meaning there is much less choice for those with more dusky hues.

[robsco]

schmalex said:

robsco said:

schmalex said:

Bianca should walk this. There is f*** all margin in Mark's business. He's going to have to ditch pricing to elbow his way into a massively competitive market. If Bianca gets it right, she's got a licence to print money.

I can't quite work out what Bianca's USP is supposed to be?

Hosiery for darker skinned ladies. From what I took from it, most tights are coloured for Caucasians, meaning there is much less choice for those with more dusky hues.

Interesting, thanks. Surely a hosiery specialist would be able to supply this sort of product with a click of a finger.

[CoolHands]

robsco said:

Interesting, thanks. Surely a hosiery specialist would be able to supply this sort of product with a click of a finger.

No. That's the whole point.

I think its a goer.

[robsco]

CoolHands said:

robsco said:

Interesting, thanks. Surely a hosiery specialist would be able to supply this sort of product with a click of a finger.

No. That's the whole point.

I think its a goer.

Why not? I'm not trying to be obtuse, I just can't grasp what is special about the idea. It seems that she is referring to making tights in a slightly darker colour to suit slightly darker skins. Why wouldn't an industry that already supplies tights in hundreds of different shades and patterns be able to adapt to this?

[rpguk]

Mark seems to be going into SEO/web marketing (I'd hope more the latter). Not a very exciting business but could be solid, good growth market and most of the cost is going to be on marketing the company and wages. Sugar has apparently done OK with Ricky Martin's recruitment agency which isn't a million miles away in terms of how I'd imagine the company to be structured.

Tights for people with darker skin seem to already exist and if there's a market it's going to be very easy for one of the bigger brands to just order some darker materials and have them in their existing distribution channels in no time. I wouldn't have thought that £250k would get you too far, you've gotta get the products manufactured and then marketed and £250k in the fashion world isn't a great deal of marketing.

ETA

Spoiler removed as spoilers do not work on the mobile beta (mobile or desktop view). And that may give the game away to many unsuspecting members.

Edited by rpguk on Wednesday 17th December 23:19

Edited by Big Al. on Wednesday 17th December 23:33

[8Ace]

Have you just ruined it?

[DSLiverpool]

If Marks company offered to increase my web site sales I would use them, Ideally I don't want to know what they do I just want more profitable sales, not many / any selling this way.

[jammy_basturd]

It seems he has. Why not put it in spoiler tags FFS.

[robsco]

Oh dear.

[CoolHands]

robsco said:

CoolHands said:

robsco said:

Interesting, thanks. Surely a hosiery specialist would be able to supply this sort of product with a click of a finger.

No. That's the whole point.

I think its a goer.

Why not? I'm not trying to be obtuse, I just can't grasp what is special about the idea. It seems that she is referring to making tights in a slightly darker colour to suit slightly darker skins. Why wouldn't an industry that already supplies tights in hundreds of different shades and patterns be able to adapt to this?

Traditionally stuff for black people has not been made. That's why there are quite a few niche products made by non-mainstream manufacturers. Eg many hair products for black women are made by unusual manufacturers we've (whities) never heard of. (I should qualify that there are'a'couple of big manufacturers that do now before someone jumps on me). Same for this type of product. Plus moisturiesers (spelling), beauty products etc. I guess in the o,d days the margins were too small (smaller market) and manu. costs higher (presumably come down in recent years due to increased access to 3rd world countries).

[rpguk]

Oops, stuck some spoiler tags there for now. FWIW for the sake of a few hundred quid I'd have thought they'd try and register both names. It's quite possible that the other one might have already been in use or be objected to. It was just something I posted as a matter of interest rather then being anything that I thought was conclusive.