The Apprentice UK 2018

Mantis Toboggan

Thought the contestants were decent this year but the business plans were awful.

Rmgblue

ncmc wrote: »

Oh my god, that advertisement of Camilla’s 😱😱😱 Like something out of a porno 🙈

Starting to think she’s in there as a bet.

PS: only catching up now - she may have been kicked off sssssh

Exclamation Marc

Christ the business plans were all truly awful in the final five.

So uninspiring.

Contestants were so vanilla this year that like last year, I'll have forgotten them all in a matter of weeks.

Swear to god, he better pick ONE winner next week.

gmisk

I honestly thought Daniel was a nailed on finalist.
There was some blooming markup on that powdered crap he was selling, I think the lies might have caught up with him RE facts and figures.

Surely the nut milk has it in the bag?

incentsitive

I'm sure its all part of the charade that the show is, but while they rile against stuff which is sexist, outdated, etc, another thing which is sexist and outdated is the way they talk to the people, not shaking somebody's hand or even saying hello to them at the start of an interview is as rude as anything. Its like they view the show as being schoolkids and teachers.
I'd tell Lord Sugar to keep his 250k rather than bow and beg like they have to in this charade. There are plenty of other ways to get investment which don't involve making doughnuts or chocolates. Crowd funding being one.

Baybay

I agree there are plenty of ways to fund a business without SAS, just as you can find a partner without visiting an island called Love or you can eat fish eyes without going to Australia. But TA is a long established reality tv show with an established format which many enjoy watching & most contestants are aware of what they’re facing, possibly even with an eye to ongoing fame.

incentsitive

Baybay wrote: »

I agree there are plenty of ways to fund a business without SAS, just as you can find a partner without visiting an island called Love or you can eat fish eyes without going to Australia. But TA is a long established reality tv show with an established format which many enjoy watching & most contestants are aware of what they’re facing, possibly even with an eye to ongoing fame.

Yeah true enough, I suppose I like it because I have worked with people like these who think they are something and then are reduced to tasks which are way below their level as they percieve themselves.
I suppose as you say, they know what they are letting themselves in for!

yerwanthere123

Feels like Camilla's definitely got this now, I feel like they were setting her up for the win a couple of weeks back when they starting talking about her nut milk business. He'll also respect the fact she's doing it herself and started from scratch in her own home.

It's been a very weird year though, no particularly strong contestants or business plans of note. Before last night's show I still couldn't say for sure who'd have made the final.

incentsitive

The only problem with Camilla is she'll spend the money on more botox and other work on her face......

Avatar MIA

Baybay wrote: »

I agree there are plenty of ways to fund a business without SAS

You mean LAS :pac:

Ah here, this year's candidates are wojus. They are third rate at best. And if these are the best business plans, what were the rejects like?

I wish they'd go back to an actual job in one of his companies premise.

What was Khadija doing in the process apart from being good TV. Her business is a cleaner - with no USP, how could it scale? And that poor Tennis plan girl, he didn't even go through too much spiel before firing her. It was never going to be worth £250k of investment. It never was, even from a cursory look at application, but she probably sent in a good photo of herself. It's a shambles compared to the original series, where the candidates were pretty good.

No one half decent is going to touch it with a barge pole.

gmisk

incentsitive wrote: »

The only problem with Camilla is she'll spend the money on more botox and other work on her face......

Does anyone really believe she is 22?

Mantis Toboggan

The business plans were really poor. I'm surprised Sugar doesn't look at these from the start and slowly get rid of people with the worst business plans.

I'd say he was disappointed with Sabrina, excellent candidate but her business plan was just awful. Claude seemed interested in Daniels idea, I wouldn't be surprised if he got personally involved outside of the show. Plenty of scope to make a fortune.

Imhof Tank

Claude went too far telling Sian she looked "vacant" in the boardroom I thought.

He'd be in bother for that in a real world workplace setting.

incentsitive

Yeah the business plans were muck. Daniel was flogging some sort of dodgy hangover cure, I think even on an ethical basis Alan Sugar was never going to touch that. Those things already exist anyway, they are called fry's, breakfast rolls, the cure, etc.
I couldn't believe the criticism of Sabrina for not having any tennis courts. While it was a really rubbish idea, imagine she went out and spent money on land for tennis courts, etc. The problem was that she had no USP, any tennis club could set up a rival and if they all agreed not to let her in, her goose was cooked.

I think Sugar will go with the swimwear, fools and their money can always be parted.

incentsitive

Mantis Toboggan wrote: »

The business plans were really poor. I'm surprised Sugar doesn't look at these from the start and slowly get rid of people with the worst business plans.

Yeah the business plans were muck but I suspect he was getting slowly rid of slower ones, he knew who he wanted to fire the week he picked up the phone to get the others back.

Daniel was flogging some sort of dodgy hangover cure, I think even on an ethical basis Alan Sugar was never going to touch that. Those things already exist anyway, they are called fry's, breakfast rolls, the cure, etc.

I couldn't believe the criticism of Sabrina for not having any tennis courts. While it was a really rubbish idea, imagine she went out and spent money on land for tennis courts, etc. How much would that have cost her? The problem was that she had no USP, any tennis club could set up a rival and if they all agreed not to let her in, her goose was cooked.

I think Sugar will go with the swimwear, fools and their money can always be parted.

I think the behaviour of Karren, Claude, Sugar, etc was from a bygone era. I am not watching again.

Muahahaha

gmisk wrote: »

I honestly thought Daniel was a nailed on finalist.
There was some blooming markup on that powdered crap he was selling, I think the lies might have caught up with him RE facts and figures.

Same here, I was stunned Daniel didnt make the final. In the summary the main reason Sugar gave was because he was a bit of a waffler and couldnt be trusted. The trust thing seem to come down to his claim on his Amazon page that he had sold 1 million units when it really just was 47,000. Im guessing that there were other things discovered about him/his business that didnt make it onto the show because otherwise he had a good product with a huge mark up and lots of room for growth.

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Feels like Camilla's definitely got this now, I feel like they were setting her up for the win a couple of weeks back when they starting talking about her nut milk business. He'll also respect the fact she's doing it herself and started from scratch in her own home.

The whole Camilla thing is bizarre imo. Like she has only been making nut milk for 3 months, its basically a cottage business from her kitchen and she is saying she would employ family who are sitting around the place doing nothing! I thought it was very poor and shes a huge risk for Sugar.

As others have said the quality of candidates & business plans seems to have dropped significantly which is likely due to other avenues of funding that dont involve a 12 week interview running around doing tasks making a muppet of yourself on national tv. Perhaps some of them do do it in the hope of a bit of fame or exposure for their business. But the quality of past candidates is sorely lacking, if I were Sugar this year I wouldnt feel like investing £250k in any of them!

Avatar MIA

Mantis Toboggan wrote: »

I'm surprised Sugar doesn't look at these from the start and slowly get rid of people with the worst business plans.

Who's to say he didn't :pac: Maybe they were even more shocking.

Unearthly

Camilla has been useless at tasks but the nut milk is probably the best business model out of them all. That market is hugely growing now that people realise cows milk is crap

elvis83

Unearthly wrote: »

Camilla has been useless at tasks but the nut milk is probably the best business model out of them all. That market is hugely growing now that people realise cows milk is crap

Those lips though...

everlast75

elvis83 wrote: »

Those lips though...

She would be better without those awful fillers imho

incentsitive

everlast75 wrote: »

She would be better without those awful fillers imho

I'd say she's 1 step short of using a cement mixer to plug the holes at this stage, it is the ultimate example of things gone wrong!

coL

The episode was so boring I zoned out totally while watching it but did I hear correctly that Camilla has sold less that £2,000 of product while Sian has only sold £4,000 (or was that units)? Not to be disparaging but it looks like it doesn't take much to call yourself a nut milk brand or swimwear range founder!!! Can't remember hearing how long the nut milk was going but did they say the swimwear has been going for a few years? Seems like very low numbers for both!!!

Also Khadija's turnover is £72,000, that seems very low for that type of business and would not generate much profit.


Don't even get me started on Daniel, is there any scientific basis for his drink or is it just some s*&t he mixed together???

Meauldsegosha

Anyone else think Camilla's business is a ringer. They claim her business is only running 3 months. The show is flimed during the Summer so her business would have started in the Spring. Applications for this series opened in in November 2017. I think this is a business Alan Sugar was always interested in and that is why Camilla is in the final and will win the show.

Midnight Sundance

Meauldsegosha wrote: »

Anyone else think Camilla's business is a ringer. They claim her business is only running 3 months. The show is flimed during the Summer so her business would have started in the Spring. Applications for this series opened in in November 2017. I think this is a business Alan Sugar was always interested in and that is why Camilla is in the final and will win the show.

I think you might be right.
I don’t know why he doesn’t look at their cvs before picking them to go on the show . One of the interviewers asked Daniel if they thought Alan sugar would ever get involved with a hang over cure and truth Is he probably wouldn’t, so why bother put him through the show.
I thought it was better when he was actually looking for an apprentice to work with.

elvis83

everlast75 wrote: »

She would be better without those awful fillers imho

That's what I mean. They're horrible. Seem to have a life of their own on her face, but maybe that's cos they can only move as one gelatinous blob.

ArrBee

Sugar definitely wants the nutmilk I reckon.
He's prepared to accept Camilla as an unfortunate tag along.

He had ample reason for getting rid of hear on the chocolate task. at the stage where he already knows who he wants to go for.
Getting rid of Daniel was all about the product, or not putting someone strong against Camilla in the final. It's easier to make it look like Camilla wins on merit against the other one.

jr86

Baybay wrote: »

I agree there are plenty of ways to fund a business without SAS, just as you can find a partner without visiting an island called Love or you can eat fish eyes without going to Australia. But TA is a long established reality tv show with an established format which many enjoy watching & most contestants are aware of what they’re facing, possibly even with an eye to ongoing fame.

100%

Of course there are many routes to investment out there, but there are quite a lot of perks to coming through the Apprentice Process also.

You have 10 weeks of free advertising, being exposed to millions of potential customers each week, as well as endless access to PR opportunities.

If you win, one of the most well known businessmen in the country becomes your business partner, with an endless network of contacts. Lord Sugar has a total of 5.32million Twitter followers. If his tweets pushing your product were to even resonate with 1% of his followers, that in itself it would be 53,200 people. You would barely need a Marketing budget.

And there is access to other means of income. Contestants may attract demand for after dinner speeches, business mentoring, business consultancy to things like night club appearances, modelling opportunities, and brand endorsements. Some may have no interest in the business side of things at all and just wish to launch a reality career. Either way, being exposed to an audience of circa 7 million on prime time television is a large draw for many.

Of course the business plans won't be ground breaking. Any serious and established business owner won't have time to head off filming for a month or two without any access to his business, except in rare circumstances. If their business is at a stage where it can run itself 250k investment is not going to do much for them.

mloc123

Unearthly wrote: »

Camilla has been useless at tasks but the nut milk is probably the best business model out of them all. That market is hugely growing now that people realise cows milk is crap

:rolleyes:

Oranage2

Nut milk is already very popular in Asia and it is not that expensive. It's definitely something Sugar wants to get into.

Sian is great but the swimwear market is so saturated and she's selling hers at quite a high price. Her plan is to use the 250,000 for advertising but for that money she can only get a B-LIST celebrity, probably not somebody who will attract the target audience.

Very weak season besides Jacky, the rest were all very mediocre.

AndrewJRenko

artvanderlay wrote: »

Does anyone else miss the Irish Apprentice? God, I loved that show.



I remember Bill Cullen saying the following to candidates:


"if you spoke to me like that, I'd break your face"


"you're looking at me like you're spare"




and my fav ever was Will (I think), during the interview process, when he was asked about his qualities. He said he was great at thinking on his feet, and when asked for an example of this he said "well I can't think of one right now"


Ah God, it was brilliant, with Bill, Jackie and Brian. Best Irish show ever.

It really was car crash TV. Bill's painful aphorism, Jackie looking surprised at everything that everybody did - and a steady line up of gob****es making fools of themselves for their 15 minutes of fame.



I didn't watch Sugar until years later, big Bill was my intro to the genre. But when the going got tough, Bill got washed out. Even Jackie ended up suing him at one stage.

liam7831 wrote: »

I hear Ssangyong as sponsoring the new series

Are car sellers the only people with advertising money these days? Seems like everything is sponsored by the car lads - Late Late, Irelands Fittest Family, Ray Darcy .


Is the Irish one coming back? Who's the big cheese?

Imhof Tank wrote: »

Claude went too far telling Sian she looked "vacant" in the boardroom I thought.

He'd be in bother for that in a real world workplace setting.

None of these 'experts' would survive in a real workplace setting with a HR department and dignity policies.