The close of the semi-finals last week saw candidates culled from five to two. The final sorting of wheat from chaff had left just Bianca Miller and Mark Wright in the running to walk off with Lord Sugar’s £250k investment. Not a bad little nest-egg to get any business off the ground. Best of all, the money comes without having to go through the rigmarole of accessing finance from a bank or other credit provider that most entrepreneurs will be familiar with - but this is TV land after all.
So in this last episode we finally started to learn more about the nuts and bolts of the remaining contestants’ actual business plans. Best of all, we got names. We knew Bianca’s idea, the aptly-named Skin Tone, for skin tone-matching hosiery, seemed to have legs – no pun intended!
In the concluding episode, a number of leading tights shops gave it the thumbs-up; this followed praise from luminaries of the fashion industry in the semi-finals who had agreed there was a gap in the market. But this time there was a caveat, and that’s the price. £35 for a pair – that’s a lot of cash when rivals are offering them for £6 a pop at the budget end.
Mark, on the other hand, with the cleverly named Climb Online, was looking to do something much less traditional by effectively setting up a digital marketing business to get firm’s names to the top of internet search engine results. Quite how he would do this, even by the end of the show, still remained a mystery, which goes to show why so many small businesses regard digital marketing as a dark art to be undertaken by professionals.
As part of the final challenge, both contestants were required to market research their respective products, and fine-tune their propositions ahead of a presentation to industry professionals. Bianca got further warnings from a focus group, who told her the packaging looked less than luxury, and that again, the price was an issue. She grasped the warning signs on price, and agreed to drop to £24, but surely it was too late to start changing the core offering at this stage?
Meanwhile, we saw Mark struggling with a corporate film in which he tries to explain, simply, what his product does with the help of two small business owners, AKA actors, climbing a wall. Got the analogy, but it’s pretty hard to make SEO interesting or cool.
Bianca’s big night arrived, and she pulled off a convincing job of the presentation. Even if you didn’t buy into her product, you had to buy in to her. However, cue questions from the audience, and the thorny issue of pricing came up - again. Then a killer blow about stock levels. Apparently, there were going to be hundreds of different lines due to the nature of the product (size, denier, colour, etc) – how will shops stock her entire range, the question is posed. She had no answer!
Mark’s presentation went similarly well, and he even managed to swerve a couple of potential trip questions fired by his audience, deftly turning them round. He left the stage looking polished. Sugar certainly seemed impressed.
Into the boardroom at last for judgment day, and Bianca began to come unstuck under questioning by Sugar. The price was too high, they said; the product line was too vast; she didn’t understand retail – not surprisingly really as she’s no experience of it. Not like Mark who we know had years under his belt working in SEO.
Sensing which way the wind is blowing, Bianca made a desperate, rash attempt to try and to change her offering, not just a minor tweak either, but a huge move away from the luxury product all the way to the budget end of the market.
The bottom line was this: her business plan had not been properly thought through, researched, or market tested. Result? Bianca was out, and Mark was hired.
Hats off to Bianca for spotting a gap in the market, but you have to wonder why that gap exists? Know your product, know your market, and make sure your business plan is watertight – all good lessons potential business owners have to bear in mind.
Simon Edmondson is the Regional Chairman for the FSB in Manchester & North Cheshire, and has previously owned and run a restaurant business. He now works as a self employed membership adviser for the Federation.
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The Apprentice, Episode 11 - the business plan
The Apprentice, Episode 10 - Stick with what you know
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