The Apprentice Thread Two - Fire Them All...

[YoureAllABunchOfBastards]

Will this do?

He's very young really. He seems very genuine.

Vana has admitted when she's been wrong, but I haven't noticed joseph doing it (haven't seen all of the eps by any means).

If I were seeking out a business partner I would certainly pick her over Joseph. I think Vana is more likely to make smart decisions whereas Joseph strikes me as the type who will go all gung ho into something without much forethought or planning.

Her plan is wildly optimistic for the funding on offer

oh I didn't see last night's so I don't know what happened...cba to watch on catch up, it just hasn't been that interesting. I guess I will find out all the info on the night of the final but instinctively I see Suralan picking the puppet younger person.

I'm glad Joseph (I have finally learnt his name and realise he isn't called Vincent ) is in the final. I like how he was expelled before GCSEs and is now doing very well for himself.

I think Vana's idea is shit. I think she will win.

I wanted Charliene to be in the final. I think if she had said she was going to grow her business is Plymouth and the SW, she would have gone through. Nice to see her take that on board on YF. She has launched a new business this year anyway. Charliene Wain-dresses. It's on Facebook.

Something to keep you all going:

The Apprentice - Series 11: Why I Fired Them

Lord Sugar leads us through the best and worst decisions made by this year's candidates, and explains how he came to his decisions on who would hear the words 'You're Fired!'.

First shown: 10:40pm 16 Dec 2015
Available for 29 days

BBC iplayer

Has anyone else come across vinobyvana.com/? What's that about? It looks like cheap bottles of wine that she's stuck a label with V on and for which she doubtless is charging a premium price.

If you read the about section it tells you

She sees herself as a brand

I think Vana's idea is shit. I think she will win.

She talks about how her service will have quality men, but based on what I have read on mumsnet about OLD, if I was female I'd be wondering whether I'd be going through all that effort to have the picture revealed only to find out that he's submitted a picture of his penis.

Joseph was a bit flirty with Claudette, and surprisingly, she seemed a little receptive to the charm, especially at the end.

Also like the other new female interviewer. Though she was harsh to Charlene 'what happens if you feel pressure, are you going to cry again?'

The fact that business is supposed to be emotionless is a big reason women are considered 'inappropriate' for the workplace. So I did find that a bit harsh - especially as they are probably all stressed and exhausted.

Most of these internet dating sites are fads before they get swamped with the usual pondlife, and then everyone moves onto the next new dating site. I don't see how it'll be a long term money maker. Joseph's won't make Sir Alan millions but it has the better long term prospect.

That vino idea looks a hot mess to me.
The core beliefs include strength; it's 8%, surely for marketing purposes she'd say something about all the taste and less of the alcohol? It's a wine brand, but it's not wine, it's wine based. All the 'flavours' have a perky description, chic, simply, perfect or luscious - except the grapefruit flavour, which from looking at the site, happens to be the only one that Virgin are going to stock. They also want £6 a bottle, plus delivery

I don't like the idea of her dating app either. From what I read people doing online dating like to cut to the chase to see if there's likely to be an attraction. Tinder is based solely on do I like the look of them? I'm not sure people will want to play games or flirt with anonymous, faceless strangers when it could turn out to be a big waste of time.

I'm really disappointed in the concept of how they big up these people and there are so many tenuous assets and so many flaws in their 'business plans' It makes me feel so negative. The ambition is great but the experience and backing behind some of the ideas is so flimsy.
I'm also tired of these wet behind the ears business and training experts who don't seem to have accomplished very much at all.

I like Joseph's idea. Why not have a solid business that can grow and grow. As they said about Toni & Guy they built that business up over many years.
Joseph's business could grow into the plumbing equivalent of a Dyno Rod or Kwik Fit but for finding a plumber. Like he said, plumbing services aren't ever going to be out of demand. I think it's too slow burn for Lord Sugar though.

It's a classic high risk/high profit vs low risk/low profit

I think vanas idea has legs but I don't think it is finalised enough to jump in. There are huge data protection issues for a start let alone the complexity of the 'matching '

A lot of dating sites select 'high quality' men but that generally means highly educated - which isn't the best signal for a good guy

I liked Vana's idea if (big IF) she can make it work. The three things against it are:-

1. Lots of competition with big, established players.

1. Finding high quality men. Good luck with that one. The sort of men who would say they are this, wouldn't be and the ones that really are probably already have girlfriends.

1. You need to invest a lot of time playing a game with someone before you find out that you just couldn't fancy them (which you would've known within 5 seconds if you had seen them first).

oh I just realised last night's was the interviews....! in that case I will watch on catch up....hope it was good!

I've just caught up with it on the iplayer. I loved that Joseph could almost recite Sir Alan's book - that made me laugh

Vanna's idea is clever. I think she was put through to the final so Sir Alan can do a bit of research eg see if any of the industry experts think it's a good idea; see if there's other routes to possible funding for it, etc. £250k isn't going to touch it but if they could throw tonnes of money at it, tweak the idea of keeping the photo hidden for a day (eg revealing a square of photo per game or something) then I think it could work however I've never used OLD so am looking at it purely from a market segment pov
I think whether or not she wins the final will be down to the outcome of that research.

But Joseph is fab and I like him more than I like Vanna. He's going to be succesful whether Sir Alan invests in him or not. He is a

The problem with leveraging off Joseph's business idea is that you need everyone to be as committed as he is. He said he has three employees - so if you call his company to do some plumbing work you'll get one of 4 people, who are tightly managed by Joseph or are Joseph himself. What happens when he has expanded from Cornwall to the Highlands and someone in Newcastle calls his company? They won't get the high quality experience that has obviously earned him a good reputation and allowed his business to grow. Joseph can't personally manage them all.

If it was that easy to find reliable plumbers, Joseph wouldn't have found it so easy to grow his business.

wondering whether I'd be going through all that effort to have the picture revealed only to find out that he's submitted a picture of his penis

brilliant.
I loved the new female interviewer- she was NAILS.

The new interviewer was great. I loved that she was quite softly spoken lulling them into a false sense of security but got straight to the point of their businesses and their failings. I loved when she asked Richard the definition of trailblazer and then told him he'd never been the first to do anything. Harsh but true

Vana's wine bottle design looks a bit crap. I wouldn't even look at it twice at the supermarket.

Joseph seems genuinely nice. No beating around the bush and he tells you how it is. Worried he'll be chewed up by suralan if he wins!

var123 Joseph is offering a franchise model - based on following his proven plumber business plan. That's why his % were called into question. £25,000 to buy the franchise and support/training plus 10% of the annual turn-over. The interviewer pointed out that, based on Joseph's own business growth, he would have made a loss rather than a profit. Joseph accepted that and said he would go back and look at the figures again.

My brother bought a franchise (driving instructor) and by the time he had paid for the franchise, bought the cars from the franchiser's finance co and handed over % annual income he was working himself for less than minimum wage.

But there are very successful franchises out there. Domino Pizza is one - but they cost £280,000 on average.

I liked how Joseph worked hard on that handyman task rather than stitching up the PM like some of them would have done?
Vana already has three business this is her fourth idea! I think the success of Tinder is that people want to see people's pics quickly. She should be cutting the process down not making it longer with pictures :-/

I think her idea works if you pick someone based on looks and then play games in run up to date. This enables the software to profile you and put you in contact with more aligned people.

I don't understand how Vana can say it would be high quality people for the dating app. How on earth can you know? A flashy git with a sports car and designer clothes and £1000s in the bank could be a right bellend, yet minimum wage mechanic who looks a bit scruffy could be the nicest person in the world. How can you vet who uses an app? And presumably people can just lie, or use a picture of someone else.

I thought the new woman was rude and kept cutting them all off when they were talking. I don't think she let them finish a single sentence or answer a question. She just wanted to cut them down completely.