What would you do if you were on the apprentice?

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L

lethal

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Aug 6, 2006
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  • #1
    Ok, we all watched well most watch apprentice, and I would like to know what would you do if sir alan sugar gave you 200£ and gave you one day to make as much money as you can?

    I would buy something from the wholesale and try doing door to door sales or alternativly set up a small stand and sell the items such as fruit, or gadgets.
     

  • #2
    I think both teams should have concentrated more on the night time business, rather than daytime: and then find a hungry crowd and feed it: - so pick products to sell in covent garden or leicester square to theatre goers.

    And pick a different product to sell, maybe at speakers corner day time.

    Even an item of hot or cold food maybe.

    I think where mattered a lot more than what!

    For example face painting would have worked a lot better outside the natural history museum, or outside the tower of london - maybe even convince a busy toy shop to let you do it outside there store, for a cut of the takings.
     
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    G

    Gavin Harris

  • #6
    I think their biggest mistake was to not dedicate enough time to organising the evening work during the day. I would have taken one person out of the team during the day, whos job was to get something big sorted for the evening.

    That gives you the day for the rest of the team to get a bit of money made, and then it gives the other guy all day to sort out something that will make big money.

    Not quite sure what though - I've only given it 30 seconds thought, and then my mind drifted to thinking about going to bed!
     
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    M

    Matt1959

    Free Member
    Sep 8, 2006
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  • #8
    hand washing of cars till dusk. Perhaps hire a pressure washer - do vans as well. Split the group up so each one earned by themselves and make use of the numbers. Probally too much like work for this lot though. As it was, too much chat/ arguing/ hanging about and doing sod all.........
     
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    C

    CarolineICE

  • #9
    I thought the face painting idea was OK. If it was me I would have hot footed it to the nearest Waitrose or other supermarket and tried there. You could tell they weren't in touch with kids, for God's sake they headed to a primary school at chucking out time...:redface: woeful! And the DJ idea??? Look at them! The sing o gram or whatever it was was better. The kissogram was frankly embarrassing.

    Oh and that Jadine (think that is her name) needs a serious talking to.


    Caroline
     
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    M

    multilingual

  • #10
    Sell hanging baskets door to door.

    Buy the basket, compost and plants for about £9, sell them for £18.

    People love those, but most can't be bothered to go to the trouble of making their own.

    Not an all year round business, but with six people selling them and one making them up, you could have turned over £500 in a day easily.

    JB
     
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    P

    Pilfo

  • #11
    estwig said:
    Doesn't work mate, tried that in my younger days!!!!

    'you gotta a couple of roof tiles loose luv, fix em for £20.00'

    Gave up on that one pretty quick!!!!
    Click to expand...

    That's not DIY Keith, more like jobbing.

    What I mean is asking what they would like doing, eg. fit/fix shelving, leaking taps, things that maybe their husband hasn't finished/botched up, etc. etc.

    Pilfo
     
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    U

    ukanalyst

    Free Member
    Jul 15, 2006
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    Northumberland
  • #14
    If he gave me £200 i would split the team into 4

    Team 1 - buy a book of raffle tickets at woolworths for £1, sell the tickets at a £1 a go with the top prize being £49 - sell 1000 tickets you made a grand.

    Team 2 - £ 50 quid worth of scratch cards, 1 in 4 win a prize (apparently) so say £10 on average per win, that's about £120

    Team 3 - £50 in the bookies - get an accumlator going and make at least £1,000

    Team 4 - hire a street performer and see how mush money they make - probably about £100.

    I reckon i could make at least £2,500 out of the £200 - a 1150% return.

    Given the right circumstances, you could probably make a lot more

    Where's my contract Sir Alan ha ha

    Incidentally - i don't watch the Apprentice - am usually at work or doing one of my hobbies - how much did they make ?

    Regards

    Chris
     
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    S

    SuffolkDesigns

  • #15
    The Kissogram and Singogram were just gimmicks, not businesses, especially the way they were done....

    Face painting, OK but wrong location and day of the week.

    The gardening probably would have worked on a long term basis, but really tough to make it work in one day, people want regular gardeners not bob a job types.

    The night time was pathetic, they could have sold roses, seafood etc in the pubs, offered a "drive you home" service. They would have made more money if they all took jobs collecting glasses on minimum age.
     
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    SillyJokes

    SillyJokes

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    Jul 26, 2004
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  • #17
    I'd have bought a local paper and seen if there were any events with crowds.

    I'd have got yellow pages and looked for wholesalers of something - maybe packaged cookies which could be sold from a basket. As mentioned selling 'a rose for the lady' is an obvious one but a Tuesday night in Richmond would be pretty quiet I'd have thought.

    Face painting was a non starter for a weekday - toddlers are too young for this and £5 a face was daylight robbery. I was embarrassed that they thought they could get kids coming out of school and even then turned up too late to meet them. Naomi should have been fired for choosing the wrong business.
     
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    directmarketingadvice

    directmarketingadvice

    Free Member
    Aug 2, 2005
    10,887
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  • #18
    yeah i'd stick it on horse and not tell my team mates
    Click to expand...

    If the girls had backed a horse at even money and won, they would have won the task.

    And I'd loved to have been in that boardroom!

    "The boys: worked their arses off for 12 hours and got very rattty with each other, they brought back £380 quid".

    "The girls: studied the form for a couple of hours, went down to Ladbrokes and put their £200 on the favourite in the 2.30 at Brighton and then took the rest of the day off. They've returned £400."

    Steve
     
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    B

    Blow-Me

    Free Member
    Mar 14, 2007
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  • #21
    You cant go wrong with car washing. Maximum expences would be £20. (A few sponges and a bucket) So already there is £180 still in the pot.

    Two people selling the rest washing 1 car at a time. 10mins per car.

    With the early start they had, what was it 6am? Even at just 2 cars per hour they would win. (Thats without the night time)

    The singing and kissogram were shocking ideas!
     
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    directmarketingadvice

    directmarketingadvice

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    Aug 2, 2005
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  • #22
    Doesn't that include the £200 they started with?
    Click to expand...

    Yep. I think they made a profit of around £180-190.

    The pay per person per day was extremely low if it was including the £200 startup
    Click to expand...

    Yep.

    They had 6 people working what looked like a 12 hour day or longer.

    So, about £30 each or £2.50 an hour.

    ... and they were the winners!

    The girls had 7 people and made under £90, I think.

    That would be under £1 an hour, I reckon.

    Steve
     
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  • #23
    I would of gone straight to a cyber cafe, created a simple website (sub 20 mins), adwords to promote selling something specific to the area and hand deliver in the evening.

    Maybe fresh flowers or similar product type.

    Also, they would of made more money if they had of gotten jobs !, atleast they would have gotten £5.45 per hour (minimum wage maybe!)
     
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    C

    Cool Photography

  • #24
    Ideas...

    1. The last time I was in London, I had lunatics jumping out infront of me, chucking some water on my windscreen and then demanding £1.... They didn't get anything out of me as I was in a truck at the time (with very loud airhorns - they got the message). But I bet quite a few people paid up... easy money to.

    2. Popped into a charity shop, purchased a doll and some old clothes, got dressed up in my new old clothes and then wrap the doll in rags and gone on a begging spree...

    3. Called in at a pound shop, got some foil, then into the park and collected some shrubs, do a small amount of production and wrap the shrubs in the foil then gone around selling "lucky heather" from a gypsy.

    Note:
    None of the above is ethical, but if it is to prove a point (i.e. win a challenge) then why not, I mean these aren't new ideas and plenty of people do make a good living from such activities.

    <evil grin>Just popping out to the shops........</evil grin>
     
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    H

    HC-Martin

  • #25
    Car washing is the best idea....

    They could have approached one of the big chain supermarkets and got permission to Car wash in their car park - obviously mentioned to the manager that they were doing The Apprentice for the BBC with ohhhh......Xmillion viewers....i'm sure the supermarket would have been over the moon with the free publicity.;)
     
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    M

    Malcolm Cooper

    Free Member
    Sep 23, 2006
    224
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    Cheltenham
  • #27
    They could have approached one of the big chain supermarkets and got permission to Car wash in their car park - obviously mentioned to the manager that they were doing The Apprentice for the BBC with ohhhh......Xmillion viewers....i'm sure the supermarket would have been over the moon with the free publicity.;)
    Click to expand...

    I have to agree with everyone that said car washing and spot on with the local Tesco/Waitrose car park pitch. I was shouting at the TV, it was so obvious!. £5 a car would be cheap and I'm sure they'd have trebled the £200 before dusk.

    I still don't know what I'd have done after dusk on a Tuesday night in Richmond though.
     
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    S

    swisslogistics

  • #28
    Set up a simple truck valet and hot/cold food stall aimed at truckers.

    Wouldnt cost very much, and while the truckers grab a bite to eat you quickly give the cab a once over, the girls would have had it easier as I dont know many truckers that would refuse a couple of good looking girls cleaning up their cab!

    They would have made a packet!
     
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    G

    Gavin Harris

  • #29
    swisslogistics said:
    Set up a simple truck valet and hot/cold food stall aimed at truckers.
    Click to expand...

    Nice idea, but I'm pretty sure there aren't many truckers driving through Richmond.

    Maybe some white vans though?

    The mouthy guy (I can't remember his name) had it spot on when he said go looking for DJing work. That pays around £100-£150 per bar. If they'd got just one gig that night, that would have generated a nice bit of money, with next to no outlay (as long as the bar provided the music, which many do on computer now).
     
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  • #33
    lethal said:
    Ok, we all watched well most watch apprentice, and I would like to know what would you do if sir alan sugar gave you 200£ and gave you one day to make as much money as you can?

    I would buy something from the wholesale and try doing door to door sales or alternativly set up a small stand and sell the items such as fruit, or gadgets.
    Click to expand...

    It's great fun to think this through isn't it. That episode has given me some inspiration for my business ideas blog and I'm adding an idea a day this week that I believe can be started for £200 (plus a lot of hard work).

    It's even got me wondering what business you could start with nothing more than the clothes on your back... I've suprised myself at how many I can think of.

    Regards, John
     
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    P

    Pebble Communications

  • #34
    I think it was going to be bloody hard to turn much of a profit in a single day (Tuesday) in Richmond, whatever they did.

    Daytime - I agree car-washing would have been a good one. The gardening idea was a bit of a loser I thought but I was surprised how much they made. In that area, I would think most people would have a regular gardening service anyway.

    Face-painting - they were targeting older kids, which was pointless. Also, a lot of the younger kids there are looked after by nannies during the day, who are not likely to fork out £5 of their own money for face-painting. I also thought it was dodgy of them to go up to the kids and ask them directly 'would you like your face painted' instead of asking the adults with them. If someone did that to my kid it would piss me off severely and I'd say no out of principle. It's virtually a blackmail attempt.

    In the evening I'd have found some little do-da that we could personalise with messages/names using a nice gold pen or something, and take it round the bars and pubs.

    You have to have a license to run a raffle - if they could have sorted that out quickly enough with the council and then printed up some decent tickets, that might have been a good one.

    Or a five minute head/shoulder massage?

    They also could have done something outside Richmond station to hit the commuters getting home from work. Flowers? Then taken what was left round the pubs?
     
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    S

    Short Time Stationery

  • #35
    I would have done the car wash thing in the day and in the evening I'd have done a speed dating event, perhaps getting a publicity fee from a venue and run a raffle at it too. Would have made leaflets for offices and shops, a few posters and ask a local radio station to plug it, dropping in the "We are from the Apprentice" line. The radio station would get the scoop, the team would get publicity, and the venue would sell more drinks than usual, everyone's a winner...

    They would have needed to to have decided this on the evening before, to plan a stratergy, form a dedicated team and not to have produced an Ad Hoc system that hand little thought into its ability to make money.
     
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    S

    Sure

  • #36
    I would have split the £200 between the team members, and sent them on their way with the promise of the worst two being up for firing should the task be lost. for the evening we would all adopt the idea of whoever made the most £ so far.
    I would obviously keep in touch and encourage them from a beer garden somewhere.
     
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