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Dragons' Den digest - Week 6
August 17, 2010
If you missed last week's, catch up here and below you will find the highlights of episode six.
Quote of the Episode: "Problem: Doesn't make money. Solution: I'm out." Peter Jones
Idea 1
Product: Peel Engineering - The world's smallest production car with an electric engine
Investment sought: £80,000 for 10 per cent
Handling: They have an initial product but too many 'flights of fancy' revenue streams. Requires focus and a stronger business proposition.
Outcome: A hard fought negotiation saw them secure £80,000 for 30 per cent of the company. James Caan also secured himself one of every design of the vehicles.
Verdict: With a strong business partner and savvy investor, the pair could make a good go of their business.
Idea 2
Product: Angel Cot - a multi-purpose baby unit.
Investment sought: £150,000 for 40 per cent
Handling: A relatively straight forward presentation suddenly descended into a ridiculous pitch with the second half being performed through the medium of song. Product was trying too hard to be all things.
Outcome: No investment
Verdict: Pitch poor and then there was the singing...
Idea 3
Product: Advanced Building Designs - A variety of products for the plumbing and building industry
Investment sought: £89,000 for 15 per cent
Handling: A beautifully choreographed presentation. They would be great on a TV shopping channel. The product was deemed unnecessary and 'fixing' a problem that did not exist.
Outcome: No investment
Verdict: James Caan said, "You are just going to burn my money"
Idea 4
Product: Funky Moves - Interactive play equipment
Investment sought: £120,000 for 20 per cent
Handling: Set the cat amongst the pigeons revealing costs for tooling to create more stock and disclosing that he had received £140,000 in Government grants to establish the product. Some Dragons were well and truly riled. Duncan threatened to go offshore.
Outcome: A joint investment from Theo and Peter saw Funky Moves give away 50 per cent of his business in order to secure £120,000
Verdict: Once Peter Jones saw the bigger picture, the investment was always going to be forthcoming.
- You can replay the episode on the BBC's Dragons' Den micro site
What did you think of the episode?
Related articles:
Dragons' Den digest - Week 5
August 10, 2010
Week 5 of Dragons' Den signals the halfway mark in the current series.
If you missed last week's, catch up here and below you will find the highlights of episode five.
Quote of the Episode: “I never used to use salt until three years ago. Then I discovered rock salt” Duncan Bannatyne
Idea 1
Product: Black Nut Iberian Pig Feed - Manufacture of pig feed for rare species of pig
Investment sought: £100,000 for 20 per cent
Handling: Handled questions well but his answers were his undoing. Pitched as 'Organic' when it was not.
Outcome: No investment.
Verdict: Beyond the bizarre idea, this is also a weak business plan and more of a whim.
Idea 2
Product: Tree of Knowledge - Educational play resources
Investment sought: £100,000 for 10 per cent
Handling: Educational products often do well in the Den. Nice genuine and down-to-earth pitch but didn't do enough to convince more than one Dragon wholeheartedly to invest.
Outcome: Peter Jones offered £50,000 for 20 per cent. No Dragon would match his offer and Dragons' Den rules require full value to be met for an investment.
Verdict: Good pitch but fell just short of being a 'Wow' product.
Idea 3
Product: Zigo - A combined buggy and bike invention
Investment sought: £225,000 for 6 per cent
Handling: Theo was shocked by the valuation of the business. The owners said this was due to the $400,000 invested into the business three years previously and further questioning revealed the Dragons' investment would be to cover a loss this financial year.
Outcome: No investment.
Verdict: Peter Jones saw the bigger picture. The product design, although aesthetically pleasing, was not practical.
Idea 4
Product: WedgeWelly - Stylish wellies with heels for festivals
Investment sought: £65,000 for 20 per cent
Handling: Name-dropped a few high street retailers and high-end fashion names to lure the Dragons. A weak grasp of their figures and need some astute business direction but they have a great product.
Outcome: James Caan offered the full asking price. Deborah offered the full amount but sought an additional 30 per cent. Theo offered the same and on the same terms as Deborah. WedgeWelly went for their Dragon of choice over retaining company stake: in the end they negotiated hard to get Theo down to 22.5 per cent. Theo countered with 25 per cent.
Verdict: Fun fashion product and a great deal secured for the business.
- You can replay the episode on the BBC's Dragons' Den micro site
What did you think of the episode?
Related articles:
Social Contact Management - keep in touch everywhere
August 02, 2010
About a month ago, I attended a presentation and workshop on marketing where the presenter, Helen Dowling of Exceptional Thinking, said that the most important part of marketing is to have a way to follow up, and then to follow up. We all come back from seminars and networking events with pockets full of business cards; how many of us actually make use of them?
With the development of social media, the channels through which you can follow up have multiplied, and it is no longer necessary to email everyone you met – some people may warrant an @mention on Twitter, others a connection request on LinkedIn, while others will require an email, and lastly some will need a phone call.
This diversity of follow up opportunities means that you need to have a means to decide who gets what. Hopefully you will have an idea of how likely it is that you will do business with each of the people you met, and so you can use this to decide how you will follow up with them: the most likely you can phone; the least likely you can say ‘Hi’ to on Twitter.
Whatever means you use to do your initial follow-up, you need to have a record of what was said, where, through what channel, and by and to whom. As your business grows it will very soon become difficult to keep track using pen and paper, and so a Contact Management System on a computer and/or smart phone becomes essential.
Choosing a Contact Management System can be a difficult task, especially if you want it to work with Social Media. And Contact Management Systems can be expensive – though a lot of people are using the Outlook Contact Manager add-on successfully, which is part of the Microsoft Office Small business package. Other options include Gist, ContactZilla and Glasscubes, to name a few.
I am always on the lookout for solutions, and am in a position to help and advise you on the best solution for contact management with social media, should you need it.
- Nigel Legg is an independent social media monitoring and marketing consultant based in Bristol, UK.
Dragons' Den digest: Week 3
July 27, 2010
A slight shift from Wednesday to Monday for the remainder of this series of Dragons' Den. It will take more than that to catch us off guard.
If you missed last week's, catch up here and below you will find the highlights of episode three.
Quote of the Episode: "If you were to wear glasses you'd look a bit like Theo" Peter Jones
Idea 1
Product: Tatty Bumpkin - ethical children's brand
Investment sought: £200,000 for 20 per cent
Handling: A confident start but confused the Dragons with so many aspects of the business. She demonstrated one of the classes when Peter Jones questioned what her business is about. An argument broke out when questioned about her brand and she became defensive.
Outcome: No offers
Verdict: Lots of ambition but not a strong enough brand and an unrealistic business model.
Idea 2
Product: Golfers' Mate - a pitch repair multi-tool
Investment sought: £100,000 for 12.5 per cent
Handling: A very shaky start, had to restart the pitch three times. Eventually recovered but was instantly faced with harsh criticism from the Dragons. He gave jokey responses to the Dragons' questions, which didn't impress them.
Outcome: James Caan offer: £100k for 30 per cent share – negotiated to 25 per cent with a proviso that they could buy back 15 per cent when James gets his £100k investment back, retaining a 10 per cent share – accepted
Verdict: Not a great pitch and quite blasé when questioned, however he managed to impress with his confidence in receiving bulk orders from large potential clients, which was enough to seal the deal.
Idea 3
Product: Aquatina - a collapsable drinks bottle that can be re-used
Investment sought: £100,000 for 10 per cent equity
Handling: A very confident pitch but the Dragons found it hard to see the point of the product. Duncan Bannatyne became quite irate and threw the product across the den. As the questioning continued, the Dragons became more hostile, accusing him of 'pulling the wool over their eyes' and misleading them in regards to the point of the product.
Outcome: No offers
Verdict: The Dragons struggled to see the point of the product and felt it was not a solution to the problem it was designed to solve.
Idea 4
Product: FGH security - Manned security company
Investment sought: £75,000 for 10 per cent
Handling: An excellent pitch, very knowledgeable and instantly likeable. They presented an excellent business proposition which was attractive to all of the dragons. James Caan made an offer within minutes and was soon followed by the others. Deborah Meaden said she was finding it hard to think of reasons not to invest.
Outcome: Joint offer – Peter Jones 50k for 10 per cent and Theo Phaphitis 50k for 10 per cent with 5 per cent of the equity given back to FGH when the investment is repaid. Offer accepted
Verdict: A highly professional pitch which offered the Dragons an extremely attractive business proposition.
- You can replay the episode on the BBC's Dragons' Den micro site
What did you think of the episode?
Related articles:
Dragons' Den digest: Week 2
July 22, 2010
After the exciting start to the new series last week, we are back once again with a bite size round-up of episode two.
Quote of the Episode: "Love the knickers" Theo Paphitis
Idea 1
Product: Subeo ― submarine
Investment sought: £1.45m for 45 per cent equity
Handling: Confident delivery of pitch, a positive start. Dragons were fascinated by the product and enjoyed testing it out. Duncan Bannatyne tested them on their figures. Financial row between the Dragons while pitchers looked on bemused.
Outcome: With a sale price of £595,000 and such a high risk, the Dragons didn't invest.
Verdict: Interesting product but huge financial risk.
Idea 2
Product: Vintage Patisserie
Investment sought: £100,000 for 30 per cent
Handling: Confident delivery, knew her pitch. Brought dancers and sample cakes, knickers and chocolates. Dragons questioned her premises costs and she struggled to remember her figures. Made a heartfelt plea at the end of the questioning. Very passionate.
Outcome: Deborah Meaden offer: £50,000 for 20 per cent, Theo Paphitis offer: £50,000 for 20 per cent ― accepted.
Verdict: Lots of passion and personality but needed to know her figures inside out.
Idea 3
Product: EDH Washing Line ― Motor powered washing line
Investment sought: £80,000 for 25 per cent
Handling: Honest, down to earth, not a traditional sales pitch. He explained both the good and bad points of the product and was honest about the high parts costs. Dragons liked him personally.
Outcome: No offers.
Verdict: Nice natural down to earth pitch but the Dragons thought the price was too high. Peter Jones liked the idea but told him to speak to washing line manufacturers instead.
Idea 4
Product: Shopbox Systems Ltd ― innovative storage system for storing groceries
Investment sought: £250,000 for 10 per cent
Handling: Self-assured pitch in which they explained the product well. Spent almost £1m already. They upset Theo Paphitis after he questioned whether a child could get locked inside. Mentioned that they had other parties interested but wouldn't disclose the details.
Outcome: No offers.
Verdict: They had spent lots of money already and didn't seem to need the investment as they had other offers in the pipeline. Peter Jones said they had made the pitch quite unattractive.
- You can replay the episode on the BBC's Dragons' Den micro site
What did you think of the episode?
Related articles:
Crafting the email
May 21, 2010
Emails are the lifeblood of your communications.
- You want people to read your material and respond.
- You want people to feel good about seeing an email from you in their inbox.
- You want to give your readers a reason to open your email.
That is all your email has to do.
It doesn’t have to close the deal. It doesn’t have to take the payment. Leave that for your website to do.
Then your reader has the option whether to click on the link and take it further or just consume the information you have provided.
To test the sort of content that is right for you, call a couple of prospects or clients and give them the information you want to send in an email. If you find your hands going clammy at the thought, then perhaps your message is not right at this time.
People will buy when they are ready to do so. There is nothing you can do to get them to buy quicker or differently to the way they will do so. It is your job to understand how your prospects buy and map your communications accordingly. A couple of things will happen – less of your emails will be found in the spam box and the number of sales will increase.
This blog post by Karen Purves originally appeared at HaveMoreClients.com
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