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Blog posts tagged gardening
Dragons' Den digest: Week 4
August 03, 2010
Highlights of episode four in the latest series of Dragons' Den.
Quote of the Episode: “You're a Dragon, I trust you” Layla Bennett, Hawksdrift Falconry
Idea 1:
Product: Hawksdrift Falconry - Falconry experience business.
Investment sought: £50,000 for 25 per cent
Handling: Her pitch was succinct and told the Dragons all they needed to know. Honest about need for advice in marketing.
Outcome: A small business that the Dragons felt they could not scale but Duncan saw an opportunity and made an offer to reach the required investment.
Verdict: Good pitch and solid business run by someone who has given their all, reaped the small rewards and now earned an offer from Duncan.
Idea 2
Product: Rotaball - Football on a rotating poll, recreational equipment.
Investment sought: £150,000 for 10 per cent
Handling: His children that performed the demonstration looked to be there under duress and the product seemed weak. Duncan was critical and Theo scathing, “Explain to me how company a selling a ball on a stick can be worth £1.5million.”
Outcome: Weak product and very little to back up his pitch with no written order confirmations. Peter Jones said he should get a “Reality check”
Verdict: Pitch poor, product poor
Idea 3
Product: Blooming High - a stackable plant pot product.
Investment sought: £50,000 for 15 per cent
Handling: A classic example of a hobbyist with a true passion and spotting a gap in a very niche market. The product needed to be less fussy and the business plan was leaky. Initial stock order was huge and now surplus stock needs selling. No distributors taking it on.
Outcome: No investment but some sound business advice from Duncan to help them push on the business (and shift all that existing stock!).
Verdict: Need a business partner to bring some focus to what is a useful niche product that has a patent. Catalogues and shopping channels are a likely source of custom.
Idea 4
Product: Lumacoustics and their ‘Your Wall’ - Indoor graffiti technology
Investment sought: £50,000 for 10 per cent
Handling: The product split the Dragons. Some could not see any potential. The inventors nearly talked themselves out of a deal but got there in the end.
Outcome: After playing hard to get they managed to secure a matched investment of £50,000 for 40 per cent between Deborah Meaden and Peter Jones.
Verdict: A great product that will do well unless the inventors talk themselves into trouble.
- You can replay the episode on the BBC's Dragons' Den micro site
What did you think of the episode?
Related articles:
Why marketing is quite a lot like gardening
September 01, 2009
Anyone that follows me on Twitter will know that I'm quite a keen gardener. Last summer, I pretty much managed to grow all our vegetables throughout the summer, and I was looking forward to this year being no different. To add to that I've recently been very interested in growing my own cut flowers, and had enthusiastically gone out and dug up a few new bits of lawn to create a cutting garden. I had big dreams of trugs full of vegetables and armfuls of cut flowers to give to friends as presents.
I started out the year enthusiastically, but to be honest, with a new baby, a business to run, a book to write and everything else us working mums have to contend with, I haven't been out there as much as I should. My little gems have bolted, the beets aren't doing well and the whole garden looks a bit of a mess. And it suddenly dawned on me today that gardening is a lot like marketing.
Every week I just need to do a little bit to my garden to keep the whole thing looking beautiful and becoming productive. I need to keep on top of the weeds, but I also need to thin out, harvest and plant new seed.
As Stephen Covey states, nature is a perpetual cycle that you can't cheat. You've got to do little bits in stages or you get this feast and famine effect. So it seems ludicrous that although we recognise that in gardening you need to do little and often, we expect quick fixes when it comes to our marketing.
Marketing, just as with your garden, has a process that takes time to make work. You've got to generate leads, build relationships, look after the clients you have and make sure you harvest – i.e. close the deal as well. It's really not rocket science, you just need to put in a small amount of effort on a regular basis and you really will reap the rewards.
Visit Fiona Humberstone’s Marvellous Monthly Marketing Tips blog for marketing and branding tips.
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