Great news for all entrepreneurs and business start-ups. Dragons’ Den returns to our screen again.
With some great investment opportunities for the famous five, notably the best and most public success goes to Levi Roots and his Jamaican Reggae Reggae chicken sauce., it’s everywhere!

But its the eccentric and sometimes deluded wannabe entrepreneurs who are the most interesting. Similar to the contestants on X Factor who have for years thought that they could sing, these business hopefuls have been struggling for years to get their business ideas off the ground, often spending £1000’s even 100’s of £1000’s of pounds of their own money, remortgaging their houses, borrowing heavily from family and friends in the quest to become the next James Dyson or Richard Branson. Only to find that their business ideas are completely flawed and not worth investing in.

To push up the viewer ratings and entertainment reasons these contestants are obviously allowed into the den for the dragons to rip them apart limb by limb, poking holes and fun at them until they crumble. There are no pulling of punches in the Den. Its like lambs to the slaughter. Its tough love – but ‘someones gotta tell them’. In some circumstances if only these people had been placed in the den years ago they would have save themselves a fortune.

There are some great business ideas on the show, from a personal point of view, watching some contestants pitch their ideas can be very inspirational.

When pitching your business start-up idea to an investor confidence is key, be sure of your product, do your homework on the market you are in and your competition. Any investor you are facing, similarly to the dragons in the den have more than likely come across all of the challenges facing a business like yours, they may have even tried and failed with a similar idea. But whats most important, and we can’t stress this enough is have the figures straight, there is nothing worse than not knowing your figures, as ‘Jessie J’ suggests its all about the “Money, Money, Money’. If you don’t have the accounts to hand or realistic projections embedded to he inside of your forehead then it will end in tears. The person receiving your pitch will see right through your presentation, and what could have been an invest-able idea will look weak and peel away like flaky pastry.

So we’re looking forward to watching the rest of the series, but one thing I hadn’t noticed before, I had heard Peter Jones was tall but blimey – he is tall!

Dean Williams

Dean Williams is a design and marketing blogger working for Print-Print Limited, promoting business and building brands through quality print marketing. If you’re interested in small business promotion then please get in touch hello@print-print.co.uk