Marketing For Power Packed Business Growth

I saw Sir Alan Sugar on Jonathan Ross's show last night.

He was very entertaining although he did have a bit of a go at the armchair critics who are all saying how the candidates aren't doing as well as they should.

He does have a point. We aren't in the situation where someone comes along gives us a couple of hundred quid, a van and says go and sell something.

But really if these people are that good they should rise to the challenge and not make simple mistakes.

As just a few examples:

• Moving a selling team making money from a successful pitch
• Calling an e-number-ridden lollipop natural
• Using a baked bean can as a kind of stove to heat sausages
• Buying bulk cheddar to sell to the French
• Going round in circles trying to buy nigella seeds
• Just sitting at a pitch trying to sell coffee in an area where there are a large number of cheaper cafes
• Selling face painting at a fiver a time
• Selling kisses

There are so many. They don't require business acumen. They just require a tinge of commonsense.

Now, back to who is likely to win The Apprentice UK?

Putting my neck on the line at the half-way point I'll predict that Miss Smugness (Kristina Grimes) will sweep all before her. Rather like a snow plough cutting through the motorway drifts!