Category: Interviews

Adam Freeman – the man who created a media storm after quitting The Apprentice hours before he was due to meet Sir Alan Sugar – has hit back at claims he is simply a cocky Essex boy who bottled it.

He’s been called a wannabe and a drop-out, but the 31-year-old businessman from Chigwell has told how he decided to pull out after producers tried to pressure him into presenting himself as another Sir Alan.

The BBC have revealed that entrepreneur Julie Meyer is one of the new panellists for the recently unveiled online version of Dragons’ Den.

The web version of the hit television show will begin its weekly broadcast on the 30th of March, where aspiring entrepreneurs will have the chance to secure up to £50,000 worth of investment.

Sportsmedia, started by flamboyent entrepreneur Jonny Gould, began by offering sponsored broadcasts to local radio stations; but diversification into new channels and topics has left its founder with growing pangs. “I have no idea how you write a business proposal,” Jonny Gould was told by his father. “But make sure there are no spelling mistakes and work out how much it’s going to cost you first!”

We talk to Simon Woodroffe about life after Yo Sushi and the Dragons Den plus how he manages his business interests even during a financial downturn.

Italian Toni Mascolo opened his first hairdressing salon with brother Gaetano in 1963. Today, the Toni & Guy chain has more than 230 salons in the UK, a further 175 globally, and annual turnover in excess of £175m. The business runs 27 hairdressing academies globally, which train an average of 100,000 hairdressers every year. Mascolo received an Italian Knighthood in 2006 and in 2008, an OBE. The boys from Naples have done well.

“To be successful you need to know how to handle the difficult stuff. It’s easy to make money when the tide is rising. In the 1990s you could be a success by simply walking into the office and standing up. It’s not like that now. Some people have the desire to start a business. Others are passionate about growing a business but it’s unusual to be both things. But that’s what I’ve done.”

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou founded easyJet when he was 28. Today, it operates 157 aircraft on 392 routes between 101 airports in 26 countries. In the past 12 months the firm has carried more than 40m passengers. But Stelios, as he prefers to be known, didn’t stop there. He has since established more than 17 ventures, all with the “easy” prefix.

We profile the former budget airline boss says it’s people that make a business fly. Cassani came to prominence in the UK when she launched British Airways’ budget airline Go Fly in 1998.

She later became the first leader of London’s bid for the 2012 summer Olympics and today she is executive chairman of hotel chain Jurys Inn, a business looking to expand by 30pc in 2009 regardless of the downturn

We talk to Michelle Mone, the Ultimo Lingerie founder about her philosophy for staying ahead when times are hard

I don’t think there are any secrets to running a successful business. It really is a lot of common sense. Perhaps one reason I’ve done well is that I get stuff done. I do my homework, do my research, and then get committed. I’m cool, calm and critical. But when I make a decision I always follow it through.

We talk to Lesley-Ann Simmonds, Managing Director of Shoes Galore Limited in New Milton about her experience of taking part in the hit BBC2 programme Dragon’s Den. Her experience is set to be broadcast on Monday 4th August on BBC2 at 9pm.
 
Shoes Galore is a franchise giving women the opportunity to work around their family commitments selling shoes, bags, belts and accessories mainly by party plan, at corporate’s, charity events and shoe fashion shows.

The Experience in Lesley’s own words…

They met at Anita Roddick’s funeral. Clive Stafford Smith, founder of Reprieve, had a word with Mo and Mark Constantine, co-founders of Lush, about the plight of prisoners held without trial in Guantanamo Bay. “He had a slogan, Buy one, set one free. It was too good to miss,” says Mo.

Canary Wharf is synonymous with men and women in suits, business and sky scrappers. And unless it is an evening in the pub after a hard day’s work, fun is not necessarily the word that springs into mind when one thinks about the business district which has over 80,000 workers and the tallest building in Britain – One Canada Square. But in the cold winter days, the site is totally transformed. Laugh, fun and, for some, a lot of skills are on show at the ice rink in the centre of it all. The businessman behind such enterprise is the Canadian Brian Jokat.

James Caan is not a man to let the grass grow under his feet. By the age of 40 he was a self-made millionaire, having created and sold two executive headhunting firms.

But rather than sailing off into the sunset with G&T in hand, Caan has since graduated from the Advanced Management Programme at Harvard Business School, become a mentor for MBA students at London Business School, and set up a private equity firm, which currently has four companies in its investment portfolio. Oh, and become the latest dragon on Dragon’s Den, where on top of filming obligations, he has already taken three entrepreneurial charges under his wing.