I didn't like the way Mark (last week) was slating the other candidates' business plans. Imo, that should be down to LS.

It's fair enough to blow your own trumpet but one of his comments was, "I will produce a net profit of over £1m in year 1".

I'm surprised he wasn't challenged on this last night (interviews) unless his business plan says something different.

Has this been mentioned yet?

Just read on BBC news that on Tuesday night there was a 'glitch' on the BBC's 'meet the candidates' page that said 3 remained in the process. 

But 5 appeared on the Wednesday show

The final is on Sunday. Mark vs Bianca.

Mark's plan is basically to do what he does for his old employer -- digital marketing and search engine optimisation, sfaict, ie getting your web site up near the top of Google's results -- for himself. A lot of small businesses start that way. Ricky Martin who won two years ago is similar.

Bianca's plan is to manufacture tights and shapewear (which has apparently moved on since whalebone corsets).

Prediction: no idea. And tbh I'm not really sure I care. Both seem plausible businesses but if it was the production team's aim to make me root for one or other of the candidates, it has failed. Anyway, there is not long to wait now.

Mark's seems safer in that we know he can do it (because he does it already for another company). It is a shame we did not hear more about his claims for £1 million in a year.

On the other hand, although in electronics rather than fashion, Lord Sugar's background is in manufacturing and selling products, which might favour Bianca. The fashion editor consulted by one of the interviewers said there was a real gap in the market, so could Bianca be the next Spandex or Ultimo?

Revised prediction: it is Bianca's to lose. It does not matter how well or badly Mark does in the final because everything is already known. Bianca on the other hand needs to prove to Lord Sugar that she, Bianca, can make this work in the real world. If the mock-launch in the final goes well, she wins. If it flops, she loses because Mark is the safe, fallback option.

For me Mark wins. Sir/Lord Al throws a small amount of money at it and six months later he is working as a salesman for Sir/Lord Al.

Is it Al's dough or ours via the BBC?

Stow - suspect it's Alan's.

As an aside, he donates his fee for the show to Great Ormand Steet Children's Hospital.

Have no idea what the fee is but would guess iro £200k pa?

Would like to see Al be knocked down a peg or several. He has such an inflated view of himself.

So you're a stockings man?

Actually, I'm already on the first page of Google.

In fact, for most searches, I'm in the top three on page 1 and never had any help with SEO but I'm in a very niche market.

This is the tenth series but none of the fired trio seem to have watched any of the other nine.

They do seem to have learned not to say, "I'm just like you, Surallan".

@Stowe_judge re Bianca nicking the idea. Maybe. Who knows? Ideas are ten-a-penny; it's the execution that matters. It might even be one of the ideas Solomon tapped into his phone in the middle of the night. (Btw, the interviewer told Solomon his idea for renting bedrooms by the hour was an hotel -- but surely it is dangerously close to a knocking shop.) Ella told the People she had the idea in 2010, so four years later she has still failed to make a go of it.

Most businesses -- probably well over 99 per cent -- are not based on original ideas, but either on better or just local (not even better) application of an existing business. My newsagent retires at the end of the year but 40 years ago he was not put off by the thought of other shops selling papers. Vauxhall has not chucked it in because Ford makes cars. Purely by coincidence, I was just clicking around Youtube (not the first internet video site btw) when I came across this from ex-Dragon Theo Paphitis: "I've never had an original idea in my life. I just look at other people's ideas and execute them better."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ouc-gxtRDo

Tbh I'd be astonished if tights for darker skins was not already an established industry in America where there is a large Black middle class, not to mention Africa or India.

And that I think might be the weakness in Bianca's idea -- that really she has not designed a better product but merely wants to sell (wholesale or retail?) one that she will commission from existing manufacturers. Or at least, that is my understanding from last week. The final is on BBC1 tonight so we shall see. From a shop's point of view, tights take up hardly any room so stocking (no pun intended) an extensive range of sizes and colours will be easy enough (although if Bianca is aiming at a premium brand with boxes and tissue paper, that might not be true). The problem is that if sales do take off, as they probably will since it is a good idea, Bianca is easily bypassed, so she needs quickly to develop a strong brand before then: not easy if she is not the designer.

According to a pretty convincing story in the people, Bianca nicked her idea from a lady she met at an networking event for black business people in February 2013. Shocked

Does that mean white people were banned?

it is shocking that people should be excluded because of the colour of their skin.

Guess you don't believe in equality, Wesdag

There isnt.

dum dedum dedum dedum dedum dedum dedum dum

anyone else noticed that Bianca has an absolute mahoosive heeed.

£35 for a pair of tights

Might be a big potential market but wouldn't have thought many would pay that much

like a psychologist called Phyllis calling their Business Psy Phyllis

Mark is getting ready to unleash the mother of all chokes.

AAhem..

bianca wins i suspect.

she's got an idea that needs polishing.

mark's area is too competitive.