February 21st, 2007 by Gerard McGarry.
Roger Hind entered the Dragons Den tonight and I bet he didn’t expect to start a fight.
He was selling his product, the rotamate, a washing line that protects your clothes from the rain, and the birds! Roger was asking for £85,000 for a 15% share in his business. Richard Farleigh declared at an early stage that he would be prepared to offer half the money for about 15% of the business, but when Deborah Meaden offered half the money for 20% of the business Richard changed his mind and decided to ask for the same.
The other Dragons were enraged, Peter Jones and Theo Paphitas even went as far as to advise Roger not to take the deal.
But Roger was desperate for the cash, and the expertise, so he accepted the offer on the table and ended up giving away 40% of his company for £85,000.
February 21st, 2007 by Gerard McGarry.
Denise Hutton entered the Dragons Den tonight along with 4 children from her theatre school, who proceeded to perform the school jingle.
Denise currently owns 4 Razzamataz theatre schools and has franchised out 6 other branches. Denise was asking the Dragons for £50,000 in exchange for 25% of her business.
The Dragons were impressed by Denise’s pitch but were unsure of what she needed the £50,000 for. She first claimed she could use it to lend to potential franchisees, then changed her mind and said she could use it for marketing.
This seemed to scare off Deborah Meaden, Theo Paphitis and Peter Jones, and Richard Farleigh jumped ship because he thought that Razzamataz faced too big a competitor in Stagecoach.
However Duncan Bannantyne waited until the last final moment to reveal that he had in fact invested in Stagecoach and had sold his investment on for quite a large profit. He shockingly failed to haggle with Denise and offered her the full £50,000 for 25% of the business.
Duncan closed the show by saying:
“How could I haggle? It’ll be a fantastic little business”.
February 7th, 2007 by Lisa McGarry.
So for all you wannabe inventors and entrepeneurs here are the things the millionaires are looking for:
"All we want is two simple things," Theo explained.
"First, for someone to come up with a good idea and to have done their homework. And also, to show that they're capable of managing their business. That's it.
"If they can do those simple things, they've got a hell of a chance of getting out of there with some cash."
Theo also admitted ot the Manchester Evening News that he was looking forward to working with his fellow Dragons again: "We all fit into the show reasonably well," he says.
"Although there's always friction when you try to invest, that's the nature of the show. I make my decisions based on very simple criteria - do I like the person, and secondly, is the idea good? If those two work, I'm in."
So there's what the millionaires are looking for......anybody willing to give it a go?
