Both Yasmina and Kate were great finalist – must have been a very hard decision for Sir Alan – I hope that Kate finds herself a new exciting job as well.

It’s been a great 12 weeks, and I would have to agree with many that this year’s Apprentice has been the best yet…I’ve even thought about entering next year…well maybe!

Well done Yasmina – good luck in your new roll with Sir Alan, and best of luck to all the other candidates who have done so well over the past 12 weeks, I wish you all every success in Business – as well as Margaret – she’s been great and will be missed next year.

The interview team was a tough panel to impress, they were lot tougher than previous years as they really drilled down into references and even filed accounts, as Yasmina found out!

This was my favourite part of this episode – Yasmina’s interview with Claude – you would think that as a Financial Director in her own business she would know its current financial position and that your published accounts (sent to companies house) are indeed pubic and can be obtained from anyone!

Just for clarification, I’ve included the correct definitions for Yasmina:

1. Sales Revenue (Turnover) = Price (of product) x Quantity Sold
2. Gross profit = sales revenue – cost of sales and other direct costs
3. Operating profit = Gross profit – overheads and other indirect costs
4. Pre-tax profit or Net profit = operating profit – one off items and redundancy payments, staff restructuring – interest payable
5. Profit after tax = Pre-tax profit – tax
6. Retained profit = Profit after tax – Dividends

Watch the door handle doesn’t hit your bum on the way out…

James – our comedian over the course of this years Apprentice was his normal charming self – minus a few bent spokes, whilst Debra was as hard-nosed as we could expect – even her references called her a bitch, and I don’t think that Lorraine’s special gift of “intuition” was working, otherwise she would have predicted that her journey was over and she also be shown the door.

The Final

So onto Sunday’s Final (Sunday 7th June @ 9pm BBC1) when Kate (27, Licensing Development Manager) and Yasimina (27, award-winning restaurateur) battle it out in two teams – one will become Sir Alan’s next apprentice..but who?

My money is on Kate!

Such a shame that both Howard and Lorraine couldn’t shift just two more deep fat fryer’s – weren’t they good items, if we only just knew how to buy one!

I thought once again Howard, Kate and Lorraine were the better side in terms of products – and Nick was quite right to point out that they should have absolutely crushed Yasmina, Debra and James, but they didn’t simply because their selling pitch missed all the vital information required:

Product – yep, got that – could they bang on any more about it!
Price – mentioned once or twice, call to action
Call to Action – umm, not sure I quite got the item code, phone number or website details to order the damn thing!

As much as I thought they were the better team in terms of “teamwork” – obviously there execution was poor, and although I think Debra is quite stuck-up and blatantly hard to manage – she once again did sell, sold very well and got all the basics very right as she made the most sales from a very low value item.

Interviews next week – I wonder how they will get on, lets see if anyone has been a little bit “creative” with their CV like our previous candidates were (last years winner Lee McQueen).

Although he did back the horse (a high value item with a lot of risk, but could and almost did pay-off) with Debra – I feel that the way she easily alienates people should certainly have meant early departure.

I’m pleased for the winning team – Lorraine, Howard and Kate – I think the winner of the apprentice will be one of these three as they are very strong and work well – they really stood out this week.

Those who have been fired are:

OK, so we may agree that some of the candidates aren’t the the best calibre of business professionals, and think we could all perform better on their failing tasks as we all watch the TV programmes, but the point is we are all watching them, and so are many young viewers – all now now taking an active interest in the “world of business”.

This has inspired many young groups, such as Young Enterprise, Young Chamber and many entrepreneurs to start new businesses and form new relationships – all of which are great assets of the UK, which is 80% driven by Small-Medium Businesses (SMB’s) – the backbone of our UK economy.