LORD SUGAR’S FLAWED ROOM
Apprentice stars are business flops
FIVE of the wannabes in the new series of The Apprentice have had business flops – but the only one currently showing any profit has already been told: “You’re fired!”
Three men and two women among the 16 hopefuls competing to be Lord Sugar’s latest partner have set up companies that made no money.
Rival candidates Daniel Elahi, Kayode Damali, Khadija Kalifa, Rick Monk and Sabrina Stocker all set themselves up as entrepreneurs before making their debuts in the show this week.
But all five have had to shut firms down after failing to make them pay.
Just one of this year’s crop vying for £250,000 in backing from Lord Sugar has a firm that has publicly disclosed a profit – and Sarah Byrne was booted off in the opening episode of the 14th series.
Sarah, from Manchester, runs a kids’ drama school called SBBA which cleared £1,300 in its first year of trading.
But she became the first to have Lord Sugar’s dreaded finger pointed at her in the boardroom and leave in a taxi after a chaotic item-buying trip to Malta.
Meanwhile several of those who survived to next week already have a track record of business failure which none mentioned in episode one.
Khadija, 28, of Bourne, Lincs, has four failures behind her including a takeaway business called Tahinis, which she shut after two years, and Kazmina which lasted a year. Two other firms, Smoothies and Belles Bebes, lasted less than a year.
She also runs an eco cleaning business which has yet to make any money.
Daniel, 28, of Stratford, East London, ran specialist firm Give Me Vape for 13 months before giving up on it.
He set up Project Jungle in 2016, only to wind it up just over 12 months later without declaring a bean in earnings. As a student eight years ago Daniel, who has been pictured posing with a gun, was convicted in Bristol of drug dealing after being caught with £5,000 worth of cannabis he intended to sell.
Rick, 33, of Chorley, Lancs, set up a business advice firm, RK Platinum Consultancy, which was forcibly shut without filing accounts.
Tennis coach Sabrina, 22, of Harrow, north-west London, saw her firm Partyracket Ltd close after just 16 months. She has since set up another company, My Sports Events, but it will not reveal accounts until next year. Kayode, 26, of Lewisham, south-east London, who led the men’s team to victory on the first episode, was not so successful before he joined the show. His company Party Headz lasted just over 12 months and shut without declaring any earnings. All but three of the candidates have had a go at running firms, many of which were set up recently as they planned for going on The Apprentice. Only Jackie Fast, who was lucky to escape being fired in episode one, has any substantial business experience. The 35-year-old Canadian ran a sponsorship business for seven years. When she quit, after selling the company, its last accounts showed the business had profits of £170,000 and employed five people. But she then set up another company, Fast Management, which she shut after six months. Solicitor Sarah Ann Magson, from Teeside, also has a nursery furniture business called Little Arrivals which lost £4,725 in its first year of operating.