What a pleasure to watch Dragon’s Den last night on BBC TV and see admiration from the dragons for one of the entrepreneurs.
While it is obviously good television to have them be abusive to the hopefuls it does not do the image of business much good. The dragons look cold and you feel embarrassed for the participants.
Last night was a shot of business inspiration. The dragons were full of praise for a professional confident women who had already achieved a great deal.
What was even more refreshing was that Sharon Wright was not arrogant about her success. In fact at one point she said that she was not very proud of what she had done in the last two years. Deborah Meaden immediately told her that she was fantastic and that all the dragons thought she had done extremely well.
The dragons were impressed that:
- she had developed a product from her idea
- already made sales
- with additional orders in hand
- and big plans for global expansion
- she made a confident pitch
- was clear about who she wanted to work with
She was offered the money she wanted (£50,000) by Theo Paphites who described his offer as insurance, and by Deborah Meaden who wanted the opportunity for herself. This allowed the programme to have some inter-dragon rivalry which is the best TV of all.
Peter Jones decided not to invest. Not because he didn’t want to invest, but because he felt that Duncan Bannatyne and James Caan would be the most appropriate dragons to work with. Sharon herself had identified Duncan and James, so that made sense. However I don’t remember seeing such altruism on the programme before. ..which was another spark of inspiration.
The drama was that James and Duncan had to go to the back of the room and work out a deal. Of course they weren’t going to offer exactly what she wanted. They are self made millionaires and are unlikely to do what is expected .
Another unusual part of this feel-good scenario was that they offered more than the original request (£80,000 not £ 50,000), but for that they wanted not 15% of the business, but 25%
It was then Sharon’s turn to go to the back of the room and decide between the three offers.
She came back with the wonderful comment that she was a businesswoman and would negotiate: she would take the money but only for 20% of the business.
Dragon’s counter offer: 22.5%.
Deal struck.
The satisfying aspect of this scenario was that the dragons were impressed with the numbers, with her clarity, and with her as a person.
Peter Jones suggested that the money was not needed, but Sharon wanted a better quality of life. She was not afraid of working all hours but wanted more time off, and -even more interesting – she wanted somebody at the end of the phone to help her with difficult decisions.
Best of all as a viewer it looked as though she had achieved all this and worked round the clock BUT had a great relationship with her 12 year old daughter who she described as her biggest fan.
In fact when interviewed by Evan Davies afterwards she made the comment that her daughter would be so proud.
Wow. Business success and good relationship- it was extremely moving to watch.
We saw all the life stages of a business through the programme.
Sharon saw the business opportunity (threading cable through cavity walls), got the product made, got orders, had plans for global expansion and subsequent products, worked hard, and with huge support from those closest.
And finally she received more funding than she asked for from rich experienced businesspeople who wanted to help her succeed. She was treated as a respected equal by the dragons.
Not only is she female, but she is a single mum. What an inspiration.
This is business rather than endless stories about bankers.
Thanks for posting about this, I would love to read more about this topic.
Hi Jean,
As you say, a great story and what looks like being a great success. I’m sorry that I missed this one.
David Wimblett
http://bnigivers.blogspot.com/