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Internet Marketer wins the UK Apprentice

by IMstarter
27 replies
The winner of this year's series of the UK apprentice is an internet marketer whose business proposal was starting an SEO company. He won a £250,000 investment
#apprentice #internet #marketer #wins
  • Profile picture of the author Matthew Trujillo
    That's awesome man, didn't know UK had an "Apprentice" as they do in the U.S. What's his name?
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  • Profile picture of the author laurencewins
    Alan Sugar is the money man in the UK version.
    I have seen our Aussie version, the US and UK versions and all of them are great.
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    Cheers, Laurence.
    Writer/Editor/Proofreader.

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    • Profile picture of the author Stephen Crooks
      Made me think that Lord Sugar invested in the guy rather than the business. Especially when he announced that the Google UK boss told him if you dont go into business with him, then he will!

      He is definitely an impressive salesman and sold his business plan incredibly well. However, it was very obvious that nobody including Lord Sugar knew much about what the business actually involves on a day to day basis.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sumpter
    Sugar definitely bought into Mark as an individual, he talked a good game and could back it up most of the time.

    As pointed out by one of the industry experts, he could've delivered the same pitch 6 years ago.. I was a little surprised he wasn't offering something a little different or extra.

    He will definitely be a success though.
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  • Profile picture of the author IMeasierluck
    Good job from his part and all the best to him. What does the investor get in return?
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    • Profile picture of the author ElGuapo
      Originally Posted by IMeasierluck View Post

      Good job from his part and all the best to him. What does the investor get in return?
      A 50% share in the business... and months of free advertising to millions of BBC viewers
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  • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
    This is a classic self-fulfilling prophecy.

    He would have probably struggled make a success on his own because of the massive competition and I think his "we'll give a personal service" USP is not exactly a 'unique' selling proposition and definitely does not scale if you're taking a ton of small businesses, but with his TV airtime and Alan Sugar's money and contacts - he really shouldn't be able to fail.

    You'd have to be an idiot to fail with a start like that.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Andyhenry View Post

      This is a classic self-fulfilling prophecy.
      Absolutely. Especially with exposure like that, it can't miss. (I think a similar observation can be applied - albeit on a much smaller scale - to some of the "successful" ventures seen on Dragon's Den/Shark Tank, too?).


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  • Profile picture of the author MattBrighton
    Was a great series! Am I right in thinking the UK apprentice was the first one to be made, which then spead to other countries?

    Mark did an awesome job and will set up a great company - he definitely needs to offer more though and keep up with modern times. Give his business more value.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by MattBrighton View Post

      Am I right in thinking the UK apprentice was the first one to be made, which then spead to other countries?
      No (but that was true of Dragon's Den, exported to and known in the US as Shark Tank). The Apprentice started in America.
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  • Profile picture of the author theheron
    If this guy is any good at client SEO he would be working for himself making a ton of money.
    It sounds like from what he was saying is his business plan is to pay people £2k to £2.5k per month to actually do the SEO work and reps on the road to visit business's and sell what they offer.
    I cant see him offering anything better than anyone else although Im sure he will turn Lord Sugar a profit.
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  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    I always thought the show 'The Apprentice' (I've watched the UK version before) is the same as the American version in that the winner gets an apprenticeship with Lord Sugar (in America it is with Trump) -- thus the name, the apprentice.

    Are we talking about the Apprentice or the Dragons Den? The UK Dragons Den is where they invest in people's business ideas.

    Or has the Apprentice changed now?

    UPDATE:

    I guess it has changed from what I remember. He's an Aussie too (we are a smart bunch).
    http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-30568860
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  • Profile picture of the author laurencewins
    The Apprentice. The Dragon's Den is VERY different and not as good.
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    Cheers, Laurence.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jeff Usher
    Mark Wright may be an excellent salesman but the first rule of branding an online business - check the top level domain name is available. Oops .... all the Climb Online top level domains have been taken by rock climbing companies. He may need a hyphen or two ;-)

    Not a good start for Lord Sugars new Apprentice.

    Jeff
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    • Profile picture of the author littledan
      Originally Posted by Jeff Usher View Post

      Mark Wright may be an excellent salesman but the first rule of branding an online business - check the top level domain name is available. Oops .... all the Climb Online top level domains have been taken by rock climbing companies. He may need a hyphen or two ;-)

      Not a good start for Lord Sugars new Apprentice.

      Jeff
      Ha... A great spot Jeff.

      Would have been a great selling point if he had already bought a suitable top level domain before going into the process. Mind you, not sure any of Alan sugars advisers would have a clue about that advantage
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    • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
      Originally Posted by Jeff Usher View Post

      Mark Wright may be an excellent salesman but the first rule of branding an online business - check the top level domain name is available. Oops .... all the Climb Online top level domains have been taken by rock climbing companies. He may need a hyphen or two ;-)

      Not a good start for Lord Sugars new Apprentice.

      Jeff
      That was my first thought too when I went to take a look at his new business and found a rock climbing site. He obviously never had any concept of a name when he started and just took the first thing that sounded good and never bothered checking it out.

      This can be a really bad mistake - I've seen very big companies rebrand only to find out that their new name or tag line has a very different (and different) meaning in another language.
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      nothing to see here.

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  • Profile picture of the author littledan
    His USP was practically identical to thousands of others in his market, so nothing new there at all. However, the £250,000 investment, a partnership with Alan Sugar and the masses of free advertising the program has given him will be his differentiation going forward.

    I too understand his frustration when people ask "what exactly do you do?"
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  • Profile picture of the author seoboyz01
    Maybe we should take this as a compliment? At least, it's an acknowledgement that the online business world has credibility.
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  • Profile picture of the author moneymagneto
    He should do OK. Marketing isn't really scalable because it's a service, not a product. The only thing that can scale realistically is an actual product or subscription. You can certainly make a good living in the advertising business (100-300K) but it won't be an uber rich lifestyle. It will be a lot of work 7 days a week because of complaining clients 247.
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  • Profile picture of the author theheron
    When they chose the name Climb Online they must have checked what other companies were using that name . Thats why they used the rock climbing theme in their promotion video.
    Mark has said that he has registered a url with a hyphen.
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    • Profile picture of the author IMstarter
      IMO the UK Apprentice is a lot better than the US version. However, I did not really like this series. There were too many candidates at the start. The majority of them were weak and some of the weak ones got too far in the process...Daniel and Felipe to name a couple.

      Having too many candidates doesn't really allow them much time to shine.

      I don't know if the US Apprentice still does the 'winning a job'. Personally, I prefer the investment route. With the job you can usually tell who will be in the final and who will win. With the investment it falls a little bit more on the business plan.

      If it had still been a job win this year the Irish woman would have obviously won it but her business plan was an absolute joke.
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