Wednesday, August 09, 2006

The Dragons Den

It's back with a new series! For those yet to experience the Dragons Den it's a UK TV programme shown on BBC2 on Thursdays at 8pm.

Not heard of dragons den? Don't worry you can read all about here: Dragons Den

The part of the show I can never get to grips with is when the Dragons decide they want a piece of the action and the negotiations start. A typical conversation goes some thing like this:

Entrepreneur - "I'm looking for £100K for a 10% stake in the company"
Dragons - "So you value your company at £1 million with nothing more than an idea"
Entrepreneur - "My business plan projects that we will make £10 gazzillion in year 5"
Dragons - "I'll give you £100k but you've overvalued the company, I want 50%"
Entrepreneur - "50% is way too much, would you consider 40%"
Dragons - "No"
Entrepreneur - "Can we meet in the middle with 45% ?"
Dragons - "Ok, you've got a deal"

Would somebody please teach these 'entrepreneurs' how to negotiate? If they do so badly on the show how will they ever survive in the real world? I can think of two fundamental mistakes in the above scenario, can you?

Answers in the comments section please!

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