The Chamber

Dare You Enter The BBC’s Dragon’s Den? March 31, 2009

 The BBC say:

Entrepreneurs from across the country once again have a chance to make their business dreams come true by appearing on Dragons’ Den. If you’re genuinely seeking investment for your business idea or invention, we’d like to hear from you.

In the most recent series, 14 entrepreneurs received offers of investment in the Den, with many more going on to find success even without the backing of the dragons.

Last year when three entrepreneurs faced the Dragons they had only dreamt of success for their company, BLINDSINABOX. James Caan and Duncan Bannatyne immediately saw the potential in their innovative product, a paper blind which fits any window, and gave them a much needed investment. Now, with their Dragon support, Simeone Salik , Dominic Lawrence and Janice Dalton are celebrating as a major high street retailer has announced plans to stock the product in all 700 of their stores.

The rules are simple: entrepreneurs can ask for cash investment in return for equity in their business. However, they must get the at least amount they ask for or they will walk away with nothing. The Dragons are prepared to listen to a pitch for any kind of business but they must be convinced that it will make money.

As demonstrated by the investments in the last six series, ideas, businesses and products that meet some or all of the following criteria stand a good chance of securing the Dragons’ interest:

· The Unique Selling Point: a product that serves a need like nothing else.

· Scalability: something that can be up scaled to make real money.

· Route to Market: the clear way the product can be sold and marketed.

· Mutually Beneficial Arrangement: just what will the Dragons get out of it?

· Exit Strategy: a plan of how the entrepreneur/Dragon will exit and make money.

The BBC is currently searching for Britain’s best entrepreneurs and will be auditioning throughout the coming months. We want to hear from anyone who thinks they’ve got what it takes to enter the Dragons’ Den.

If you would like an application form please send an e-mail to dragonsden@bbc.co.uk, telephone 0871 200 3003 (Calls cost 10p per minute from a BT Landline, other operators and mobiles may be higher) or visit www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden where you can also find details of an exciting new opportunity to pitch to two new Online Dragons.

Children In Need Committee Vacancies March 27, 2009

We have been asked by the BBC to circulate the following info regarding Children In Need Committee vacancies:

BBC Children in Need is seeking to recruit individuals with extensive and demonstrable experience of improving outcomes for children and young people to provide independent, objective contributions to its Northern Regional Committee which is responsible for distributing around £8m annually to organisations delivering services for children and young people on a not for profit basis.

The Northern Regional Committee is the key mechanism for advising the Trustees on which organisations should be funded by BBC Children in Need in the North of England, an area which covers Yorkshire & Humber, North Lincolnshire, the North East, the North West and Cumbria.

This is an opportunity to ensure that BBC Children in Need funds projects which fulfil its mission to positively change the lives of disadvantaged children and young people in the UK and that  funds are distributed across the Northern Region in an effective and objective manner.

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Used Your Redundancy To Start A Business? Then Get On TV March 19, 2009

Ricochet, an independent TV company, is developing a series about the increasing trend among people who, having been laid off, are using their redundancy money to fund their own business venture. 

In particular they want to hear from couples who have decided to go into business together – preferably with a venture that is new territory to both of them.  They’d like to hear from couples who are planning a new business, just about to launch or are in the early stages of trading.  

Ideally the kind of businesses they’d be interested in featuring would be service or produce based, rather than IT or finance driven.

The producers are hoping to make contact with interested couples before Easter so anyone interested should call either Sue Dulay or Marc Lewis on 01273 224828 or email them with details of the enterprise and the circumstance that led up to its inception to ournewbusiness@ricochet.co.uk

For more information about Ricochet and the kind of programming the company makes, please go to www.ricochet.co.uk