Tricky Business
Tricky Business follows the successes and failures of five ambitious young entrepreneurs as they seek to make their professional mark and become household names. But with competition at its fiercest, setting up your own company can be a precarious business and newcomers need to develop increasingly imaginative and diverse schemes if they are to survive.
Oli Norman
Networking has never been a problem for smooth-talking Oli Norman, who is already a big PR player in Glasgow. But media-savvy Oli has now set his sights on expanding his company Dada and setting up offices in London and Sydney. With his existing business to be maintained back home, has the flamboyant Oli got the patience and stamina he'll need to sustain his current client list and forge his way on to the international scene?
Stephen Mitchell
Stephen Mitchell is venturing into the unknown as Scotland's first farmer of water buffalo. The family farm has lain unused for years but Stephen has invested his entire inheritance and life savings in a high-risk strategy, and is determined to make the farm profitable. After a series of crushing disappointments, he is down to his last few hundred pounds. Can Stephen turn his fortunes around and get a secure foothold in the notoriously precarious farming industry?
Ruth McKay
Aspiring events manager Ruth McKay is confident that, with her first class honours degree in marketing, she can make a success of her company Unique Solutions. But Ruth soon learns that a university education alone is not enough to establish herself. After a string of embarrassing errors of judgement, she starts to feel the pressure of disappointed clients. Can the humbled Ruth learn from past mistakes and raise her game or will the demanding world of marketing be too much for her?
Nick Willoughby
Nick Willoughby is a familiar face on the streets of St Andrews, where his Crème de la Crêpe stand serves gourmet pancakes to the students and shoppers in this lively Scottish town. One rainy day, when custom was slow, Nick came up with the idea of branching out into crêpe canapés. Having secured his first high profile event, Nick braves the stresses and strains of a commercial kitchen. The evening is a success – eventually – but is Nick ready to abandon his business roots for the highly pressurised world of commercial catering?
Ash Arshed
Web designer Ash Arshed was expected to take over the family shop but he has different ideas. Ash has a burning desire to take his company, Flame Multimedia, into the mainstream. Quiet, hard-working Ash has to woo the big clients if he is going to be taken seriously in the wider market, but does he have the drive and skills to make a strong enough impression?
Whilst each programme tells a different tale, the budding entrepreneurs share a common goal: to be their own boss and to make it rich. But are vision and enthusiasm enough to make it in the competitive world of business?
The entrepreneurs
Oli Norman
Oli's Marketing and PR company DADA is one of the fastest growing small businesses in Glasgow. With his client base increasing rapidly, Oli prepares to embark upon a huge expansion drive. He wants to take on new staff, move offices, gather even more clients and start chipping away at the lucrative London market. Whilst his company is top of the tree in Scotland, it won't be easy to impress London clients in the face of fierce competition. It's a giant leap to make, as setting up in London will require a £75,000 investment.
Oli finds his first forays into the new market daunting and, with all his efforts focused on setting up in London, he is in danger of losing his grip on the core business back home. Can the impatient Oli make significant headway into the London scene without his Glasgow business suffering?
Stephen Mitchell
Stephen, 23, is the youngest of three brothers. The Mitchell family have owned Clentrie farm in Fife for 100 years, but in recent times the fields have lain unused. After three years of university and a year abroad, Stephen decided to come home and take up the challenge of making the family farm profitable again.
Investing his entire inheritance, and at huge personal financial risk, Stephen has bought a herd of water buffalo. He intends to sell the meat at farmers markets and eventually make mozzarella cheese. Water buffalo have never been farmed in Scotland before, so Stephen has no guidelines to follow.
After a disappointing yield on the first slaughter, Stephen had to think quickly if he was to keep afloat, so he decided to change his plan and sell the buffalo as cooked burgers instead of raw meat. With the help of celebrity chef Nick Nairn, Stephen embarks on a high risk mission to save the farm.
After leaving school at 18, Ruth found her life lacking in direction. Despite being extremely academic and musically talented, Ruth experimented with many different kinds of jobs and businesses before deciding to go back to university to study for a degree in marketing.
After achieving a first class honours degree from Stirling University, Ruth decided to put her qualification to good use. With a £1,000 grant from Business Gateway and a helping hand from mum, Ruth started her own marketing company, Unique Solutions.
It's been a bumpy ride for Ruth, who is realising quickly and painfully that running your own business is much more difficult than anything university could have prepared her for. How easy will it be for her to put the theory into practice?
At the age of 23, Nick has been selling handmade gourmet crâpes from his Cràme de la Crêpe barrow in St Andrews for over a year. On a good day he can make up to £200. With a £6,000 loan from his parents and, as yet untrained, Nick went to France to learn how to make crêpes and buy the necessary equipment. Nick started with a basic idea of presenting fast food in a gourmet fashion and the process has been a steep learning curve as he knew nothing about selling food to the public.
Nick wants to broaden his business by breaking into commercial catering and selling his crêpes as canapés at high profile events. His first opportunity comes at a fashion show where he faces the challenge of serving 400 canapés in a 10-minute slot. Nick has never attempted anything on this scale before but after some nail-biting hitches the crêpes are served to order and on time.
Buoyed up by his success, but with a reputation for being disorganised, Nick decides to take on a business partner who will buy into the business and take care of the administrative side. Nick also seeks advice from Scottish business entrepreneur and managing director of Bean Team coffee shops, Gordon Richardson. Can Nick make the huge leap from sole trader to commercial catering or has he bitten off more than he can chew?
Web designer Ash is the eldest of six children and was expected to take over the family shop in East Glasgow. After an entrepreneurial seminar at university, Ash was inspired to set up Flame Multimedia with his friend Stephen. The business started off as a tiny operation, with Ash designing posters from a laptop in his bedroom. Within their first year, though. They had an office in the city centre with equipment, staff and a client list.
Flame is now well established in the Asian communities and has designed websites for many high profile labels, including hip Bangra label Tigerstyle. But Ash is keen to break into the mainstream market. With promising second year profits and the company accountant projecting encouraging figures for the future, Flame takes on a board who put pressure on Ash to speed up his efforts in breaking out of his business comfort zone.
After a sticky start to their relationship with Ash, the board feel optimistic for his future. But can the defensive Ash learn to be more open to constructive criticism in order to deliver to the best of his ability?
