Member Article

Students learn business lessons from ‘Dragon’ Doug

Former Dragons’ Den investor Doug Richard was the star of the show during an enterprising event at Middlesbrough College.

Doug shared his business insight with more than 300 Middlesbrough College students and pupils from secondary schools across the region during the Entrepreneurs and Education Programme (EEP) event.

EEP is focused on promoting enterprise and innovation, providing people with the motivation and skills needed to start a business or research a business idea.

Doug shared his experiences dealing with start-ups as well as stories of his time on the hit TV show, including the worst business pitch he had ever seen – a woman who maligned the whole of the Spanish nation and refused to reveal turnover figures to fellow Dragon Theo Paphitis.

“Unsurprisingly, she didn’t get the investment,” said Doug.

Middlesbrough College is a member of the Gazelle Colleges Group, and is firmly committed to nurturing entrepreneurship and enterprise.

Zoe Lewis, principal and chief executive, said: “More than 10,000 students learn with Middlesbrough College every year and many of them have amazing business ideas.

“We encourage and support those business ambitions any way we can and to have somebody like Doug come into College and share his expertise and experience is a tremendous boost.”

The College students were joined by pupils from several secondary schools including Unity City Academy in Middlesbrough and St Patrick’s Catholic College in Thornaby.

They learned how to identify a potentially profitable business along with how to start or grow a business.

Doug, who in his youth worked as a pot-washer, cook, and later as a juggler at a medieval fair, said that his life as an entrepreneur was as a result of him losing every job he ever had.

“I was overly helpful,” he revealed.

“In every job I could see what my boss was doing wrong, so I would point it out to him and then he’d show me the door.”

The students were encouraged to reveal their business ideas while Doug quizzed them about target markets, profit margins, manufacturing costs and asked for details about how they intended to achieve a sizeable turnover.

The business ideas ranged from mobile beauty therapy to sales of rare breed sheep.

The event took place the day after the former Dragon became a British Citizen.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Martin Walker .