Make me a million

Not sure if anyone has been following this programme on TV (http://www.channel4.com/4money/realdeal/makemeamillion/). Basically a bunch of people who saw themselves as entreprenures had to come up with an idea (or several) pitch it to one of 5 mentors and if they were successful, the mentors would work with them to set up a business and get their idea on the market and hopefully make them a million.

It's quite an interesting programme to watch actually and I find myself getting quite involved and yelling at the screen at one so called entreprenure mentor who has absolutely no people skills and is clearly not a team player. Two women with kids who had been friends for years had an idea for creating a children's shampoo that was based largely on natural products. One was a single mother who lived in Ireland, the other lived in England but in the country with her hubby and kid. So they started the business, but the woman who lived in Ireland was trying to work from home there and she only had one phone line with dial up Internet access. The other woman was lucky enough to be able to leave her kid with her hubby and move to London. The so called entreprenuer mentor offered this woman the flat above his office which they are using to run their new business while the woman in Ireland gets nothing. Then, the two working out of the London office start complaining that the one in Ireland isn't pulling her weight. But yet they aren't helping her do anything about it.

In the most recent episode, the woman from Ireland takes a loan from her Mum and moves to London to be closer to the business and puts her kid in day care. Still the other two have it in for her and after a few days they finally gang up on her one last time and sack her. Understandably, she was pretty upset.

I just can't believe this entreprenuer who supposedly is an experienced businessman didn't have the management skills to sort this problem out before it got to the stage where they felt they had to sack her. What kind of lesson is it sending? Surely if someone has to work from home, the business could pay for her to have broadband access so she could do something simple like use the phone and use the Internet at the same time? And couldn't he have made them have regular update calls rather than depending solely on face to face meetings or waiting for her to call in? Obviously she didn't have much experience working from home but there were so many common sense things that he, as their mentor, could have done to help them make the business a success for both partners.

OK rant over now :)