The Apprentice 2018 Final preview: Who’s going to win the 250, 000 investment?

The infamous interviews process is over, and Lord Sugar has selected his final two candidates for The Apprentice 2018. Here are the predictions of our entrepreneurs for Sunday’s final.

The latest candidates to be fired by Lord Sugar were Daniel Elahi, KhadijI Kalifa and Sabrina Stocker, leaving swimwear entrepreneur Sian Gabbidon and nut-milk business owner Camilla to contest the final for 250, 000 investment on Sunday 16 December.

Our panel of entrepreneurs revealed their no-holds-barred opinions of the interviews process.

Daniel Scott, founder CoinCorner

What did the final candidates do well?

Neither Camilla or Sian really did that well in the interview process. The reason they’re finalists is that their business ideas held up better than Daniel and Khadija’s!

Camilla’s nut milk business idea is probably a short-term win for Lord Sugar and could position her to win over Sian. The market for dairy-free milk is booming at the moment and there could be enough time left for her to seize market share with his funding. In comparison, Sian might struggle to make her swimwear product unique among a saturated and trending market.

Where did the losing candidates go wrong?

Sabrina and Daniel had weaknesses in their business plans and characters which made them lose. Sabrina, in particular, has been a generally strong candidate in the series but was considered young and inexperienced in business by the judges. Her business plan troubled Lord Sugar as she owned no tangible assets (e.g. tennis courts) and was practising bad marketing tricks (e.g. oversubscribing her events and then cancelling many at the last minute) which probably already is affecting her business’s long-term reputation.

Which candidate caught your eye?

Sian has shown some business sense in the competition tasks and is clearly a driven person, but her business plan had major weaknesses (e.g. a lack of thought for introducing manufacturing) which could cost her the win.