No’ to ‘Dragons’ Den’ offers

Nearly 65 per cent of small business owners would turn their back on an offer from any of BBC TV’s ‘Dragons’ Den’ panellists as they don’t believe it represents good value for money.

The research, carried out by UK-based accounting software company KashFlow, revealed that business owners do not believe that the deals put on the table by the multi-millionaire quintet are competitive, and would instead turn to banks or private backers for a more reasonable rate or split of the business.

Just under 750 business owners took part in the research, in which KashFlow also discovered that when it came to reasons why small business owners would accept an offer from one of the dragons, 36 per cent said it was for the experience they would bring to the company.

A further 27 per cent said they would accept in order to try and grow the company, 24 per cent said they would only accept because of the positive public relations opportunities, six per cent said they would say yes only if they had no option, while a few jokers said they would accept an offer from Duncan Bannatyne just to get a discount off his gym fees.

Says Duane Jackson, managing director of KashFlow: “Many business owners don’t realise that if they just kept a better eye on their business expense and cash flow they would probably not need to approach television shows for funding and could get a much better offer either from a private financial backer or the banks.

“When KashFlow was looking for private financial backing I would never have dreamt of going on television and giving away 50 per cent of my company just for a bit of extra publicity and I think many business owners realise this after they have appeared, and this is why so few deals complete following an offer on camera.”