The business of business

I watch very little TV, but one programme I always enjoy is The Apprentice. I tuned in last year, as you can see, and got hooked. This year's series looks as if it will be equally enjoyable, not least because none of the current candidates appear to have watched the previous series. They are making the same stupid mistakes as before. Cue big sigh.

All these candidates with their MBAs and experience in large companies, and they still appear not to have a clue.

I'm not just a freelance - being self-employed means I run a business and I'm damn sure that if I were on The Apprentice, I'd be doing things very differently (not that I'd ever humiliate myself on reality TV). I've been freelance for two years and it was a steep learning curve, but I've made very few mistakes. There are things, with hindsight, that I'd have done differently, but I've made no serious screw-ups.

Call it instinct, or just common sense, but running a business (at least of one person) is not that hard. You'd have to be a complete idiot to make a real mess of it. Which is why I'm gobsmacked at the sheer incompetence of Sir Alan Sugar's candidates, who are supposed to be the creme de la creme. Frankly, I wouldn't put them in charge of organising a pub crawl.

Still, that's the main attraction of tuning in - it's an object lesson in how not to do business.