By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs
Some people are born to launch a business, and a natural entrepreneur could be ‘hidden in plain sight’, according to Mike Soutar, The Apprentice’s hard-nosed interviewer.
He’s best known for tearing into the candidates’ business plans, but this time he was speaking at the SME XPO in London’s Excel Centre. In his presentation, Soutar tasked himself with sussing out which of the five participants on stage have a knack for business.
Soutar’s job was to put the participants into one of three categories:
Natural-born entrepreneur
Entrepreneur in development
Corporate professional
True to his interviewing savvy, he investigated the ‘candidates’ using the following rounds of questions. Have a go at the questions yourself and see what you think.
Round 1: AppearanceRound 2: Family, upbringing and early driveRound 3: Risk, spontaneity and problem solvingRound 4: Personal philosophy, philosophy around success, fulfilment and motivationRound 5: Post-successThe results
Round 1: Appearance
Soutar didn’t ask any questions in the first round; instead, he assessed the candidates’ appearance.
“You can you tell an entrepreneur from the way they stand; from the way they exude energy. Maybe even for the shoes that they wear,” said The Apprentice star.
He noticed