algerian-born mother of two afeda sarashi is looking for 84 000 pounds
for 15 share in her business but can she convince the dragons that it's a worthwhile investment
so
hi my name is afida my business is called handygirl we are based in swindon and i'm looking
for 84 000 investment for 15 share in my business handy girl is predominantly female operative
specializing in home repair and garden maintenance our target market are single female elderly people
and women head of the household who might feel more comfortable with a female in their home hand
eagle ethos is about treating people the way we would like to be treated is about treating people
their home and time with respect it's about providing quality workmanship
at a fair price is about leaving our work area clean and provide superior customer service
with eighty four thousand pound investment today i would like to translate my handicap business model
into a management franchise system handy girl is a great investment because you will be investing
in handy goal as a brand last but not least handy girl is a brilliant investment for you
guys because you will be investing in me i am passionate i am determined and driven with my
passion and determination and your investment and expertise we will make it happen thank you for
listening it's a spirited pitch from swindon-based hafida sarashi who's offering the dragons a
15 stake in her women-only odd job business in return for 84 000 pounds to franchise the company
james khan has made millions of his own by franchising businesses and wants more details a
feeder heim james hi james what exactly what what are the services that you offer your customers
so what we do is we do painting and decorating but also we do where the female touch comes into place
is that we just we don't we do painting and decorating but we create the wow factor
so we have a makeover services as well and helping hand when people want to move we call it a moving
house assistant to do that it's like a general handyman come building type of service where
you will advertise i'll call you'll send somebody down they'll give me a quote but the uniqueness
of your proposition is i get a female to do it rather than a man to do it absolutely and
the customer have the choice what's wrong with men there is nothing wrong with men why not have handy
people the vision of handy girl really is to put some old-fashioned values back into the
property maintenance why can't men do that they can't you said there was nothing wrong with man
no there was nothing wrong with man but what is actually what we do differently is that
we stick to our promises if i majority of them don't no men don't stick to the promises
not not all of them i'm afraid well at no point me promising to invest in you would they because
i probably wouldn't stick to the promise no you're an investor and i'm looking forward to you to be
on board i just don't see why it scared us on it i just i just think it's so sexist
duncan bannettine has taken umbrage at a feeder's women-only ethos
will theo perfetus share his concerns as he seeks answers on the company credentials
what qualifications have you got in doing small building works have you done your sitting guilds
have you got done an apprenticeship no we haven't because the type of work we do i'm
basically minor painting and decorating well hold on hold on you just stood there and
you maligned every man who does building work has been pretty well useless and these are people who
have done an apprenticeship who are skilled tradesmen that support their families and i've
got integrity and now you i've put t-shirts on this handy girl i've got no qualifications but
because you're a girl you think that allows you to align every builder out there no what we're
doing is we're not actually insulting anybody you've done a good job you've done a good job
then i'm sorry if it's the case i'm actually talking about handyman not a tradesman because
they have the qualification i'm talking so to be a handy girl you don't need to know anything
you have to have experience it's not just about putting a brush painting and decorating is more
than that so so don't have a tradesman come in have a handy girl because she's nearly there she's
nearly as good as him but she's a girl so that's okay no i had a dealing with a local handyman
it made me feel very uncomfortable in my own home what i'm doing now is providing customers a choice
as safety for me for them to make to make them feel more comfortable in their own home that's
my objective my competitor are the local handyman not directly the tradesmen at all so you need to
stop talking and you need to listen you're going to recruit unqualified people to do building work
around the country it's a potential for disaster you will be tied up in litigation trouble and
aggravation for so long you won't have time to run your business and those the reasons why i'm out
afida has failed to convince theopha fetus that handy girl is worth backing as a brand
now peter jones decides to test out the entrepreneur's business acumen
a feta hi i'm peter hi peter um handy girl you mentioned single female elderly people
that's right how many of that is your target market how many people is that
at the moment we'll be focusing in the region of 20 000 people and how will your
franchise system work what are you going to do that's different to everybody else
the beauty about handy girl is that the eaters we have i'm passionate about my business
and i would treat your home as if it was mine but everybody else you'd be very unusual to find
somebody else that would say i'm going to set up a business called handy woman and i'm going to treat
people with disrespect i'm going to trash their house and do the worst job i can everybody has the
same ethos as you i'm trying to get to what are you going to do that's different to everybody else
what is different is basically we'll be looking after the franchisee where point we've given them
the lead and they will be responsible for turning the lead into sales okay so now how do you get the
leads well this is through brand awareness so what are you going to do with brand awareness basically
working with the local media and the national media and what we do is a feta let's slow down
a bit sure try and be specific i'm asking specific questions tell me what you're going to do what is
brand awareness to you but the one is is telling the world about but how are you going to do that
it's true satisfied customer we do that referrals we will do that true publicity we will do that
athena is standing her ground but is she doing enough to win
the confidence of the remaining multi-millionaires
afida hello hi i'm deborah hi deborah i think i understand women going into the home thing what
makes you think that's franchisable is the the business etos we have and also the whole program
the system where people will be focused on taking the lead and turn it into same yeah but hold on
that's that's any woman in the country thinking well here's a business opportunity in my local
area i'll go out there and advertise myself as a female who will go into the thing what actually
makes this franchise why don't they do that why would they pay you because why wouldn't they just
do what you're doing and there is a few people doing what they do but what i do about it is
i do sell my business and i know how to sell my my you selling your business once you franchise
that you lose control of that you'll have an army of other people who've got their own ethos and
doing their own thing doing it in their own way some will be good some will be blinking awful
so once you start franchising your model you have completely lost control of that
well at the moment what i do is i provide my every single customer no no that's you i agree do you
know i bet you're really good i'd have you in my home you no problem very conscientious i bet you
do a fantastic job will not criticize you on that ground absolutely person living in pembrokeshire
who's doing you've franchised out to them yeah they are representing you and your franchise model
they don't care how do you control that well we'll have to go bit a step further and we go
to the process where we they will shadow one of us to see exactly if they apply what they mean
if you don't think that might be slightly 84 000 pound is going to get complete brand awareness
is going to set up a training program and it's going to get us set up a system that allows you
to shadow other franchisees to check the quality of those franchises
i have to tell you it would take an awful lot more than 84 000 pounds to do the brand awareness that
you're talking about so i think you you know you're good you're passionate you keep doing
what you're doing and you sell some good money out of it not a franchisable model that reason i might
okay thank you awfita um i i really think that you just got so many things wrong about your business
model i think you should go and carry on on your own you'll never make a franchise out of this
you won't make a big business out of it so i'm out the dragons might like a feeder as
an individual but they don't think her business is scalable and she's running out of options
only james khan and duncan bannertine now stand between her and failure in the den
let me do you a favor sure i've built a franchise business in 30 countries
and i think deborah's absolutely right your excitement and enthusiasm is because of you
because you're doing a good job you really believe in it but i'm not convinced that
you yourself can be replicated across the country so there is no doubt in my mind
this will not work for that reason i don't think i could invest in this i'm out okay
thank you um you know you've valued your company at 476 thousand pound pre-money raising i value
about 476 000 less than that about nothing so for that reason i'm out thank you thank you
thank you thank you the handy girl managed to convince the dragons of her personal skills but
failed to get an investment to franchise her business and she leaves the den with nothing
you