The show is not just an opportunity to secure investment; firms that deliver a decent pitch walk away with thousands of pounds-worth of exposure even if they receive zero offers. It explains the impressive number of entrepreneurs doing rather well after appearing on the show.

In the last series we saw a diverse range of businesses receive offers: Rupert Sweet-Escott went into business with James Caan, who was impressed with his unique range of aviation designs and prototypes; while Carol Savage chose to accept Deborah Meaden’s offer for her new food networking website.

According to the official press release, the Dragons are looking for inventors and entrepreneurs who can demonstrate the following:

* Scalability – something that has potential to get much bigger

* Route to market – an obvious way of making money from the product

* Mutually benefitcial – both parties get something out of it

* Exit strategy – a plan for how the Dragons can cash in on the investment

* A unique selling point – something they haven’t seen before

If you have a fabulous idea or an existing business that has potential and fancy a crack at the Dragons, email dragonsden@bbc.co.uk or visit www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden.

The self-made millionaire, who began his career as a post-room boy at EMI, discussed his interest to create a new series of primetime shows in the lead up to the next UK general election. The show would not take the same format as the X Factor but would instead provide politicians with a public forum in which to put forward their views on important public topics, such as knife crime and the war in Afghanistan, in front of large audiences who will then vote for or against the opinions that they have heard. Simon Cowell told the BBC he wants the show to create a “bear pit” and, and I cant imagine anyone better suited than Mr Cowell to do the job.

The food is exquisite, serving up sushi to thai starters to full meals, and the cocktails are equally good. The staff were friendly, easy going and very relaxed, which all in all proved to be a great end to the night.

Let’s face it, most people struggle with networking at first. But once you’ve cracked it, it can be a huge revenue generator for your business. Make sure you’re not the poor fellow at the back of the room, wondering why it isn’t working for you.

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Whenever I’m working with salespeople and business owners and the topic changes to “networking”, there’s always an interesting discussion that follows. Most people I speak to are concerned that the amount of time they spend networking doesn’t always seem to result in the new business sales that they would like. If that’s you, here are some pointers. Start to generate more of a return-on-investment from your networking efforts, right now!

Qualify, don’t sell
The biggest thing you’ve got to remember here is that the room of people you’re meeting doesn’t automatically contain qualified prospects for your business. Most of the people at the event with you have also come to sell their products, so if you’re not careful you might end up in a “pitch-off” – both of you trying to sell your stuff to each other, and nobody looking to buy!

You need to qualify the people you meet first, to see if they have the need for your product or service. Find out a little about them, their company and their needs first, before pitching your product or service to them – you’ll enjoy far more success that way.

Don’t overdo it!
If you’ve qualified the person properly and they potentially have a need for what you offer, keep the conversation fairly short. Think of this event like making a proactive business phone call – your purpose is to get to the next stage of your sales process (usually arranging a meeting), not to try and sell them your stuff on the day!

There are probably other prospects in the room for you – don’t waste all your time with one person and ruin your sales opportunity by talking about yourself and your product or service too much!

Strike while the iron’s hot
If you think there is interest from the other person in what you offer, then make sure you get the next step agreed before you leave the event. If the next step in your sales process is to arrange a meeting, then get the meeting arranged before you leave. It can be more difficult to arrange afterwards.

Even if the person doesn’t have their diary on them, get a provisional date and time and confirm by email, suggesting an alternative if necessary. This is about controlling the process and getting the other person’s commitment – make sure you do it properly.

The domain name is the word-based website address that people type into the address bar of their websites in order to visit your website. It also forms the second half of your email address.

As the front door of your website so to speak, it’s important to choose a recognisable one. Make sure your domain name is relevant and related to your business and the keywords that relate to the website.

If you’re a UK business, and you intend to do business on a global scale, go ahead with a .com domain name. But if your main focus is the local or national market in the UK, make sure you have a .co.uk domain name.

The key to calculation is to establish an appropriate price/earnings (p/e) ratio for your company. The p/e ratio is the multiple of profits after tax attributed to a company to establish its capital value.

The calculated value of a company will give the venture capital firm their required rate of return over the period they anticipate being shareholders. For their part, venture capital firms think in terms of a target overall return from their investments.

Generally return refers to the annual internal rate of return (IRR), and is calculated over the life of the investment. The returns required would depend upon several factors, such as the perceived risk, length of time the money will be tied up, how easily the investment will be realized and how many other venture capital firms are interested in the deal. As a rough guide, the average rate of return will exceed 20% per annum.

For your part, you must have already invested or be prepared to invest some of your own capital in the company to demonstrate a personal financial commitment to the venture.

A company is suitable for venture capital investment if it exhibits high growth prospects, has a product or service with a competitive edge or unique selling point and has a strong management team. Currently, that translates into technology companies but it does go beyond the dot com trend.

The technology of a company should be as compelling as the potential growth of the company, but even with convincing technology, a top management team is still required.

Managers must exhibit an understanding of their market, their own unique position and how to grab market share.

Many small companies are lifestyle businesses whose main purpose is to provide a good standard of living and job satisfaction for their owners. These businesses are not generally suitable for venture capital investment, as they are unlikely to provide the high financial return for investors.

Venture capital firms are only interested in companies with high growth prospects that are managed by experienced and ambitious teams who are capable of turning their business plan into a reality.

What is venture capital?

So what exactly is venture capital? Simply put, venture capital provides long-term, committed share capital to help unquoted companies grow and succeed. Obtaining venture capital is very different from raising a loan. Lenders have a legal right to interest on a loan and repayment of the capital, irrespective of your success or failure.

Venture capital is invested in exchange for a stake in your company and, as shareholders, the investors’ returns are dependent upon the growth and profitability of your business.

There are now hundreds of active venture capital firms in the UK, which provide several billion pounds each year to unquoted companies mostly located in the UK. The venture capital firm is an equity business partner and is rewarded by the company’s success, generally achieving its principal return through an exit. An exit may include selling shares back to management, selling shares to another investor, a trade sale – where the whole company is sold to another – or a stock market listing.

Generally, venture capital firms look to retain their investment in between three to seven years and during that time, they also look to generate at least a 20% return per annum.

To find the right investor a good place to start is our directory. It lists members of the British Venture Capital Association (BVCA) from across the UK.

A bit of research will be appreciated by venture capital firms as it shows them that you have thought carefully about the type of investment partner you want and are not only seeking a cash infusion.

To allow a business concept to be developed, the production of a business plan to be completed, prototypes made or additional research conducted, a company may seek seed capital. Seed capital is usually a smaller amount and often is supplied by business angels, click here for our section on business angels.

For companies that are beyond the product development stage and want to initiate early stage commercial manufacturing and sales, or expand a business a substantially larger investment may be needed. Early-stage financing can be around £500,000; expansion financing around £1 million and management buy-outs and buy-ins around £5 million.

The process for investment, however, is similar. Whether the amount sought is £100,000 or £10 million, the amount of time and effort venture capital firms have to spend in appraising the business proposal prior to investment is the same.

For this reason, medium-sized to larger investments are more attractive for venture capital investment, as the total size of the return, rather than the percentage, is likely to be greater than with smaller investments.

Professional advisors – such as accountants or solicitors – are often used to give guidance in developing business plans and approaching investors. Advisors’ fees can vary greatly depending on the complexity of the transaction but typically this charge will be around 5% of the money being raised

A quick tour of the average shopping centre would reveal a lot of brands who would be severely compromised by this type of legislation.

Yorkie, with its “not for girls” strap line would have to have a rethink. Lynx, with a totally feminine ad campaign would have to reposition its whole brand. Playtex Wonderbra would no longer be able to use promotions like its classic “Hello Boys”.

If a ban on reinforcement of gender stereotypes was actually applied in a strict sense, surely it would also mean a dramatic rethink of the entire cosmetics industry and the clothing business, to name a few?

Like many EU proposals, it simply doesn’t work. The lunatic who has introduced the report is Swedish ME Eva-Brit Svensson. As stereotypes go, it’s a bit of a letdown that a Swedish woman should be pushing this proposal.

The good news is that whatever the EU vote decides it is not legally binding on the member countries. In other words, it’s an utter waste of time when the EU could be looking at shortening the huge backlogs in other, more pressing areas.

However, if even one EU country should choose to adopt these hardline, boring and commercially suicidal recommendations, it would cause problems for a lot of brands.

Anyone sensible knows that a brand is about consistency in terms of product identity and the message delivered to consumers. To suggest that any brand should be forced by something as ridiculous as this to market itself one way in sensible countries and another in hardline, party-pooper countries is unacceptable and simply will not work.

The Advertising Standards Authority here in the UK already bans adverts from being “discriminatory or harmful when depicting men or women” and other bodies elsewhere have similar relevant measures.

Let us hope that this all comes to nothing

The business plan should be prepared to a high standard, be verifiable and should avoid jargon or general position statements. It should offer the reader a combination of clear description and analysis, including a realistic SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis of each area. This will demonstrate to investors that management is realistic about the company’s prospects.

Make sure you have a full appreciation of the risks, and you know how to grab your market share.

The length

The length of a business plan depends on individual circumstances. It should be long enough to cover the subject adequately and short enough to maintain interest. Unless your business requires several million pounds of venture capital and is highly complex, the business plan should be no longer than 15 pages.

The BVCA recommends erring on the side of brevity. If investors are interested they can always call to ask for additional information.

The look

Aesthetically, it should be professional. Ensure there are no typing, grammar or spelling mistakes. Use graphs and charts where appropriate and titles and subtitles to divide different subject matters. While the aim is to make it look good, you should avoid expensive documentation, as this might suggest unnecessary waste and extravagance.

The company

The business plan should detail all the important aspects of the company. It should include information about the company’s market and customers, products or services, the strength of the management team – and if there are any gaps in talent, identify how you will fill them. Often a venture capital firm can assist in doing this. The plan should also explain how products are made or services provided.

Meanwhile, realistic financial projections should be outlined and management should provide different scenarios for sales, costs and cash flows for both the long and short term.

‘What if’ questions

What if” questions should be presented and answered. These will demonstrate how the company will react to or counter the effects of an unexpected drop in sales or an increase in costs. The business plan should also detail potential exit strategies.

The executive summary

The last thing written is the first thing that appears in the business plan: the executive summary. This is the most important section and summarizes in two pages what is written in detail in 10 or 15.

This is where, among other things, you state the company’s mission statement – a few sentences encapsulating what the business does for what type of clients, your aims for the company and what gives it its competitive edge. The mission statement should combine the business’ current situation with your aspirations.

As with the business plan, the executive summary should be clearly written and powerfully persuasive, yet it should balance sales talk with realism in order to be convincing. It should be no more than 1,000 words and should also state the company’s legal status.

Pitching the Plan

When the business plan has been prepared and it has received input from a financial adviser, the next step is to put it in front of venture capital firms. At this point, it is worth considering only sending a copy of the executive summary. This has the advantage of saving costs and increasing the chances of receiving attention.

You may want to also include a confidentiality letter for the venture capital firm to sign but generally a confidentiality letter is only sent after an investor requests to see the full business plan.

You can obtain a standard confidentiality letter from the BVCA. It bears noting, however, that BVCA members are bound by a code of conduct, which states that they will respect confidential information supplied to them by companies looking for funding.

While receiving the actual funds can take three to six months, receiving a response from a venture capital firm on a business plan can be within a week or so. If the answer is no, you should find out the reasons why and then consider incorporating those ideas into a revised business plan, changing/strengthening the management team or carrying out further market research before approaching other potential investors.

If the venture capital firm commissions external advisers to look over a plan, don’t be alarmed. It usually means that the investors are seriously considering investing in the business. This due diligence process is used to sift out any skeletons or fundamental problems that may exist.