Page 348 - James Caan - The Real Deal

The Real Deal

deal, we made modifications to the design, and within six weeks
Sam was on a plane to Taiwan to check on an order of 200 new
machines. It was a huge shift for Sam, so it was important that she
knew she could call me if it ever got to be too much: whatever
problem she was having me or someone else at Hamilton
Bradshaw would be able to help.
My target is for Sam to sell 350 treadmills a year, which will
make Fit Fur Life very profitable and give Sam a great lifestyle. For
me, that’s what Dragons’ Den is all about – the ability to get into
a business and create change. I’m not sure what my exit strategy
is for Fit Fur Life. I doubt it will make me a million but I will at
least double my investment. Right now, my vision for the company
involves Sam feeling secure enough and successful enough to go
out and buy herself a house and maybe a Mercedes to park outside
it. In the meantime, Peter Jones can eat his dog biscuits.
All the investments I have made in the Den have followed
exactly the same philosophy as when I started Humana and all the
Alexander Mann joint ventures: find the right person, give them
what they need and back them to the hilt. When a young guy
called Laban Roomes came into the Den looking for £60k to
franchise his gold-plating business, all the other Dragons rejected
him because the franchising model didn’t make sense. I looked at
it differently: I saw a young, bright, charming and determined
young man who had already achieved a lot. I could see that he
knew his business could go places but he was working so hard that
he was struggling to find the right way forward. Franchising was
the wrong option, but I could still see a big future for him. Observe
the masses: do the opposite. I invested.
I had a brief chat with him after the cameras were turned off.
‘Laban, before you leave, I want to know where you want to go
in your life.’
‘Right now I work in a shed in Enfield. If I could work on this
for another seven years and turn it into a proper brand, with a

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