Bognor business owner reveals post-Apprentice journey

Phil Turner, from Bognor Regis, was runner-up in the 2024 series with his online pie venture.

Reflecting on the experience, Mr Turner said the reality of the BBC competition closely mirrored the everyday pressures of running a business.

Mr Turner said: "The reality of running any business is you’re going to fail a lot, you have to be resilient. My time on the show really mirrored that. I kept losing week after week. It’s such a daunting process, it’s so scary.

"It doesn’t matter how much experience or confidence you’ve got, it does run parallel to business."

He described the current economic climate as one of the biggest challenges facing small businesses.

Mr Turner said: "In the current economic climate, things feel unfairly weighted against small businesses. Small businesses are supporting local communities and people want to support them.

"The recent economic changes are hurting a lot of small businesses. It’s putting them out of business, or inflating prices for the everyday person. I don’t think I’m alone when I say it’s really difficult.

"When things like payroll and National Insurance, the things the average person doesn’t really think about, go up by 20 per cent overnight, we don’t want to put these costs onto our customers."

Despite the pressures, Mr Turner said he remains committed to maintaining high standards.

He said: "For us as a business, we don’t compromise on quality which means we’re having to pay more for quality, which ultimately ends up having to be put on customers. It’s just a pressure cooker at the moment from a small business perspective."

He also explained that the show helped him conquer a long-standing fear of public speaking.

Mr Turner said: "For the first few weeks I was really dodging it, but eventually you have to stand up and pitch.

"The final pitch I did was probably one of the highlights of my whole life because I had overcome such a fear, it was amazing."