‘I’m just glad the Dragons turned my business down’

Jul 17 2008 by Andrew Baldwin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

WHEN John Binks failed to get TV’s Dragons’ Den to see the potential in his new venture, he didn’t take no for an answer.

He simply got on with it.

Impressed by John’s business plan on his screen appearance last year, a marketing company gave him help and he secured a major distribution contract.

JVB Finger Placements is going well today from its base in Mirfield.

Its business is an accelerated learning programme designed to aid beginners as they attempt to get to grips with stringed instruments from the violin through to the guitar.

The finger placements are transparent films which sit on the neck of the instrument, demonstrating to the student where fingers should be placed.

John, 54, says now: “I’m glad Dragons’ Den didn’t invest. It was a case of thanks for having me on, but thanks for not taking me on.”

Viewers were placing orders on the firm’s internet site before the programme had ended. There was no looking back for John.

Watching the appearance on screen was a representative of American firm Mel Bay Publications, publishers of materials for musical instrument playing.

Their MD rang and within two days John was having meetings in London about a distribution deal.

“We developed it from there as a programme with books, finger placements and tunes. We made it into a method,” says John.

“I’d say business is going very well.”

New people will be put through the mill by a panel of expert millionaire businessmen when the sixth series of Dragons’ Den gets under way on BBC Two next Monday.

John remembers rehearsing for a month to get his three-minute pitch right when he went on the programme.

“You get into it, think it’s going well and then the panel jump in. They break your train of thought straight away, although I have to say that in my case it didn’t make great television because nothing spectacular happened.”

As to regrets, he has none.

“That particular programme had 5.2m viewers, which is a hell of a lot. We got publicity and opportunities and I’ll always be glad for it,” says John.

Just what is it that the tycoons are looking for?

Dragons’ Den judge Peter Jones explains he will only invest in products he would buy himself. And after putting his money behind inventor Imran Hakim and his iTeddy last year – a teddy bear with an interactive MP3 and video player in its tummy – he helped create the first Dragons’ Den millionaire. But he adds that not all the ideas are that good.

“The most absurd pitch had to be knee roller skates,” says Peter. “The guy thought they’d be good for fathers who play lions with their kids and crawl around on hands on knees with their kids on their backs. Never mind that they’d go hurtling into the television.”

As the new series gets under way, he explains that sometimes the camera is less than truthful.

“I am straight-talking and to the point, but the show is edited. You’ll often just see the bit where I’m annoyed but not the warm up to it. We’re not at the inventors’ throats straight away.”

The multi-million pound mogul – also the new face of BT’s business campaign – adds that he and the other Dragons have no idea who is about to come into their Den.

“We’re not allowed to see people pitching their ideas beforehand. If we’re walking around outside on a hot day, they’ll pull us inside while they move the entrepreneurs out of sight.

“It’s real cloak and dagger stuff. So often we’re sitting there and to begin with we won’t have a clue what’s being talked about or being pitched to us.

“Often we’ll listen to the responses of another Dragon and take a cue from them. But when it’s on television and been edited, it looks like everyone knows what they’re talking about.”

Dragons’ Den begins on Monday on BBC Two at 9pm