You've got to do the research. You've got to understand the market place, know your competitors.
Peter Jones
Throughout my career, some of my best hires have been people who have bypassed the traditional route of university and learned their skills through apprenticeship schemes or alternative education courses.
Business is about more than just money. It's about being creative and innovative.
The more people you meet, and the more people you have influence over your business can scale quicker.
I passed my Lawn Tennis Association coaching exam, and I persuaded my local club to let me use a court after school and on Saturdays.
Britain lacks that fundamental belief that anyone can make it. What we need is a British dream. Let's give young people the courage and ambition to go for it.
I remember my first memory is sitting in my dad's chair in a small office and I used to imagine that I was picking up the phone and issuing commands. And I was only seven.
I'm not a guy who plays political games, and I believe absolutely in one method, which is directness.
I've certainly learnt there's nothing more important than cash - cash flow issues are one of the biggest causes of company failures.
I want enterprise and entrepreneurship embedded in the national curriculum and will continue to lobby government until it happens.
American Inventor', a show I came up with launched in 2006. It's all of America's greatest and wackiest inventions rolled into one with a judging panel including the legendary George Foreman.
I've played a massive and growing part in making business glamorous and even, yes, sexy.
If you want to make your own decisions about where you work, what you do, what you earn and what you buy, then being able to make money is an important factor.
We've all seen those spoiled little brats that end up being given everything and on their 17th birthday get a Ferrari. That whole thing I just can't bear it.
It was tennis that got me started in business. When I was 16 and about to embark on my A-levels, I set up a tennis academy and became one of the youngest qualified tennis coaches in the country. It did well; by the time I was 19 I was able to buy my first house.
People have dreams, don't they? Young people have enormous vision for their futures. I think a lot of them are realising that they won't necessarily be Robbie Williams but they might be brilliant businessmen and businesswomen.
Knowledge-based apprenticeships kickstart careers. Just look at British fashion designer Karen Millen, for example, who learned her craft through an apprenticeship scheme.
If someone comes onto 'Dragons' Den' and annoys me, I'm going to tell them exactly what I think.
So I went and got my first job at 28, trying to think what I am going to do, I've never worked for anybody, so I decided to go and write and send my CV off to everyone.
The first thing I think, I was building computers, I started to build a computer when I was 17 or 18 at home, an IBM compatible computer, and then I started to sell computers, and when I sold a computer to a company called Ligo I think, and they were selling systems which became blockbuster.
I've got my own businesses I run every day and I like to think I'm a nurturer rather than a firer, but the reality is, if somebody continues not to succeed and do the right thing for the business they lose the job because they are affecting the livelihoods of others.
My kids certainly aren't going to have the money. They don't need it.
Business is about making money but it is also about having fun, so get your character across.
Being an entrepreneur is probably the most lonely thing you can do.
I always substitute the word 'feedback' for 'failure.'
When people pitch me their ideas in a T-shirt and jeans it shows they can't be bothered.
I never thought I'd be a TV entrepreneur.
One of the biggest reasons entrepreneurs don't succeed is because they have too many chiefs. You've got to bring in the right people to make the right decisions.
When you do make losses, or you have businesses that don't succeed, it's about knowing when to stop and do something else.
One of the things that slightly annoys me in business is that we use words like innovation. Young people often think innovation is about doing something new, but actually it's not. It's about doing something better than your competition.
There are lots of people who say you are born an entrepreneur - you either have that gene or not. I really disagree with that.
I lost my computer business when I was 29 because I gave credit to firms I didn't investigate. I lost my house and had to move back in with my parents and then I lived in an office for six months.
My father was an air conditioning engineer and we lived in a three-bedroom terraced house in Langley before moving to a four-bedroom house in Maidenhead, where my parents still live.
I have seen celebrities whose friends change as they become more successful, but my friends haven't changed over 30 years. I've still got some of the friends I had when I was 14 and I see them regularly with their families.
I want my kids to be polite and respectful, stand on their own two feet.
I find it very, very difficult to watch myself on TV.
I think a lot of people are getting bored of audition-based shows, along the lines of 'Strictly Come Dancing' or 'The X-Factor'. I know I am. But 'Dragons' Den' will have a longer shelf-life than all of them because it's fundamentally real in a way that other shows aren't.
I passionately believe that you should start a company that you really believe in. Don't start something that you have no interest in, start something that you're passionate about.
If I'm filming 'Dragons' Den', we work flat out until 8pm, although I love seeing the weird, wonderful and plain delusional.
When I was eight, my parents saved up to send me to private school, but I found it so tough that I often escaped through the back fence to walk the four miles to my father's office in Windsor. I only lasted a few terms, but it didn't curb my ambition.
I'm 6ft 7in and I was a bit like a giraffe on the tennis court, though I did play at county level.
All young people can benefit from practical business knowledge but especially those from the poorest parts of the country.
When I was 12 I worked with someone - it was actually an English teacher at my school, John Woodward. He was the only teacher in the school to have a top-of-the-range Porsche and all the trappings of success, so it was very interesting for me to find out how he did it. He was probably the wealthiest English teacher in the community.
I really don't want to encourage young people to think that life is about money only. Life is about being able to give yourself choice.
We're having to spend a lot of time teaching our entrepreneurs how to teach and, I tell you, it isn't easy and that's why we should have an immense amount of respect for our teachers.
For many young people on-the-job training and hands-on experience is the real route to employability, not a university education.
In the 1980s when I was growing up in the Berkshire town of Maidenhead I was heavily into tennis. It was the era of Borg and McEnroe. I used to spend hours hitting balls against a wall, imagining I was beating them both.
Whenever I invest, I invest in the person as well as the business.
