Millionaire Mastermind Marbella

The 2015 winner of BBC’s ‘The Apprentice’, Joseph Valente, has been a frequent visitor to Marbella and is organising a second of his series of business retreats to be held in the city in July. EWN caught up with Joseph to chat about his plans but first took him back to the immediate aftermath of winning the contest.

“I signed all the paperwork and then within 24 hours I had £250,000 land in my bank account and I was 25 years of age so that was a nice treat. I’d been in business for three years at that point and I’d got to £500,000 a year in sales so it was doing well and it was making a profit. But I was reinvesting that profit as quickly as I was making it, so the extra money was great as was having a billionaire business partner, the business expertise and the mentorship but also the prestige of the name just opened so many doors”.

I took the company over myself

Reports in the British press point to a breakdown in the relationship with Lord Sugar, “I wanted to grow nationally and they wanted to keep it small and do it slowly but I got into business with Lord Sugar because his story inspired me, he built Amstrad into a massive business so I wanted somebody who was going to help me do the same not try and hold me back”, said Joseph, adding, “so I said to Lord Sugar, I’ll buy you out, we made an agreement and within 48 hours I took the company over myself”.

“I would have loved to have stayed in business with him a little bit longer but, the mentoring that they give you is mainly financial support – his team are accountants – and that made me realise personal development and business training were the key to growth. Most people start businesses as technicians: plumbers, hairdressers, engineers, they do it because they’re good at the job not because they know about sales, marketing, finance, operations, or HR”.

And this was the start of a new venture: “Over the last three years I’ve built a company in the UK called Trade Mastermind that helps trades people become business experts. We’ve trained thousands of UK construction and trade businesses, giving them all the tools they need to make money”, Joseph confirmed.

This aspirational life

“And then the idea for Millionaire Mastermind Marbella was born: a business retreat where we hire a villa and a yacht and we put on a whole experience for business owners from the UK who come over and get a slice of what this aspirational life is going to be like if they build their businesses successfully”.

The next retreat is over three days from July 18 to 21, “it will bring a number of people together who are trying to get to the same end goal”, explained Joseph, adding, “we hope to organise another retreat in September and then perhaps one a month if all goes well”.

Finishing the interview, EWN asked Joseph if he could give just one piece of advice to his younger self what would it be? “Don’t wait for opportunity, create it”, he replied immediately.