Tuesday, 28th May 2018 may have been an average working day for many, but for Michelle at ValueAdd Business Solutions Ltd an invitation to the Trades Hall of Glasgow changed all that. Wondering what was this invitation was? Well, Michelle was invited to a pop-up art gallery being hosted by the candidates of this years series of The Apprentice.

We’ve been dying to tell you all about it for months, but because we signed a NDA we weren’t allowed to talk about it until after the event. Now were so happy to be able to spill the beans.

The invitation was extended for Michelle to bring a few guests along too, so the ValueAdd team, along with fellow ICB bookkeeper Sarah Douglas and Virtual Assistant Caroline Wylie set off on the gloriously sunny May afternoon to see what the event was all about.

We had been asked which of the two beautiful venues to attend and we chose Trades Hall. We weren’t really sure what to expect when we arrived at Trades Hall, but after signing our release forms we were directed to the main gallery. Next step hospitality! We were looked after by the candidates and enjoyed a complimentary glass of wine. The film crew were floating around trying to capture the candidates every move and Karren Brady had her trusty clipboard taking notes on the candidates progress. We were greeted by Tom, Jasmine and Sabrina and had a wander around the gallery looking at the local artists work. The artist chosen by the team was Solveig Einarsdottir, an Icelandic artist now living in Glasgow.

It was the sub-team made up of Sian and Sabrina who showed us the local artists designs that could be transferred onto canvas bags, make up bags and tea-towels. This brought on the sales pitch, starting with the demonstration of how the items were printed.

As it was late in the day it was clear the candidates were getting pretty desperate to clear their stock. After a few attempts to sell at full price and quite a bit of negotiating we came to a deal – purchasing some of the merchandise and, as shown on the camera, the deal was sealed with a handshake from Sarah.

What the cameras didn’t show was a later (and more lucrative) deal being struck out between Sabrina and Sian with Caroline Wylie to purchase the remaining stock at a knockdown price. Basically, she bought all the remaining stock. You can always trust a VA and a bookkeeper to get the best deal!

It wasn’t a spur of the moment decision, Caroline knew full well the tote bags would be put to good use – they were used as the goodies bag and distributed to Virtual Assistants attending the Northern VA Collaboration event.

Overall, it was a great experience and a fun afternoon. It’ll certainly give us something to talk about at the Christmas party this year.