So, we did it. We got Dig onto the latest season of Dragons’ Den! Whilst we’re not yet able to reveal the outcome (like us, you’ll need to tune into Dragons’ Den on BBC One next Thursday 13th February at 8pm to see what happens), I wanted to tell you a bit more about how it all came about… it’s certainly been an interesting ride!
An unexpected email from Dragons’ Den
Myself and the founding team had casually talked about applying for the Den in the past (we’ve all enjoyed watching it over the years) but had never got round to investigating further. So it was totally out of the blue when a BBC producer emailed us last April asking whether we’d consider applying for our pre-designed instant flower bed business to appear on the series to air in 2025. My reaction was, “why not?” so I filled in a detailed questionnaire and left it at that. A few days later, myself and Alex were joining Zoom calls to meet with producers and then quickly undertaking an audition. Then it went quiet for a few days…
Mission accepted
It being early May, we were madly busy with customers and projects when I got a call from the Dragons’ Den producers whilst driving home in the Dig van to be told we’d passed our audition and that we’d be filming up in Manchester… in under a month’s time! The producers (who throughout were so lovely) reiterated that there was still a lot of work to be done before we would walk into the Dragons’ Den, which included a massive amount of business due diligence, as well back and forth on our pitch, set plans and so forth.
After many late nights (and lots of help and support from the whole Dig team and our families), we’d got everything done, checked and approved. By this point we were just a week or so away from seeing our beautiful flower beds in the Dragons’ Den itself!
Practice, practice, practice
Alongside all of the paperwork, we really got our heads down and did our revision! This covered everything from watching previous Dragons’ episodes, reading up on articles and blogs from businesses who’d been in the Dragons’ Den, practising our main pitch endlessly, checking and re-checking our numbers and strategy and even using our families and friends to host a practice Den where they played the Dragons! (They were almost more fierce than the actual ones, it turns out…). This proved really invaluable because – although you can never know exactly what’s going to happen in the Den (this was certainly the case for us!) – we felt we knew the business inside out and where the challenges might come from, allowing us to feel at least a little bit in control!
Off to Manchester
I headed up to Manchester the day before our filming date, with our van jam-packed full of everything needed to create a stunning garden in the Dragons’ Den. You’ll see from our episode that we really tried to fill the Den with plants and flower beds, not only to make it look good, but also to help highlight Dig’s products and how beautiful they are. After arriving at the studio in late afternoon, we laid out our set backstage and did some practice runs of our pitch with a producer. Then, Alex and I headed to a nearby hotel for some last minute revisions and a cheeky glass of wine. We were told we would be on first the next day, which meant a 7am call time back at the studio.
Into the Dragons’ Den
Despite arriving at 7am, we weren’t on set and filming until around 10:30am – it took time to get our set in place, we recorded some other elements like waiting for the famous lift, had a bit of hair and make-up and then, we were ready to go.
Nothing really quite prepares you for walking out from the lift to be faced by these amazing business icons staring straight back at you. It was totally surreal standing in front of Peter Jones, Steven Bartlett, Deborah Meaden, Sara Davies and Touker Souleyman but it was also so energizing. And incredibly intense! Madly intense! We were in there for what felt like hours, and was indeed hours. We were glad of our effort and homework, but all the same we faced some very challenging questions. But overall, the Dragons were fair, honest and really generous with their thoughts, insights, questions and, yes, critiques!
Finally, we were done and out of the Den. Mentally exhausted, but proud we’d be in there and done it.
We both set off for home – Alex back to London where she was literally moving house, and myself back to Wiltshire where I too was literally moving house. Oh, and myself and my wife Joanna were expecting baby number 4 who duly arrived just a couple of weeks later!
What’s next?
We can’t reveal the outcome of the Den just yet. But I’m so glad we took on the challenge. It was a much more time-consuming and intensive process than I had assumed, but it made us think really hard about Dig as a garden business and brand, what we do well and what we can do better. So, no regrets. Here’s to what happens next…!
