Episode 1

For her first venture, Hilary heads to Milton Keynes, where cousins Donna and Ann run an ailing floristry business. The pair embarked on a floristry course with dreams of making enough money to move the family to Spain. Four years on and the cousins are still working at an out-of-town enterprise park and are yet to make enough money to take a wage. With hardly any orders for their flowers, they spend most of their days slurping tea. The Business Inspector is gobsmacked to learn that Donna and Ann’s website does not even work. But there is worse to come when Hilary looks at their accounts and sees the company has lost thousands of pounds – yet Donna and Ann do not seem to understand or care. The business has survived thus far on hand-outs from relatives. Hilary’s first task is to order Ann’s mum to stop the flow of cash. Determined to find the girls a regular source of income, she then pushes them to win a big floral contract at Bletchley Hall, a posh local wedding venue. Can the girls come up smelling of roses? Also this week, Hilary visits Warwick, where gogetter Gary has been running an events company for the last 19 years. Gary believes that he is on the verge of greatness – he has created a series of elaborate, illuminated table centres that add glamour and style to any big event. He now wants Hilary’s help in setting up a franchise to market his products, so the mischievous Business Inspector secretly organises an event to see if Gary’s creations can float her boat. Hilary is wowed by Gary’s flashing table centres, but when they get down to business, she discovers that his creative juices are more impressive than his business sense. It seems that turning creative types into business dynamites is going to be an uphill battle for the Business Inspector...