The art of negotiation is an interesting business subject. Oftentimes, when business men and women negotiate with clients and investors, there’s always an angle to the conclusion of the bargain – an angle that may elude an unobservant third party. Oftentimes a wise business man or woman may intentionally wish to appear to have taken a fall in a bargain in order to get more from that same bargain in the long run. In the smart business circuit, the business man or woman who seems to be holding unto the shorter end of the baton may actually be the business man or woman who stands to gain the most from the deal in the long run. The beauty and complexity of the art of negotiation came to the fore in episode 7 when a certain determined young entrepreneur went to battle with 5 successful and astute business men and women in the fiery den, and walked out with a sly grin on his face.

Welcome to episode 7 of your number business school on terrestrial television – Dragons Den Nigeria.

The first entrepreneur to face the dragons in episode 7 was YAKUBU YAKUBU; he came to secure an investment in his media company Eclectic Design Grade and Enterprise to facilitate the production and distribution of a DVD magazine called D-9 THING.

Having mentioned his huge demand for 33.1 million naira, in exchange of a generous 40% equity; but the dragons were not easily swayed by generosity, they wanted to go beyond the speculative nature of the idea to what makes it unique and marketable.

His production cost of 60 naira and retail value of 800 naira showed that the profit margin of this DVD magazine business was incredibly tempting. But the dragons refused to swallow this tempting bait.

The concept of producing a DVD magazine may be novel; however the dragons seemed more concerned with how this idea would effectively replace the conventional paper magazines and how it would appeal to its target market.

Alexander Amosu noted his discomfort with the inappropriate and unattractive ‘magazine’ cover, but the prevailing issue was the entrepreneur’s inability to convince the dragons that he had a market for this DVD magazine, or that he could compete with the conventional magazines, Femi Tejuoso was the first to opt out, followed by the rest of the dragons.

The second entrepreneur in the den was ANTHONY OGUNLADE and his partner, they came in with a concept they tagged “Naija Music League”. A mobile and internet-based music game targeted at avid fans of music and football in Nigeria.

They were seeking 50million naira, and offering just 30% equity, one would wonder how the dragons were expected to warm to their idea, their huge demand and their thrifty equity offer. Femi Tejuoso decided to get straight to business, asking the entrepreneurs to establish the money making potentials of the business, but Anthony and his partner found it difficult to convince the dragons that their business idea had any unique or viable business concept. They froze when certain questions were asked, and they couldn’t quote crucial figures from their business plan.

The dragons quickly opted out.