Real Business

At the British Library Business & IP Centre, to hold one of his regular roadshows in front of 200 aspiring entrepreneurs, Lord Sugar was in relatively emollient mood. Gone was last year's "stop moaning, banks aren't here to lend money to duff businesses" harangue. Instead, the Amstrad founder talked, almost soothingly, of businesses having received "a wake-up call" after years of living in "banking dreamland". Some of the banks' behaviour has been, he said, "immoral".

In recent weeks, Sugar detects a shift in mood. "Businesses have started to focus on their own business rather than outside doom and gloom," he said. To maintain such confidence, he has a radical suggestion: that every Thursday be "Don't buy the Daily Mail day".

Sugar's advice to would-be entrepreneurs:

• Be an expert in something; love what you do
• Start from the bottom and learn you trade
• In the start-up phase, do weekly reconciliations of money brought in vs money spent
• When you meet obstacles, think of the Grand National hurdles. "Get over them"
• Failure is a form of learning - "you've just to to make sure you don't keep on doing it"
• Take stock every now and then. Recognise that every now and then it's time to give up on a product

All classic Sugar stuff. However, the most intriguing moment came in an off-the-cuff comment prompted by the BBC's elegant news presenter Mishal Husain, who chaired the evening. When the famous inventor's name came up, Husain asked the oh-so-ennobled Lord Sugar whether James Dyson was also a Lord. "He's not there yet," replied Sugar with a smile. "Mind you, the way he's chasing David Cameron around..."

His voice may have trailed off, but the point had been made. While he maintains his political neutrality, Sir James has produced a well-received recent report for the Conservatives on "Ingenious Britain". Might Lord Sugar be feeling such a little twinge of enterprise envy...?