THE opening weeks’ tasks on The Apprentice tend to be sales-based, and this year is no different.

After a general sales task, and a design and selling challenge, yesterday saw the teams look to maximise margins.

Lord Sugar made his brief perfectly clear – it was all about quality sales at high margins, not quantity at low margins.

As usual, a few candidates stood out for all the wrong reasons. After such a positive first week, it was inevitable that James would struggle (particularly as I had tipped him as an early favourite!)

He completely ignored both Lord Sugar’s brief, and the advice of his project manager Roisin, and began panic selling from the start.

This ultimately cost his team as, though it looks impressive to sell out, it doesn’t always tell the full story when it comes to profit.

He also joins a long list of candidates (yours truly included) to shoot himself in the foot in the boardroom.

If there is anything Lord Sugar hates, it’s people endlessly chattering over him, but James took it one step further.

His claim that ‘you would have done what I did’ clearly didn’t go down well with Lord Sugar, who shot him down quickly. Not a good move.

Speaking of being shot down, it is always interesting to look at team dynamics, seeing who gets on and who doesn’t.

The relationship between Sarah and Katie was stretched this week, starting in the very first brainstorm. Sarah’s (rather strange) dream of making a food-smelling candle was rather abruptly ended by project manager Katie, leading to an 'if looks could kill' glare, which has quickly become her trademark.

Once again, Sarah was the beneficiary of being on the winning team, as her shocking sales record meant that she would have been the one packing her bags had Katie’s team lost.

She’s states she’s a team player, but I’m not so sure.

I have never seen anyone resign in the boardroom, but Lindsay very nearly did. I think Lord Sugar could see she that was on the verge of quitting, meaning that he had to get in there quickly. 

Even without that, she was gone anyway – she simply hadn’t done enough. Though I respect her honesty to stick to what she does in her day job, I’m not so sure that the thousands of others that missed out on the opportunity to appear on the show would feel the same.

As for Nurun, she was the typical team player, but didn’t get involved and didn’t stand out.

Lord Sugar wants someone who will take risks and make decisions, and Nurun was far too happy to simply be pulled along by the rest of the team. It was simply time to get rid of the deadwood, and that’s what Lord Sugar did.

My favourite moments this week? Nurun developed an odd speech impediment which saw her continually refer to Lord Sugar in every sentence. 

Ella tried to fend off criticism of a label being wonky by insisting that customers make the decision to buy candles from a distance, and James mistook the boardroom for the gym!

I don’t know what he thought he was doing, but Lord Sugar certainly was not amused.

Katie stood out for me this week – she listened to the brief and led her team to victory by selling at high margins.

Even though they were left with a large amount of stock, the pricing strategy remained right throughout and ultimately won the task.