REFUSING an investment from the Dragons is normally a business death sentence, but for the Grumpy Gardener it was the making of them.
Father and son duo Mick and Joe Smith, 40, opted to not take any of the bids and now run a multi-million pound online gardening warehouse when they appeared on the BBC1 show in 2012.
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Instead, the only thing they took from the show was their name Grumpy Gardener as Mick was branded grumpy by the show’s fans.
They were offered £50,000 for 50 per cent of their company by Duncan Bannatyne, but they weren’t prepared to sell more than 10 per cent of their firm.
Since appearing on the show, they have made £3million in a year with £300,000 worth of products sold in just 10 minutes on telly shopping channel QVC.
Joe said: “Turning down the Dragons is the best decision we have ever made. 100 per cent. The Dragons are obviously very successful people. They know what they are doing but we know that for every deal that is done, only every 3 handshakes come to fruition.
“The Dragons do their due diligence after the show and if that makes them not like you, you have to pay for the checks.
“So in theory you can be thousands of pounds in debt even after getting a handshake and that’s not how we wanted to start the business.
“Even though we did our two min pitch…
