Tim or Saira? It's the question that rocked the nation. Or that was discussed quite enthusiastically down the pub - until Big Brother came along, at any rate. The Apprentice, in which young hopefuls battled it out to work for Alan Sugar, was the kind of compelling telly that got everyone talking about business - and settling down on the sofa with a nice cup of tea to decide they could do so much better than the contestants.
But while many of us won't even get as far as filling in the application form for the next series, you shouldn't dismiss the idea of your own business - or even of rising to the giddy heights of Sir Alan. Every year, young graduates set up their own businesses and succeed.
Ian Robertson, the chief executive of the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (ncge.org.uk) wants to see more young people get their businesses off the ground. "You don't need a business background, you need to have an idea," he says. "We need the people who have the ideas and the inspiration - it's much easier to graft on the technical bits than it is to graft on an idea."
Ian points to the support networks available to graduates - enterprise centres at universities, networks of entrepreneurs who can help ready you for challenges - which will help you turn an idea into a business. "Around 30% of the US economy is driven by businesses set up by graduates - in the UK it's only about 8%. But our research says that more UK graduates think about setting up a business than graduates in the US. So we have got the ideas, we just need to help people get that idea moving.
"It's important to have a real focus on what you want to do and how you're going to achieve it," Ian says. "You have to know how people will part with their money. It's not rocket science, it's attention to detail; absolute attention to detail."
But you don't need your own start-up to make the most of your entrepreneurial skills. Kevin Steele, chief executive of the 'Make your mark - start talking' campaign, which encourages young people to be more enterprising (starttalkingideas.org), says that employers also value the skills that make people good entrepreneurs.
"Employers are interested in entrepreneurial skills like being able to spot opportunities, to have new ideas, and the right confidence. It's not just for people who want to set up their own business, it's what all employers want from their graduate intake," Kevin says.
"Setting up a business while you're at university demonstrates all those qualities, but if you've organised the summer ball that can also show those skills. The way that the world is changing, these things are far more important than they ever were before."
Think you've got what it takes? Or need some inspiration? Find out how graduates made ideas come to life.
Alice Bowe, 24, has her own landscape gardening business. "I started off doing a fine art degree and half way through I got involved with a piece at the Oxford Botanic Garden and became really obsessed with flowers and plants. From that I got really interested in gardening and decided to do a postgraduate in landscape architecture. When I was doing my MA there was nobody I really wanted to work for, and the few people I did really admire were sole practitioners. I got offered a couple of jobs, but I thought I could do it on my own.
"It was quite difficult to start with. I got a couple of commissions while I was still a student, so that was a very steep learning curve, but I got a lot of advice from other practitioners. I also got a place on a course at Nottingham Trent's Business Incubation Centre designed to help with starting up your own business. I did a show at Olympia called Urban Gardens a few weeks ago - I always used to go to it and made part of my business plan to get there myself. I don't know how much work it will bring in, but a lot of people from the industry came and were very positive."
