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Employees up and down the country are working harder than ever this week... putting the finishing touches to their fantasy football sides ahead of the start of the Premiership on Saturday. If you can’t beat them, join them, so here’s our Fantasy Entrepreneur XI:

Peter Jones
Club: Phones International, Dragons’ Den
Goalkeeper
Commanding 6ft 7in shotstopper whose sheer presence turns the opposition into nervous wrecks, often pitching their best efforts well wide of the goal. Bases his game on percentages but has been known to betray his teammates for a big money contract.

Tom Hunter
Club: West Coast Capital, Hunter Foundation
Right back
Honest full-back who learnt the game at grass roots before working his way up to become one of its top performers and earners. A selfless player who puts the team first and is always the first to help out when others need his support. A successful career as a scout spotting and nurturing future talent awaits.

Levi Roots
Club: Reggae Reggae Sauce
Left back
Plucked out of the obscurity of non-league, Levi’s rapid rise to fame has surprised many but he continues to impress with an albeit unorthodox style that has brought many admirers and a series of lucrative contracts.

Alan Sugar
Clubs: Amstrad, Viglin
Centre back (captain)
Experienced and uncompromising leader, who’s won plenty of honours in a glittering career. Holds the back line together and when he talks, the others listen. If they don’t, they can expect to be subbed.

Michael O’Leary
Club: Ryanair
Central back
Bruising back-to-basics centre back who relishes kicking big name opposition into touch. A value-for-money signing who won’t go missing when times are tough. Prone to disciplinary problems and dissent.

James Dyson
Clubs: Dyson
Centre midfield
Creative playmaker who spots the passes others don’t see. Dismissed as an expensive luxury earlier in his career, Dyson has emerged as one of the most respected exponents of the beautiful game. Doesn’t come cheap, but adds quality where others just work hard to little effect.

Stelios
Clubs: EasyGroup
Centre midfield
Hard-working all-round midfielder who burst onto the scene 10 years ago and, despite the odd loss of form, has remained a core fixture for the best part of a decade. A high impact performer who does the basics well and leads by example, Stelios’ role is to sit in the middle and keep the side focused on results.

Theo Phaphitis
Clubs: Rymans, La Senza, Dragons’ Den
Left wing
Cunning ex-Millwall winger who works the flank tirelessly turning around precarious situations before driving forwards exploiting gaps in the opposition’s defence. Can sniff risk at distance but possesses plenty of flair.

Richard Branson
Club: Virgin Group
Right wing
The original celebrity entrepreneur, Branson’s our Beckham. In demand and easily distracted a true globetrotter who remains irresistible at delivery. Adored by his teammates and the public alike.

Lee McQueen
Club: The Apprentice Winner 2008
Centre forward
Questionable track record and lacking experience make assertions McQueen is out of his depth in this side understandable, but our target man will do whatever it takes to emerge victorious, while that dinosaur-impersonating ‘that’s what I mean’ goal celebration could well earn him cult hero status among the masses.

Michael Birch
Club: Bebo
Centre forward
A relative unknown who burst onto the scene with a unique style of play that has captured the imagination of younger supporters. Hot property, this young striker has already played overseas and was the subject of a record-breaking transfer deal earlier this year.

I'll let you name the subs bench and perhaps a women's XI to take on the men?

What’s the first thing us Brits do in a crisis? Make a brew, of course.

That could be the explanation behind a healthy jump in profits at tea and coffee specialist Whittard of Chelsea, which appears to be making rich trade as a result of the economic downturn.

It seems caffeine addicts are saving their pennies by getting their fixes at home instead of the high street. Sales of coffee are up 15% on last year at Whittard, while coffee-making equipment is up 11%, cafetieres 7% and milk frothers 4%.

Whittard is just the latest credit crunch winner. Ryanair reported a 19% rise in passengers in July, while Travelodge and Haven have seen a jump in bookings from holiday seekers unable to afford foreign holidays this year.

Budget supermarkets Aldi and Lidl are booming, while DVD sales and pizza delivery are also on the up as 'nights in' become the new 'nights out'.

It seems the UK consumer is prepared to economise however they can – Superdrug has even reported a 15% rise in condom sales!

Image: Flickr

Last night’s Dragons’ Den was a classic, with two DD firsts and one poor guy being practically set alight by the dragons' fury!

First, Clive Billing was offered a DD record £255,000 for a 40% stake in his online jewellery retailer Diamond Geezer from Peter Jones, James Caan and Theo Paphitis – and then turned it down! “I’ve no regrets whatsoever, it wasn’t a fair offer,” said Clive, who was holding out for 20%, after the show.

He’s confident he’ll get a better deal elsewhere. Given Clive only made £3,000 from £1.6m turnover last year and has liabilities of approx £300,000, we’re not so sure! And fancy passing up on the opportunity of adding three dragons to your board!

The unique aspect to Peter Jones’s £75,000 investment for 35% of Victoria McGrane’s fledgling fashion company Neurotica was that she’d only asked for £56,000! While one by one the other dragons balked at Victoria’s obvious failure to budget for stock to meet supply orders, Peter readily upped his offer to account for the oversight.

While hardly a first, the dragons were also at their fiercest best. Diamond Geezer Clive got a stern reprimand from Deborah Meaden for having broken the show rules by previously contacting her, while unimpressed Duncan assured him the pleasure in their meeting was all Clive's.

The real pasting was saved for Richard Mire and his Screen Machine idea to help parents control children’s TV viewing. The dragons’ nonplussed reaction was just the start; the real action began when Richard revealed his other business made £300,000 last year.

“Get out of here. GO AWAY!” screamed Theo, repeating it several times. When the chorus of abuse subsided, James Caan spelled out Richard’s crime for him: “So this is such a amazing idea you want to put £2,500 in for 85% and I’m going to put in £150,000 for 15%?! I’m a bit disappointed that you think we’re that stupid.”

Duncan Bannatyne quickly lowered the tone again, sending Richard packing with possibly the hardest exit line in DD history: “I wish you absolute failure. I hope it doesn’t take off. I hope people don’t buy it, I hope it fails. I think it’s ridiculous.” Just in case that didn’t fully clarify where he stood, Duncan added the all too familiar “I’m out.” Harsh. But, on reflection, probably fair.

If you missed, catch it iplayer until Monday.

A novel idea it might be, but I can’t see the Sony Reader catching on.

The ebook that stores 160 downloadable novels hit UK stores this week. Priced at £199 and weighing 250g, every battery charge allows 6,800 page turns.

Now I might be missing something here, but when would you ever need, or more importantly, want access to 160 novels? Possibly if you were circumnavigating the globe or locked in a world of 24hr Big Brother, I suppose. And if you did why would you want to read them via screen and have to manually click for a new page every 17 lines or so?

OK so it’s easy to say it now, but MP3 players worked because they improved the alternative experience. We love being able to shuffle, flick and rotate our record collections, while 8,000 7” vinyls and a turntable always were a bit of a bitch to get on the bus.

MP3 players also worked because iPod made them look cool as funk. The ebook looks like an Etch-A-Sketch in a cheap suit.

Great ideas are solutions to problems and improve experiences. It feels like the ebook is a semi-solution searching for a problem that doesn’t exist.

Theo Paphitis, Peter Jones, Deborah Meaden, James Caan and Duncan Bannatyne return to our screens tonight with the sixth series of Dragons’ Den.

As the now celebrity entrepreneurs have been popping up everywhere from Saturday Kitchen to Top Gear, it might seem as if they’ve never been away, but tonight it’s very much a case of getting back to business.

The line-up for the first episode sticks to the tried-and-tested recipe of more zany inventions, bungled pitches and absurd propositions than genuine business opportunities, with just as much to learn about ‘how not to raise finance’ than anything else.

This week’s carcrash presentation comes courtesy of John Foster-Smith and Ros Adams. Their attempt to secure £50,000 for Layline, a bed sheet with a dividing line aimed at solving night-time squabbles among bed-hogging couples, begins with them lying on the studio floor recreating that scenario in front of the dragons. It’s hands-over-the-eyes, scream-out-loud viewing.

A machine that turns air into water and a green events company sound more promising, while Cambridge rock band Hamfatter offer to share lifetime royalties in exchange for £75,000 to make an album.

If you can’t wait until tonight (BBC2, 9pm), there are several video previews on the beeb’s swanky new Dragons’ Den website. Shame they don’t share their videos so we can embed them here, but hey, it took them this long to work out entrepreneurial business actually interests the mainstream...

It’s Friday, so what are you doing tonight? How about trying out Club4Climate, Britain’s first eco nightclub?

Based in London’s Kings Cross at Bar Surya, this genius idea is the brainchild of property entrepreneur turned eco dance warrior Andrew Charalambous, aka Dr. Earth. It officially launched last night showcasing what Charalabous sees as an eco blueprint for other clubs to follow.

The club uses poly-carbon cups, which it claims are the world’s most sustainable drinking utensil; recycles all glass, metal, paper and plastic materials; airflush waterless urinals; uses screens to educate clubbers on the perils of climate change; offers free entry to clubbers who can prove they arrived by foot, cycle or public transport; and makes all its clubbers sign a pledge to curbing climate change.

By far the most impressive feature though is the dancefloor which generates electricity when people dance on it! The more people shake their eco asses, the more electricity is produced! Check it out:

Charalabous has grand plans for Club4Climate including an eco holiday destination and he’s pledged to donate all profits to Friends of the Earth, despite the organisation distancing itself from the project over concerns the island would encourage international travel.

Dancefloor image: Daily Mail

Last week I launched Go Green Plumbing London Plumbing Company, which we put together in less than 8 weeks.

I really wanted to take plumbing and drag it kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

We have launched in central London and have a great team of skilled plumbers driving around in electric vans. They are hilarious but save us a huge amount of petrol, c-charge and parking; so we are even cheaper than our competition.

Finding good quality plumbers was the hard work but we have a great plumber in charge of the company.

Starting a company like this in such a short amount of time just shows what can be achieved when you put your mind to it.

Freecycle, the internet swap shop that allows people to obtain goods and services for free, is deservedly enjoying lots of publicity (Times - Telegraph) as the press hold up its popularity as evidence of the credit crunch.

Started in Arizona by eco-warrier Deron Beal in 2003 to reduce the number of unwanted white goods dumped at landfill sites, Freecycle is now attracting 200,000 new users a day, was used by 1.2m people in the last year and thinks it will have enabled five million free transactions by the end of the year.

Once a way of recycling unwanted items, Freecycle is now a middle class market for school uniforms, furniture and car repairs if you believe what you read.

Either way, it’s fascinating to see the simplest of age-old ‘hand-me-down’ cultures transferring so successfully onto the internet. And even if opportunistic car boot traders and the middle class weren’t part of the original eco vision, they’re all contributing to a reduction in waste and eagerness to recycle.

While it carries sponsorship it’s unclear how profitable Freecycle is, especially as most of its activity is carried out using Yahoo groups. However, its growth in popularity suggest there’s still massive potential in the sharing over the internet of not just opinion and information but possessions, services and expertise. Good news for sites such as horsesmouth and others looking to break this space.

It’s not said often enough, so we’ll say it. Entrepreneurs give plenty back, create wealth, share knowledge and actively look to improve society. There you go.

What prompted today’s little backslap? Seeing the sterling work Tristram and Rebecca Mayhew, husband and wife founders of high-wire forest adventure site Go Ape, and Tim Campbell, founder of the Bright Ideas Trust, in a bid to raise £1m for the Prince’s Trust.

Tristram, Rebecca and Tim were the faces behind yesterday’s launch of the Million Makers initative, marking the 25th anniversary of the Prince’s Trust’s Business Programme, which itself has helped more than 70,000 young people into business since 1983 but needs £1million every month to continue its vital work.

The initative will see employees from 50 companies including The Royal Bank of Scotland, Accenture, Axa and Oracle competing in various challenges and start their own enterprises in a bid to raise the cash.

"Million Makers is a unique initiative for budding corporate high-flyers; not only will it help The Prince's Trust to raise £1million, but it provides a structured learning and development opportunity for companies and participants," said Tim.

Great work guys and we salute you. Just one question: why isn’t the government putting in the same effort to support an organisation that’s contributed more than its fair share back to economy? It used to match, pound-for-pound, funds The Prince’s Trust raised, so why doesn’t it now?

That question was asked to Shriti Vadera, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Competitiveness, at a Prince’s Trust event in May. She denied all knowledge of this fact but insisted she’d look into it. Any update yet, Shriti?

Big respect to real estate company MEPC (nope, I’d never heard of them before either), which is building a £6m incubator entirely from its own funds at its business park in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.

The incubator will house 60 university spin-outs and will be run by Oxford Innovation, a specialist facilities management and angel investment company.

It’s great to see such a project coming out of private money, as the flexible lease demands and high failure rate of science start-ups that tend to occupy incubators usually put off developers and commercial landlords.

Speaking to the FT, James Dipple, MD for MEPC Milton Keynes, said: “We are providing a space for start-ups because some of them will grow into big companies.”