Kathryn Burn was in second place on The Apprentice in 2022, but it hasn’t prevented her from doing amazing things.
In reality, her company is booming even without Lord Alan Sugar’s £250,000 investment.
Harpreet Kaur and her dessert parlour empire won Season 16 of the popular BBC show, but Kathryn’s pyjama company almost missed out, but she believes losing at the final hurdle simply spurred her to keep trying.
Kathryn tells Metro.co.uk that business is flourishing like never before.
‘Things are so much busier now. My Christmas Pyjamas is the company I had for five years, and that has gone mental. I open that from September until the first week of January and last Christmas especially, it was busier than it’s ever been.
‘Then Pyjamily, my year-round sister company, which I launched while The Apprentice was on, that had such a great start to open the company. Normally it takes a good few months to kickstart a business but I had that platform and got an influx of orders which was really, really great and helpful.
‘Especially at the end of the year, I literally don’t have any time to myself because it’s so busy!’
She adds that she is happy of having established her firm ‘all on my own,’ adding that she is unsure whether winning would have been beneficial to her in retrospect.
‘Harpreet is smashing what she’s doing and the right person did win, she was a worthy winner and she thrives under that pressure of working with Lord Sugar whereas, in reality, I don’t know if I would have.
‘I’ve always run my company own my own so, to have that extra person? I don’t know how I would’ve felt about it.’
Kathryn, who considers reaching the final to be an accomplishment in and of itself, aims to inspire young people via her own endeavours.
She now visits schools on a regular basis to talk with students about their career prospects, and she is especially eager to teach young women that they, too, can start a company after creating history with an all-female semi-final with Brittany Carter and Stephanie Affleck.
‘I’ve shown younger generations that they can do it! I hope to inspire some women out there to start their own businesses and not feel that we are any less than men – our series proved that we are a step ahead!
‘As a result of The Apprentice, I’ve been going into schools all over the UK, speaking to students about their careers, about starting their own businesses, because that’s something I am really, really passionate about, just to tell them uni isn’t for everyone.
That’s a key focus for me, spreading the message that, if you’re not a classroom person, you’re not academic, you can still be successful.’
Kathryn also feels she has matured as a person since her season of The Apprentice aired, with innumerable doors opening for her today that would not have opened a few years ago.
‘I learnt so much through the process and I’ve actually changed a lot over the past year,’ she says proudly.
‘I’ve become so much more confident with my business, whether that’s doing negotiations, pitching, or going for new deals, I just feel like I’m in a completely different space than before I did The Apprentice.’
She also intends to start another business shortly and has joined with an agency to pursue her television goals.
‘I have lots of exciting things in the pipeline. There have been so many great opportunities off the back off The Apprentice and I feel really grateful for that.’
So, after scooping thousands of PJ orders and keeping families warm at Christmas, not to mention getting a relationship with Hilton Hotels all on her own, it appears that Kathryn’s career is far from over.
‘It gave me great exposure and credibility, because people know who I am and they listen to me.
‘I urge anyone who doesn’t win the show to stay positive, regardless of where they finish.’
The final of The Apprentice 2023 airs at 9pm tonight on BBC One.
Source My Celebrity Life.