Real Business

Rajeeb Dey, 24

Company: Enternships.com

Business sector: Recruitment

Twitter: @RajDey

Rajeeb Dey is the 24-year-old founder of Enternships.com, which gives students and graduates the chance to learn about business and enterprise through work placements in entrepreneurial environments, from start-ups to venture funds all over the world. Enternships isn’t just about helping people find jobs, it’s about planting and cultivating young people’s entrepreneurial seed.

On how to start your own business, he says: “Start with an idea, but don’t think you have to invent a new product. I’m not an inventor, I’m more of a service person. Gaps in the market are out there.”

 

Tom Marchant, 30

Company: Black Tomato

Business sector: Travel

The winner of our Cisco Customer Kings awards last year, Black Tomato is an online bespoke-holiday firm (think kitesurfing off glaciers, a night in a replica of Scott’s legendary camp and flights over the wilderness in a DC-3).

Tom Marchant, who co-founded the business with Matt Smith and James Merrett, is the creative 

force behind Black Tomato, and is responsible for its product development and brand. This company is renowned for going the extra mile for its customers, sending holiday-makers complimentary books and CDs, a personalised“Back to Reality” goodie pack when they return and free membership to The Vine, its travel club with perks such as airport lounge access, classic car hire and freephoto books.

Marchant is an ex-city boy, having worked at Ernst & Young for five years before setting up Black Tomato. The company launched in 2005 and now pulls in sales of £7m a year.

 

James Taylor, 27

Company: SportStars

Business sector: Education

James Taylor set up SportStars five years ago with the objective of “spreading the benefits and pleasures of sport to as many people as possible”. SportStars provides just that, coaching young children while their teachers fulfil their planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) duties.

Today Taylor’s business has boomed: it works with 25,000 pupils in more than 100 schools each week, and the business turns over more than £1m. The next step for Taylor is to roll out the model nationwide.

“I always felt I was different – I had a bit of a problem taking orders from teachers,” says Taylor. “I think I’ve always known that working for myself was the only option.”

Priya Lakhani, 28

Company: Masala Masala

Business sector: Food

Twitter: @MasalaMasala

“I just couldn’t understand why there wasn’t a chilled ethnic section in supermarkets,” explains Priya Lakhani (pictured right), founder of Masala Masala. And so the former media lawyer started selling three types of fresh Indian sauces in March last year.

Ethics is a big part of her business: for every jar sold, Masala Masala donates one hot meal in India. “It’s important to have a CSR project attached to your business – it gives you that extra bit of drive to do well.”

Lakhani has sold nearly 100,000 Masala Masala jars thus far, and plans to add a further 18 products to her range this year.

 

Tom Allason, 29

Company: Shutl

Business sector: Delivery

You may recognise Tom Allason from another successful company: he founded, eCourier.co.uk, the £7.5m London-based business courier company. But he’s turned his focus on another business now: Shutl, which offers retailers same-day delivery of online orders.

“Local retailers can’t compete with big online retailers like Amazon on price and product diversity, 

but they have local stock and can provide customers with immediate delivery,” he says.

While the courier delivery market is in decline, the market for e-commerce deliveries is growing at over 20 per cent per year – Allason might just have hit the jackpot.

 

Fraser Doherty, 20

Company: SuperJam

Business sector: Food

When SuperJam founder Fraser Doherty first started making jam aged 14, he never expected it would grow so quickly. “It’s been a really amazing adventure,” he says. “I never thought I’d be where I am now.”

The Scottish entrepreneur has already sold over one million jars, and doesn’t intend to stop growing, with plans to hit the global markets with SuperJam within “a couple of years”.

Asked about what advice he’d want to give to new entrepreneurs, he says: “Give your ideas a shot. Start small, and with some hard work and imagination, you can change your life.”

 

Lucy Cohen, 27

Company: Mazuma UK

Business sector: Accounting

Think all accountants are boring? Think twice – Lucy Cohen is breaking the mould. Cohen founded accountancy practice Mazuma with the goal of setting up a young, friendly practice serving SMEs, sole traders and the self-employed. Mazuma has a fair, structured price plan based on the work required, rather than company’s turnover. Services start at just £15 per month.

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t fit the stereotype. As long as what you do is good, make your own rules and do the best you can for yourself,” she says.

Cohen, the new face of accountancy, plans on opening her 250th franchise by 2012.

 

Rebecca Jane Philipson, 24

Company: UR-In The Paper

Business sector: Retail

UR-In The Paper is the first producer of personalised tabloid gift newspapers in the UK. Philipson’s business took off after she appeared on Dragons’ Den in 2006, when Duncan Bannatyne rejected her, saying: “You’re going to be what I call an SME – a Self Made Entrepreneur. You don’t need my investment today to become a millionaire; you’re going to make it anyway. I would suggest that you start up some other businesses and develop your own business empire.”

Philipson’s business now prints up to 10,000 bespoke papers each week. It recently struck a deal with Tesco to sell personalised newspapers through its branches nationwide.

 

Dan Conlon, 27

Company: humyo

Business sector: Online storage

After setting up web-hosting firm Donhost at the age of 19 and selling it to Pipex for £5.9m less than five years later, Conlon is already on to his second business. Online storage company humyo, launched in 2007, now provides more than 650,000 customers with secure online storage space. Today, humyo can store the equivalent of seven billion photos on its servers in Manchester’s old Bank of England blast-proof vaults.

Conlon looks like he’s picked the right market: “Right now, most people use the cloud to back up their PC, but in five years’ time, your PC will be a backup of the cloud,” he says. “It’s a central place where you can store and access all your data.”  Backed by technology investment firm Oakley Capital Corporate Finance, Conlon already has offices in Germany, France and the Czech Republic, and is planning to crack the US market next. 

 

Lex Deak, 27

Company: Family Fridge

Business sector: Social network

With online Dragon Julie Meyer’s help, Lex Deak is changing the way family members interact. His product, Family Fridge, is an online family organiser with a range of features, including a shared calendar, gift lists, address books, photos, and more.

But this isn’t Deak’s first successful business – at university he set up a property, a picnic hamper and an online furniture business. “There are real opportunities out there,” he says. “The next step is to create a hub to help small firms set up.”

 

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