Streetcar
Streetcar, now the UK's largest pay-as-you-go car club, began life in 2004 after founders Andrew Valentine and Brett Akker read an article in a US magazine about car-sharing club Zipcar. At that time, no such company existed in the UK.
Its business model offers a flexible alternative to car ownership. Members pay an annual fee of £49.50, book their Streetcar online or by phone and then collect it from a reserved parking space near their home using a smartcard. Rental costs start from £3.95 per hour.
As well as flyers and email marketing, word of mouth was key to the brand's early success, accounting for 40% of customers in the early days. Having started out with £60,000 in loans and savings, Streetcar's business became profitable within four years and it has tripled its turnover every year.
It now boasts 40,000 members across 700 locations in six UK cities and recently signed a deal with Network Rail to park Streetcars at all major London railway stations.
Hotel Chocolat
With a mission to bring a better quality of chocolate to UK consumers, over the past 20 years Angus Thirlwell and Peter Harris have taken their company, Hotel Chocolat, from catalogue retailer, to website, to high-street stores and now, owner of a Caribbean cocoa plantation. It is now turning the historic plantation, in St Lucia, into a viable cocoa bean-growing enterprise where it plans to build not only a chocolate factory but, ultimately, a boutique ecohotel.
Thirlwell believes that developing its first-hand knowledge is "pivotal in terms of the authenticity of our approach to chocolate". It started out with "virtually zero" marketing budget, so direct contact with customers has also been central to the success of the brand.
Each month Hotel Chocolat creates about 40 new recipes and sends chocolates to approximately 80,000 members of its 'Tasting Club', who taste, rate and score them. It's a strategy that has paid off, with sales now reaching around £40m per year.
Soundmap
This series of downloadable audio guides to walks around London was born last year after founder Jo Bryan spotted an opportunity in the large numbers of iPod owners in the capital. Inspired by the quality of audio guides to New York museums, she teamed up with sound engineer James Vyner to create walks around areas such as Brixton, Brick Lane, Soho and Camden. All are narrated by people with a connection to the area, such as local writers, and also feature interviews with local characters. "We'll go and chat to the market tallholder who's been there for 50 years and who can really talk you through how the area has changed," says Bryan.
Funded 100% by loans from the founders, and marketed using social networks such as Facebook and MySpace, the business is already profitable one year on. It is now expanding via commercial tie-ups with the likes of Warner Bros, which asked it to create a "Sweeney Todd" walk to tie in with its film of the story. New walks themed around writers such as Dickens and Shakespeare are also in the pipeline.
The Introduction Company
In a world where internet dating and speed dating have largely replaced
traditional matchmakers, Yorkshire businesswoman Lesley Brewer bravely took the exact opposite approach with her startup. Launched in 2006, The Introduction Company is a highly personalised service focused on single people living in rural or countryside locations. With a firm belief that most online dating agencies are too impersonal, Brewer interviews potential candidates for three to four hours in person, and likens her role to that of a proxy headhunter for singles. "People subcontract this part of their life to me," she says.
While some clients are from professions such as teaching which make them hesitant about putting details online, others simply don't have the time to trawl the net for suitable candidates. Most of Brewer's business comes via word of mouth, including her own networking. The company began with just £7,000, with turnover projected to be £150,000 this year. But the real evidence of success is with the client base: 450 clients and 40 couples together long-term.
