As a fan of adventure sports, London PR consultant Ross Williams was finding spare time to indulge his passion for thrill-seeking increasingly difficult to come by. Long working hours coupled with extensive travelling times meant co-ordinating action-packed weekends amongst his group of friends was becoming more and more problematic. Williams began to question whether other city workers looking to make the most of their weekends might be experiencing similar drawbacks and this led him to create sport, adventure and social club, 8th Day Adventure in 2004.

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Selling headshots from the back of a rusty white van isn’t the most glamorous job in showbusiness but for photographer Doren Gabriel it was the start of a career which would see him go onto picture some of our best known faces. He launched mobile headshot business image 1st in 2002 offering corporate style portraits for just £20 a pop on the streets of the City of London. He later developed the business into entertainment photography and, after opening his own luxury studio in London’s Farringdon in 2006, went on to shoot celebrities including boyband JLS, reality TV star Louie Spence and the Strictly Come Dancing cast.

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Jonathan Rose and Chris Hobcroft are the founders of TraderPeople, an online social gaming business that provides fantasy and simulated financial trading games. In this case study, Jonathan and Chris discuss what makes their business attractive and how they utilise its core worth to add further value.

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Mazuma Money is an innovative accounting company that successfully rode the economic downturn and now boasts several offices across the UK, from which the company offers a range of services to clients. inspiresme.co.uk finds out more about what makes Mazuma Money unique from founders Sophie Hughes and Lucy Cohen.

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For Russell Singler, the Director of Art You Grew Up With, his ‘magical’ career started when he was fourteen years old, when his parents bought him an original production cel of Baloo from Disney’s Jungle Book. ‘I couldn’t believe it,’ he said. ‘It was (and still is) my favourite film, and that kickstarted my collection.’ Skip forward thirty years and Russell is now director of the world’s largest destination for collectors of animation and character based fine art.

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Lisa Drummy is a director of Beanie’s Health Foods – for the last 10 years she has been importing and distributing Fry’s Vegetarian Foods with her business partner (and Dad!) Patrick Drummy. They started Beanie’s on an impulse when they discovered that Fry’s in South Africa were looking for someone to import Fry’s Vegetarian Foods into the UK.

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Conseal Security is a specialist data security company that aims to give a range of clients, including individuals, businesses and government departments, control over who accesses their data and when. Tom Colvin, co-founder of Conseal, tells inspiresme.co.uk what it takes to succeed in such a sensitive industry.

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Sergio Lopez says his company, Big Bang Lab, creates new value from the old and creates new connections across people beyond time and space. A quick glance at Sergio’s achievements reveals that Big Bang Lab is clearly making waves. We spoke to Sergio about his entrepreneurial journey and asked him to tell us more about his company’s innovative services.

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The Baby Loft is an online baby rental equipment service that offers parents a range of products for all stages of their baby’s life. Founder Denise Proctor, 36, talks to inspiresme about the birth of her idea and the challenges of being a Mumpreneur.

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Counterculture Partners provides advice and guidance to cultural, creative and third sector organisations to encourage them to plan, manage and thrive. Advice is offered on a range of topics including strategy, finance, governance and project management. The founders all have a wealth of experience in the cultural and creative business sectors and are now applying their knowledge to help other organisations succeed. Inspiresme.co.uk caught up with Tom Wilcox, Founder of Counterculture Partners, to find out more about the company and its plans.

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In London, one startup is successfully using state-of-the-art technology to fine-tune the performance of elite cyclists. Here Richard Melik, owner of Freespeed, talks to inspiresme.co.uk about his growing company.

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Ben Wilson is the founder of FreshCig, a company that produces and markets electronic cigarettes. He talks to inspiresme.co.uk about the challenges of tapping into a new market alongside many competitors, and of developing a unique selling point in order to stand out.

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This case study is the personal business account of Sandy Banfield, who owns her own virtual business and support company. Sandy discusses her personal history, professional background and business-building journey to help other entrepreneurs work out their own path.

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Graphic Workman is a full service graphic design agency based in London. Founder David Ottley tells us how he keeps his head above water in such a competitive marketplace.

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HeyZap founders Jude Gomila and Immad Akhund set up their company as the global economic downturn began to bite. From their office in San Francisco, they tell inspiresme.co.uk how they bucked the trend to create a company that today serves over 400,000 websites.

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Incentive FM provides facilities management services to some of the country’s biggest companies. Jeremy Waud, founder and owner, tells inspiresme.co.uk about the challenges he’s faced and how he competes against FTSE 250 heavyweights in the industry.

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Not many people would recognise a ‘problem with authority’ as a virtue, but the directors of design and digital media consultancy FRS Ltd cite that idiosyncrasy as a catalyst for their setting up one of London’s most dynamic and fresh young creative companies. Commercial director Peter Stormonth spoke to inspiresme.co.uk.

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MiniWardrobe.com is a one-stop online shop for designer kids’ fashion to suit all tastes and budgets. It features luxury designer clothes and hard-to-find European and international brands for 0-12 year olds, as well as providing a platform for relatively unknown British designers to showcase their brands and quality handmade garments. inspiresme.co.uk finds out more about what it takes to start a business in online retail from the website’s creator and director, mum-of-three Caroline Kendal.

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LUX-FIX.com is a luxury lifestyle site like no other. The site is a members only online fashion boutique, giving its customers exclusive offers on current season designer products. It was founded by school friends Alice Hastings-Bass and Rebecca Glenapp, both 28, who talk to inspiresme.co.uk about their business and how it came about.

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Stephen Falder is Deputy Chairman of Byotrol plc and also the company's Business Development Director. Byotrol is a brand new hygiene technology that delivers broad-spectrum, long-lasting, antimicrobial protection.

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