The top 10 rags to riches UK entrepreneurs

Worried that you don't have enough money to start your own business? Be inspired by these 10 famous names started out with less than £25,000

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Think you can’t make a fortune unless you already have deep pockets?  Think again. As many as 25 of the UK’s top entrepreneurs started their businesses with less than £25,000 in the bank, according to research by Start Up Loans, a Government-funded small business loans provider. What’s more, some famous names, such as Sir Richard Branson, started out with much less than that.

Researchers looked at Britain’s biggest firms, how much capital the business founders started out with and what the companies are worth today.

Top of the list is Sir Philip Green, who started out with just £20,000 of start-up capital. Sir Philip later took over Arcadia Group, behind Top Shop and BHS, and is now worth £3.9bn.

Leisure wear mogul Mike Ashley started Sports Direct with just £10,000 and has built up a £3.8bn fortune, while Sir Richard Branson started Virgin Records with only £300 and Sir Alan Sugar, now worth £900m, began with only £100 of start-up capital.

[How to make £40,000 in six months]

Here are the top 10 rags to riches entrepreneurs:

1.    Sir Philip Green - turned £20,000 into £3.9bn

Sir Philip Green used his £20,000 of start-up capital to import jeans from the Far East to sell to British retailers. Worth £3.9bn, the Croydon-born entrepreneur took over Arcadia Group, which owns high street retailing brands such as Dorothy Perkins, Top Shop, BHS and Wallis and once tried to buy out Marks and Spencer’s.
2.    Mike Ashley - turned £10,000 into £3.8bn

(Cityam) Billionaire Mike Ashley offloads a £218m stake in Sports Direct

It may be hard to believe now, but sportswear entrepreneur Mike Ashley started out as a squash coach. At school the owner of Newcastle United played squash at county level but left school at 16 and started coaching after he suffered an injury.
He opened his first shop, a skiwear outlet, in Maidenhead in the 1980s before launching Sports Direct with a £10,000 loan.

3.    Sir Richard Branson - turned £300 into £3.6bn

Yahoo Finance - Richard Branson was voted Britain's most admired business leader in a 2014 Sunday Times poll

Arguably Britain’s best-loved entrepreneur, Sir Richard Branson started his career at the age of 16 by launching a student magazine. In the 1970s he started up Virgin Records and within a year had opened his first shop on Oxford Street.
Now the brand provides everything from flights, bank accounts and makeup to forthcoming intergalactic flights and Branson even owns his own island.


4.    Peter Hargreaves -  turned £500m into £2.4bn
Peter Hargreaves is a well-known figure in the City community. With his business partner, he started investment broking firm Hargreaves Lansdown from a spare room with just £500 and their cars as company assets. The investment provider floated on the stock exchange in 2007 worth £800m.
5.    John Caudwell - turned £25,000 into £1.5bn

Image: David Jones/PA John Caudwell in 2003 as announces a huge package of staff bonuses funded from a £ …

The mobile telecoms mogul, who also founded Phones4U, started his working life as an apprentice at Michelin in Stoke, while also running a corner shop and selling clothing to motorcycle enthusiasts.
But after realising the potential of mobile phones, he started up a mail order company selling them and eventually sold Caudwell – once the UK’s fastest growing company - in 2006 for £1bn.
6.    Charles Dunstone - turned £6,000 into £1.5bn

(Press Association) Charles Dunstone has become the UK's first digital billionaire, according to new figures

  
Starting out with just £6,000 in his pocket, the founder of Carphone Warehouse gave up studying a business degree at Liverpool University and began his business by selling mobile phones from his flat.
Back in the heady dotcom era of 2000, the company which merged with Dixons this year, had a stock market valuation of £1.7bn.

7.    Sir Anwar Pervez and family – turned £2,200 into £1.3bn
The founder of Bestway Cash and Carry Sir Anwar Pervez grew up in Pakistan, the son of a poor farmer.  Each day he had to walk eight miles to get to school.  The former bus conductor moved to London and started a convenience store in Earls Court in the 1960s. By the 1970s, he had ten other stores in West London and Bestway is now the UK’s biggest cash and carry group.


8.    Chris Dawson - turned £5,000 into £1.3bn
Plymouth-based ‘Del-Boy’ Chris Dawson founded The Range homeware chain in 1988. He was once a market trader, selling cutlery and watches, and was nicknamed ‘Dunce’ at school. Dawson, who left school unable to write, used his profits from his market stall to found The Range and now has 88 stores across the UK.

9.    Bernard Lewis – turned under £25,000 into £1.3bn
The entrepreneur behind the River Island chain began his career at the age of 20 selling fruit and veg from a shop on the Holloway Road in North London, which is thought to have made from corrugated iron and on a former bomb site. Despite being aged 84, the billionaire is still involved in the day-to-day running of the River Island chain.
10.    Lord Ashcroft - turned £15,00 into £1.2bn

(Press Association) New poll findings by Lord Ashcroft showed Labour and the Tories on level pegging

Tory donor and business mogul Lord Ashcroft spent some time on the dole before joining a cleaning and business services company where he worked his way up and became an assistant in the accounts department.
Starting his own company with a £15,000 loan, he bought a loss-making cleaning firm for just £1 and later sold it for £1.3m. He has numerous business interests and once owned security firm ADT and the Priory Clinic, which he sold for £925m.