Marie DiFolco, Stupid Bags

This Father's Day, 250 Morrisons stores will stock Marie DiFolco's bottle bags in their wine aisles. This breakthrough, which she describes as "a major hurdle for any business", is testament to DiFolco's persistence, although she says: "I never expected to get this far in two years."

DiFolco, founder of Stupid Bags and sister company Not So Stupid (which licenses her artwork), followed a well worn path to start up. She sold her flat, borrowed money through a Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme and sold 12.5 per cent in shares to a business angel to grow her business. Her market research proved there was a niche for a cross-market product such as a gift bag and greeting card in one and she's built a solid relationship with her first client, family-run department store Fenwick in Newcastle.

She'd have liked more support from lenders—"banks aren't flexible for small firms, the loan scheme doesn't work as well the government intends"—but has learnt to open herself to possibility. "Someone told me, 'don't keep your ideas to yourself'. You have to expose yourself to dangers like imitation to seize opportunity." She adds: "The enormity of having a listing in a top supermarket is only just dawning on me."