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JAMES FREEDMAN is reliving the glory days. When he set up the Manchester United magazine in the 1990s he knew all the stars. He even had an early interview with David Beckham. “We had exclusive access to all the players,” he recalls. “We got behind the scenes and did amazing photo shoots. It was a… Continue reading How I Made It: James Freedman, founder of Zone
ELAINE FAIRFAX’S father was a pianist with a love of animals. “He always gave half his meal away to our cats,” she recalled about her father Frank Booth, a leading arranger for music publishers in London’s Tin Pan Alley and for several bands. Fairfax, 60, inherited her father’s passion for pets, which led her and… Continue reading How I Made It: Elaine Fairfax, founder of Animal Friends
KNEE-DEEP in snow in the mountains of Alaska, Wayne Edy could not believe his luck. A woman wearing shoes designed by him had just won the World Mountain Running Championships. “The champion hadn’t brought footwear to cope with the snow,” said Edy. “She had borrowed my shoes from a junior runner in the morning and… Continue reading How I Made It: Wayne Edy, founder of Inov-8
ALAN and Juliet Barratt’s first attempt at a fat-burning formula was so effective that an army friend described the results as explosive. “Like a grenade,” said Alan. “That was the reaction — and the name — we were looking for.” The couple had grown tired of selling other people’s products, so they decided to make… Continue reading How We Made It: Alan and Juliet Barratt, founders of Grenade
Ben Laurance WHEN the Telegraph wrote a piece about Ryanair in November 2013, the journalists must have thought they were giving readers just what they wanted. Everyone had a gripe about the Irish airline, which had cheap fares but a cavalier approach to customer service. “Ryanair: the 10 most irritating … Read more at the… Continue reading Read all about it
RICHARD HILTON was a skinny 19-year – old when he arrived in New York. He had left suburban London eager to pursue a career in advertising — but first he wanted to build some muscle. “I joined a gym with wooden floors and white walls,” he said. “It was so sterile I quit after three… Continue reading How I Made It: Richard Hilton, founder of Gymbox
IN HER work as a wig cutter, Karen Betts met a lot of cancer patients who had lost their hair because of chemotherapy. She decided to go a step further for a friend with breast cancer. “She had lost her eyebrows too, so I borrowed a machine from the tattoo artist above my salon and… Continue reading How I Made It: Karen Betts, founder of Nouveau Beauty Group
JOANNE SMITH was studying for an MBA and working full-time — and now she was falling asleep. During a tutorial she had been asked to close her eyes and meditate on her goals in life. “When I woke up people were turning to each other to discuss their plans,” said Smith, then a consultant at… Continue reading How I Made It: Joanne Smith, the Consulting Consortium
BEST FRIENDS Martin Ephson and Tom Helme closed the deal of a lifetime in April 1992 when they took a majority stake in Farrow & Ball, the paint and wallpaper maker that had fallen on hard times. “The company was selling decorative and specialist paints that nobody else made in Britain any more,” said Ephson,… Continue reading How I Made It: Martin Ephson, co-founder of Fermoie
ANGIE COATES plays the oboe and piano and wanted her children to share her love of music. When her daughter Millie was still only three months old, Coates started looking for music classes. “There were some, but they tended to be quite formal,” she said. “They didn’t use music in an interactive way or have… Continue reading How I Made It: Angie Coates, founder of Monkey Music
Hattie Williams 