IF DADDY is a billionaire you probably won’t need to bother with this article unless you’ve been so naughty that he’s cut you out of the will — in which case, read on.

As a business beginnner you need fiscal dexterity. You’ll want to gather as much cold hard dosh as you can to buy stuff, then you’ll need to master the techniques needed to keep the cash flowing from clients and out to suppliers. Finally you’ll need the all-important ability to confidently blag anything and everything you can, for nothing.

It also pays to aim high. Philip Evans, founder of Pex Software, pitched his start-up idea to Lehman Brothers, the investment bank. He wanted £100,000 — the bank deals in venture capital deals worth millions of pounds. But rather than slinging him out an executive offered advice and bought a share in the company for £5,000. “This kept me going after the dot-com bubble burst. It was so valuable. Here was a guy who knew what he was talking about who thought my venture was worthwhile,” Evans says.

During the lean years that followed Evans did what most entrepreneurs do — survived on sweat equity, ie, putting his own money and unpaid time into the business.

Will Christophers knows about sweating for his business; the University of Sheffield architecture student and his girlfriend, XinXin Cao, launched WillYaki, a takoyaki (Japanese battered squid) business with a team of volunteers and a charcoal barbecue hired for £5. But with the help of £5,000 won in a business plan competition and by reinvesting profits in the business, the venture has succeeded. Christophers and Cao are now hoping to gain investor help to expand to ten stalls.

But don’t be fooled into believing that you have to sell your soul to the highest bidder to make money. Tom Kay, the founder of Finisterre, a surf-wear company, started with a £4,000 loan from the Prince’s Trust four years ago.

He has just secured a further £200,000 in funding: “It took about a year, but we have the money we wanted,” he says. “We turned up in boardrooms wearing jeans, T-shirts and flip flops. But once we started to speak about the business they were interested and by the end of it wanted to invest.”

Success, it seems, rests on a well-honed business plan, bucketloads of passion, a head for figures and not being afraid of knockbacks.

Sarah Raffel, the director of Brazen Studios, a contemporary jeweller, was turned down by the Arts Council and unsuitable for a bank loan, but managed to start her business by winning prizes and gathering grants, including £35,000 from Nesta (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts). Raffel also had stints working as a waitress and a spell on the dole before the business took off. It’s not easy raising capital, but where there is a will there is a way to realise your dream.

MONEY MAKERS

START-UP businesses come in all shapes and sizes: some are frugal guys toiling in their mothers’ attics, while others are gals with grand plans that need a very generous sugar daddy.

As this week’s article shows, aspiring British business brains need to be entrepreneurial to raise the cash they need to launch into business. There is no automatic government grant or bank loan for struggling start-ups.

The entrepreneurs we spoke to all demonstrate how it can be done — they are Philip Evans from Pex Software (www.pexsoftware.com), Will Christophers from WillYaki (www.willyaki.co.uk), Tom Kay from Finisterre (www.finisterre.com) and Sarah Raffel from Brazen Studios (www.brazenstudios.co.uk ).

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