Richard is a high-velocity entrepreneur. We featured him on the cover of Real Business magazine last year (you can read the full article on Richard and Velocity Drinks here).

Cool, energetic, and a Geordie to boot, Richard is the face of young, entrepreneurial Britain.

www.velocitydrinks.com

Hey, no words of ours can match Dawn’s own website. The Flowcrete founder is the most colourful woman in UK manufacturing. But we’re proud to say that Real Business magazine wrote about Dawn way before she became famous.

Then, we called her “the funky Gibbins". And she still is.

www.dawngibbins.com

Sam Barnett is the founder and CEO of Struq, a pioneering digital media company.

Barnett founded Struq in the midst of recession, but the firm has been profitable since its second month's trading, attracting big names like Virgin and Betfair with its cutting edge ad technology.

Barnett's not only created a market-leading firm, he's also the quintessential entrepreneur about town. Anyone he doesn't know in the business world isn't worth knowing...

Dan McGuire is the managing director of Broadbean Technology, the world’s fastest growing distributor of online job adverts. McGuire recently picked up the gong for Young Entrepreneur of the Year at our Growing Business Awards, wowing our judges with his gung-ho attitude and impressive sales stats.

Hear the voice of Britain's entrepreneurial youth and check out his news from the front line.

Brad Burton is the outspoken, no-nonsense founder and MD of national business network 4Networking. Since founding the firm in 2005, he's grown the networking enterprise to over 20,000 members through his "50 per cent business, 50 per cent social" concept: "I aim to take the bored room out of the boardroom," he says.

John Timpson is the chief executive of Timpson Ltd, the UK's leading chain of shoe repairers and key cutters. He and his son James currently preside over one of the most respected names in British retailing.

John has been a regular contributor to Real Business magazine for more than seven years. During that time, we have worked with him to publish two books - Dear James and Cobbled Together.

You can read more about them (and order them) at our store. And you can also visit www.timpson.co.uk to order some of his other books.

Seb Bishop, the charming, chiselled-featured entrepreneur, pioneered pay-per-click advertising as we know it back in 2000 with his firm Espotting.

He’s now president of MIVA, one of the largest online advertising networks in the world – and one of the youngest presidents of a NASDAQ-listed company.

www.miva.com/uk

Meet Steve Leach, the original "big mouth" behind digital marketing agency Bigmouth media.

This Scottish entrepreneur has taken his firm from a first year turnover of £200,000 to £70m last year. And that's not all. He's also made it onto Real Business' Top Ten Sexiest Entrepreneurs...

Rest assured, he's not just a pretty face, check out his musings on life, the universe and everything.

Jan runs The Jan Cavelle Furniture Company based in Suffolk, which makes
furniture for the top end of the interior design trade.  The business offers a wide range of their own designs plus the ability to make to order.

Jan started the business originally out of desperation when finding herself a single mum with two young children to support.  Originally, she started on a shelf under her stairs at home, buying in furniture as needed. However, she built this up through acquiring two different cottage industry businesses.

The company has expanded gradually over the last decade and employs between 30 and 40 staff members.

Matthew Crowe has been building and selling businesses since the age of 19. Now, poacher turns gamekeeper with the launch of his venture capital firm Huckleberry Ventures and its unique focus on “building companies”.  Check out his take on the entrepreneurial scene across the pond and the hot startups and sectors making their way into Huckleberry.

Peter is the founder and chairman of Phoenix plc, a creative agency located in a Victorian chapel in Leatherhead.

His background is in sales and marketing in the house building, estate agency and financial services sectors.

His book, HEMP - The Highly Effective Marketing Plan was published in 2004 and is now available in eleven languages. You can learn a few more quirky things about him at phoenixplc.com

Ross is a freelance journalist and columnist on The Spectator, The Times and the Sunday Telegraph.

He is the author of The Great Before, a satire on the anti-globalisation movement, and How to Label a Goat: The Silly Rules and Regulations that are Strangling Britain, published by Harriman House, about the lunacy of red tape.

He has been a regular contributor to Real Business magazine for several years. We like his acerbic, witty style: hope you do, too.

Guy Levine started his first internet company when he was bitten by the bug at just 17. After exiting his dotcom 366 days after starting it, the day after his 18th birthday, he started another and never looked back.

Today, the internet whizz is CEO of SEO company Web Marketing Advisor. He believes in earning money and prospecting for new clients while he sleeps – and reckons the internet is the way to do it.

He also regularly updates his SEO blog which makes an interesting read.

Margaret is a true all-rounder: an entrepreneur, CEO, writer and public speaker. She has run software and media firms in the UK and the US and currently sits on the boards of several small companies.

She blogs for The Huffington Post . Her two books, How She Does It and The Naked Truth, make for fabulous, challenging reading.

She has been a contributor to Real Business magazine for several years and is also co-chair of our very own First Women Awards. You can learn more about Margaret at her website.

Clive has been in the motor trade for more than 25 years. He is CEO of Clive Sutton Premier Marques, one of the UK's leading independent car dealerships, based in St John's Wood, London, and has become a purveyor of "cars to the stars".

If you want to obtain the most desirable cars in the world, ­ or if you want a trenchant opinion about business, ­ Clive's your man.

www.clivesutton.co.uk

Shed Simove is an author, comedian, corporate speaker and modern-day entrepreneurial genius. As well as a successful career in television, heading up shows such as The Big Breakfast and Big Brother, Shed has built up a novelty gifts empire, Talent Shed. Read more about his amazing adventures and products on www.IdeasMan.co.uk  and follow Shed on Twitter.