What they're worth and how they did it

51. Founder of the Yo! Sushi chain

Worth: Yo! Sushi has an estimated turnover of £14.5 million

CV: varied early career including pop group roadie and bus driver. In 1997 he decided to sink his £150,000 savings into opening his first Japanese restaurant in Soho. Today he has 13 restaurants and three bars. Plans a chain of hotels and health spas.

Home life: divorced, father of Charlotte, 13. He divides his time
between homes in Rutland and Soho.

Duncan Bannatyne

54. Founder of gym chain Bannatyne Fitness

Worth: £115 million (estimate)

CV: no qualifications. Joined the Navy before spending five years as a beach bum. First venture was running an ice-cream van. Nicknamed Midas, he set up a chain of nursing homes in 1996, before founding Bannatyne Fitness a year later. It now has 23 clubs with more than 52,000 members. He harbours thespian aspirations and reportedly paid £7,000 at a charity ball for a walkon part in a forthcoming Guy Ritchie movie

Home life: father of three, lives with his family in a £1.3 million mansion in Darlington.

Sarah Tremellen

36. Boss of Bravissimo lingerie chain

Worth: £12million

CV: graduated from Cambridge and had stints as a waitress and BBC researcher. She set up Bravissimo after her own frustrating experiences of trying to find a bra to fit. Her bra empire, started in her living room, includes an online ordering service and has four retail outlets.

Home life: married with two children, living in Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire.

Julie & Gary Hester

40 and 39. Founders of Property Search Group (PSG)

Worth: estimated turnover this year is £25 million

CV: Julie Hester's first job paid £2 an hour. She set up PSG, which runs legal checks on properties for lawyers, in 1997, purely to "help a solicitor friend". Now has 102 offices and more than 600 employees. Gary quit his job as a mortgage broker in 1998 to join her

Home life: Grade II listed fivebedroom rectory in Huddersfield with their four sons. The family owns more than 20 properties.

Karl Watkin

47. Founder of Just2clicks.com

Worth? an estimated £10million

CV: Watkin floated his Crabtree Group, a leader in the canmaking industry in 1993. In 1999 he founded Just2Clicks with Luke Johnson who used to head Pizza Express. It specialised in e-commerce but it shut up shop in 2001, a victim of the internet boom and bust. He also owns a theatre in Newcastle and even persuaded the Royal Shakespeare Company to base themselves there. He is on the board of international trading company, Deal Commodity

Home life: married with daughter. Lives in Northumberland.

Early 40s. Owns gay nightclubs

Worth: estimated £8 million CV: former Pontins bluecoat and trainee teacher. Started out by selling cheap jewellery and "naughty toys" then bought Blackpool's Flamingo nightclub and built it into one of the largest gay clubs in Europe. His In The Pink leisure chain now owns a string of pubs and clubs

Home life: private. He refuses even to reveal his age. Still DJs at his clubs.

Philip Miller

Late 40s. Chief executive of Adventure Island and Sea Life Adventure in Southend-on-Sea

Worth? £1.5 million CV: brought up in a council house, the son of a Southend sideshow owner. Together with his parents turned derelict land by the pier into what is now Adventure Island. He expanded Adventure Island and opened Sea Life Adventure. Now an MBE.

Home life: shares a house in Shoeburyness with his seven children from three relationships.