18 Entrepreneurs We Love

A former nurse, married to a retired doctor, Annie Margulis, 52, started her line of golf clothes for women because she couldn’t find anything she liked to wear on the course. Today, Girls Golf clothes are sold in 250 stores worldwide.

She was an interior designer who couldn’t sew. But Eileen Fisher, 57, took her vision of comfortable, stylish clothes and turned it into a huge company: Sales have tripled in 10 years; she has 41 eponymous stores; and the clothes are available at more than 1,000 department stores and specialty shops.

When she couldn’t get pregnant, Diana Thomas, now 52, found an egg donor by putting an ad in a student newspaper. Other infertile couples started asking for her advice, and she realized she could turn her expertise into a business. Now X and Y Consulting is worth $20 million and Thomas has helped 2,000 women become pregnant.

Running an independent bookstore in Berkeley, California, is “an endless cocktail party,” for owners Marion Bundy, 54, and Ann Leyhe, 55. The two met in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1975, and always fantasized about running a bookstore together.

In the 1970s, Joan Barnes, 61, started Gymboree, the kids clothing company and playspace. It made her very wealthy—and contributed to a complete breakdown. Now, she has started three yoga studios in San Francisco. They generate $3 million in annual sales and allow her to live a fulfilling, peaceful life.

When she retired after 20 years in the army, Adrienne van Dooren, 48, immediately started working on her personal reinvention. At first she lived off her pension and took art classes to learn how to be a decorative painter—now she makes more than $1 million a year from her art and other projects.

For the first five years, Heidi Flammang, 42, didn’t pay herself a salary; she plowed all her money back into her chain of doggy day care centers. Now she earns in the six figures and there are more than 60 Camp Bow Wows in operation.

Hurd was just 26 when she started her own production company; two years later, she released The Terminator. So even though opening a restaurant is tough, Hurd, 51, is up to the challenge. Her restaurant, Vertical Wine Bistro in Pasadena, California, offers 414 different wines.

At 36, Kathy Davis was facing single motherhood with a big mortgage and no income. A former artist, Davis created greeting cards in her free time, and a friend urged her to attend the National Stationery Show. Her watercolor creations were a hit at the show and she licensed her designs to numerous manufacturers. Today Kathy Davis Studios has 14 employees, 7 designers and $15 million in annual revenue.

In 1997, both Mary Clare Murphy and Christie Miller had left their jobs to care for their children. Murphy and her husband were having trouble selling their home so they decided to sell it on their own. Murphy’s husband suggested creating a Web site to advertise their home and others. Murphy asked Miller to help her work on the site and in February 1998, they launched FSBOMadison (for sale by owner) with 10 listings. For $150 they’ll feature your house, manage inquiries and provide a teal yard sign. Today, FSBO has listings for over 2,000 houses and the women earn annual salaries in the six figures.

Greenwald left her corporate job when she was pregnant with her first child. As she wondered about her next move, this Harvard Business School grad realized that she was always offering dating advice to her single friends. Her tips employed all she had learned at Harvard: branding, packaging and niche marketing. Greenwald found a way to profit from all of her expertise: a matchmaking business. Today, she is responsible for 712 marriages and wrote a dating advice book that ended up on the New York Times’ Bestseller List.

When Dosik was laid off from her corporate job in 2003, she took the opportunity to explore a new career. Dosik had been baking for years, and finally decided to pursue her passion by enrolling at The French Culinary Institute. After she completed the program, she furthered her education by interning for a cake decorator and working at a popular bakery. In the summer of 2005, Dosik launched One Tough Cookie, Inc bakery that uses cookies for decorations on cakes. A write up on UrbanBaby in 2006 boosted their visibility, and the orders have poured in!

McAllister was bored in her job as a criminal psychologist and turned to crafts as a way to exercise her creativity. Jewelry making grabbed her attention, and she began researching gemstones, beads and the mechanics of stringing and wiring. When friends expressed interest in her jewelry, she started hosting parties and taking orders. Feeling ambitious, she brought her products to a small upscale boutique and they purchased everything she had and ordered more. Her jewelry is now sold in four cities in southwest Florida, and you can purchase it here.

Johnson loved wearing long pants with high heels, but hated when her pants would get stuck in her open-backed shoes resulting in a “heel wedgie.” Inspired by the QVC/Oprah “Search for the Next Big Idea” project, Johnson filled out the registration form and caught the interest of producers but didn’t make it to the final eight. The competition motivated her to patent her idea and create Kix by Katie.

Bell was a stay-at-home mom when she was diagnosed with Grave’s Disease, an autoimmune disorder that affects the thyroid. One of the symptoms is significant hair loss and Bell felt self conscious about her appearance. She scoured the malls, catalogs, and online sites for a colorful, comfortable baseball cap, but couldn’t find one. So she decided to make one herself. Now three years later, Mad Capz, sells fun, unique, feminine caps and visors to women all across the country. She also sells wholesale to hospital gift shops, oncology boutiques, golf pro shops, golf retailers, gift shops, and small boutiques.

A trip to Puerto Vallarta proved to be a life-changing event for Debbie Davis. She fell in love with the ocean and snorkeling but felt unattractive in her wetsuit. While working in real estate, she spent her free time sketching wetsuit designs with princess seams and taking sewing classes. She perfected her pattern, found a surf-clothing manufacturer and a few months later launched Sea Dreams Wetsuits. Though she still supports herself with real estate investments, Davis has left behind her day-to-day real estate job for working with wetsuits.

Holt worked as a recruiter for major companies like Nabisco and Ralph Lauren. One day, while at a convention, she noticed koi fish in the hotel lobby. Inspired, she took many photos of them and upon returning home raced to her paints and easel that she hadn’t touched in years. She began concentrating on her art again and expanding to paint other animals. Commissions quickly came in and she was financially able to leave her corporate job. Her paintings line the walls of institutions like Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and Citigroup in Manhattan. View them here.

Linh Reilly was working as a full-time benefits consultant when her hobby of making homemade Asian sauces turned into a booming business. She started selling bottles at her daughter’s school Christmas fair, and her product sold out in an hour. She then distributed sauces to homes and small businesses around her community. After doing more research in food processing, Reilly launched Asian Creations and in 2005 she quit her full-time job and committed to her sauces—a wise decision. A year later Whole Foods decided to distribute Asian Creations creating an even bigger buzz around her already successful company.