Russell Hirst was just 21-years-old when he set up his online flower delivery service from a bedroom at his parents’ home in Manchester, England. Hirst’s ‘one room, one computer’ company is now selling flowers to 120 countries.

Hirst says he is self-taught when it comes to the internet and attributes his success with Valueflora to noticing a gap in the market. By putting customers in touch with the farms that grew the flowers, he could cut out the middle man.

Customers choose their flowers from the website, their order is sent directly to the flower farms, where they are packaged and sent. There are no call centres – everything is done online, and Valueflora has just six members of staff.

Amazingly, Hirst claims his global enterprise cost under £10 to start. “It was done on a shoestring,” says Hirst. “I paid £8 for the domain name and it was pretty much just me for the first 18 months, cold calling people and getting in touch with the farmers.”

Hirst is planning to branch out into providing flowers for events, and remains keen to extend the Value brand further. With a current annual growth rate of 700% and a 2006 turnover of £1.2m

Startups.co.uk