'Foolish' Idea: To put all the cheaper fashion accessories together into a single store. For example: earrings and lipstick.
Start-up Capital: £4,000 savings.
How Idea was Launched: Reuben Singh started selling female fashion accessories from a shopping centre kiosk in Manchester, using £4,000 he'd saved. He soon had the idea of taking all the cheaper items and selling them from a shop. He went round the local schools telling everyone he was opening a shop. He got 6,000 people along.
Sales: 'Miss Attitude', is now a chain of fashion accessory shops.
Earnings: Reuben sold the chain of shops and was entered into the 1998 Guinness Book of Records as Britain's youngest self-made millionaire, with an estimated wealth of £27.5 million.
At 22, the Reuben Singh Group of Companies stands at the capital value of £50 million. Reuben Singh is now involved in currency trading, property, audio visual equipment and venture capital, but the greater part of his wealth to date, is from his first venture, the Miss Attitude chain of fashion accessory shops.
Using £4,000 he'd saved, Reuben began selling ladies fashion accessories in a shopping centre kiosk in Manchester, Rueben soon saw there was a market of putting all the cheap items, like earrings and lipsticks, into one shop.
When Reuben Singh attempted to rent a store in a shopping centre, the manager initially dismissed him, not taking him seriously. Realising he needed professional representation, he contacted one of the leading retail agents in London. Armed with their advice and leads, Reuben refined his proposal and approached the shopping centre management again. This time, they gave him a two-month trial to prove himself.
He visited all the local schools, telling pupils about his new shop and finally got 6,000 people along. Reuben went on to opening a chain of Miss Attitude shops and then sold the fashion empire.
Reuben has two Rolls-Royces, two Mercedes, two Ferraris a Porsche and a sports Bentley. But, although he loves boys' toys, the excitement for him is striving to go one better all the time. Most of Reuben Singh's estimated wealth of £27.5million comes from his idea of selling all the cheap fashion accessories in one shop.
Postscript 2011:-
Self-proclaimed tycoon Reuben Singh has since fallen from grace spectacularly, with a judge branding him a liar after he abused his reputation in order to borrow money.
This may be so, but the point still has to be remembered, he managed to get from 'financially, nowhere significant' to 'financially, somewhere significant' with a little hard work and a great idea.