Back in 2005, two young entrepreneurs started stand-out.net with £2,000 and an idea; today the company is worth over a million pounds. Both Roger and Dan left full time jobs with a regular income to start up on their own.

Stand-out.net is an online men's fashion store with the objective of selling men's clothing and designer clothing at affordable prices without compromising service and quality.

ASOS, one of the largest growing online retailers and one of the competitors for Stand-out.net but also an inspiration. The innovative ASOS started at around the same time as stand-out and has seen huge growth since. The founders use the growth they have seen from ASOS as inspiration for themselves, to show they can become big players in a market with a lot of competition.

Having reached a turnover of £1m Stand-out are looking to carry on with the tradition of year on year growth they have seen so far, by increasing revenue 50% over the next 12 months.

They had the support of their families and were able to live at home with their parents to save paying rent while they invested in the company. Their parents also helped in the early stages with posting items out or dealing with some enquiries.

Having started out with just £2,000 of their own money it meant they had no debts and could grown gradually, while having to make sure that they budgeted carefully. This gave them a good grounding on which to build. Neither had an experience in the retail sector apart from part time jobs during college days, but that only gave them limited shop floor experience, and so they had to learn as they went along.

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