50 Best Business Ideas is certainly a collaborative effort. Conceived in 2010 by David Lester, the book has only made it through to publication because of the significant input of many people.
At the outset, David’s initial brainstorm provided a skeleton list of ideas. This was embellished by business school professors, investors and successful entrepreneurs, as well as members of Crimson’s business editorial team. I would also like to extend particular gratitude to Kamal Ahmed, business editor at the Sunday Telegraph for his valuable input.
Sara Rizk followed the initial brief to perfection to create a template chapter on the modest Post-it note and, alongside me, commissioned some of the early chapters. Others at Crimson, namely Stephanie Welstead, Gareth Platt and Georgina-Kate Adams, worked tirelessly in the latter stages to elevate the stories from a potted history to something of meaning and usefulness for lovers of business and great ideas.
Many journalists contributed chapters, namely Gareth Platt (8), John O’Hanlon (8), Ryan Platt (8), Jon Card (6), Emma Haslett (3), Georgina-Kate Adams (2), Henrietta Walsh (2), Hannah Prevett (2), Nicole Farrell (2), Hugh Jordan (2), Sara Rizk, Peter Crush, Carys Matthews, Trevor Clawson, Mark Shaw and Martin James.
Picture research for 50 Best Business Ideas was co-ordinated by Beth Bishop and Lucy Elizabeth Smith, with much of the time-consuming and determined research carried out by Lucy, Abigail Van-West and Francesca Jaconelli. Between them, they unearthed a treasure trove of incredible images dating back to the very first products that made it to market, and their enthusiasm and effort is worthy of thanks. Equally, Samantha Harper painstakingly fact-checked each and every chapter.
I would also like to thank a number of others at Crimson who have helped to ensure this book made it through the final stages, namely Lucy Smith, Gemma Garner, Clare Blanchfield and especially Jonathan Young in marketing, and Jo Jacomb and Dawn Wilkinson in production. Dawn’s patience, in particular, is worthy of extra appreciation here. Knowledgeable colleagues such as Hugh Brune, Trudi Knight and Kevin Paul carried out some crucial sense-checking of initial chapter drafts. And finally, I would like to thank my wife and three sons, who were incredibly supportive throughout.