Jim McCann was an accidental entrepreneur. A bartender and social worker, he only wanted to supplement his income. So, he started with one flower shop purchased for $10,000. Then he bought another... and another. When he bought the rights to the iconic phone number — 1-800-FLOWERS — he thought everything was going to be rosy... but as Jim McCann found out, it wasn't that simple.

A struggling artist and single mother in rural Maine, Roxanne Quimby managed to turn a local bee keeper’s honey into gold. What began as a candle company eventually expanded into a natural product empire producing everything from lip balm to insect repellent. Recently, the Clorox Company bought Burt’s Bees— still named for that local beekeeper—for more than $900 million.