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Quinn Thompson launched his women’s fashion label, Saint Grace (saintgrace.com), with $1,000, one type of fabric, and a vision to change the fit and feel of the T-shirt. Over the past six years his luxurious vintage-inspired knitwear company has grown each season with new styles, new customers - and new debt.

Thompson, 37, who has started businesses since he was 10 years old, self-financed Saint Grace with small lines of credit and big sums on his charge card. "I’m old school," he says. "I didn’t know how to get investors." Although he was steadily growing the Los Angeles-based brand and consistently shipping product, the 90 to 120 days in turnaround time from raw fabric purchase to end - customer payment created constant cash flow problems.

Thompson applied for small-business loans but was repeatedly turned down. "Banks don’t like people who don’t own a home," he says. "The reality is that you come into different cash flow crunches, and your credit card may be your best friend." By 2005, Thompson carried $175,000 in debt on his cards and owed another $50,000 on a family loan. "There were some pretty dark times," he says.

Everything changed, seemingly overnight, when Jessica Simpson ("a hot property at the time," he notes) was spotted sporting a pair of Saint Grace pants. Suddenly "we were making that product as fast as we could," says Thompson.

By the end of 2005, Saint Grace was doing 50 percent of its business in those pants, and Thompson paid off all his debt. He was able to boost his salary from about $25,000 annually to more than $100,000. He also was able to buy his own home - a duplex condominium, part of which he rents out, earning additional revenue to help pay his mortgage and taxes, which run about $4,200 a month.

Last year Saint Grace, which has attracted additional celebrity fans including Angelina Jolie, Jessica Alba and Drew Barrymore, was carried in more than 500 boutiques nationwide and did $2.6 million in sales.

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The Hanger Millionare

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http://www.hangers.com

When I was 23, I went to work in my father’s warehouse in Miami. It sold store fixtures - mannequins, showcases, hangers - everything in a store that a store doesn’t sell. I started to pay attention to the hangers when I noticed that every retailer who came in to buy supplies would also purchase hangers for his own home.

"Give me $500 worth of hangers for my house," a typical jewelry store customer said. When I realized there was no universally recognized place that specialized in selling high-quality hangers, I decided then and there to become the Hanger King.

In the same month I got married, bought an apartment, and used it as collateral to borrow $30,000 and start the Great American Hanger Co. (hangers.com). Then I started to travel the world to learn about the hanger business. I went to India, other parts of Asia and South America.

In a leap of faith, I bought $50,000 worth of wooden hangers from India, because they were the cheapest and the Indians spoke English. I started selling them to my dad’s customers and to other store-fixture distributors.

I sold $25,000 worth of hangers in three months in 1999 and $500,000 the next year. Today we are one of the world’s largest sellers of high-quality hangers, including lines designed for lingerie and suits. We did $8 million in sales last year, and I think we can definitely become a $100 million company.

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