Money makers: a teddy bear start-up

Charlie Morris turned adversity into a thriving business designing and making teddy bears.

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Will and Charlie Morris sold 15,000 teddy bears in their first year
(Image credit: im Wileman)

Charlie Morris's hopes of becoming a ballerina were dashedwhen she was caught up in the 1987 King's Cross Tubestation fire she was hospitalised and ended up with a heartmurmur. Her foster parents instead helped her set up ashop selling teddy bears. One day in 2000, Will walked intoher shop looking for a present for his mother, who was ill inhospital. Three years later, they were married. In 2006, Charlieand Will sold their car and three-bedroom house in Leedsand, with £60,000 in seed capital, they moved to Devon soCharlie could start designing her own "Charlie Bears".

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Chris Carter
Wealth Editor, MoneyWeek

Chris Carter spent three glorious years reading English literature on the beautiful Welsh coast at Aberystwyth University. Graduating in 2005, he left for the University of York to specialise in Renaissance literature for his MA, before returning to his native Twickenham, in southwest London. He joined a Richmond-based recruitment company, where he worked with several clients, including the Queen’s bank, Coutts, as well as the super luxury, Dorchester-owned Coworth Park country house hotel, near Ascot in Berkshire.

Then, in 2011, Chris joined MoneyWeek. Initially working as part of the website production team, Chris soon rose to the lofty heights of wealth editor, overseeing MoneyWeek’s Spending It lifestyle section. Chris travels the globe in pursuit of his work, soaking up the local culture and sampling the very finest in cuisine, hotels and resorts for the magazine’s discerning readership. He also enjoys writing his fortnightly page on collectables, delving into the fascinating world of auctions and art, classic cars, coins, watches, wine and whisky investing.

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