Cornish was building her own small business in wedding styling and floristry when she was approached by her friend Tucker, she says.

“Holly was running a business called ‘Your Local Fair’. She was taking small businesses selling gorgeous jewellery and children’s clothes to upmarket places like Barnes and Fulham. She was getting more and more entrenched in these small businesses when it occurred to her that we should take them online. But it had to be a proper ecommerce platform that felt and behaved like a shop."

Cornish knew from her magazine background with Cosmopolitan and Good Housekeeping that people wanted “unique little things that you can’t find anywhere else”.  And so their entrepreneurial partnership began.

The website launch in April 2006 was not without its hiccoughs.

Cornish cringes when she tells of the day the website went live: “I hadn’t slept for days, but we had some fantastic press coverage. 16,000 people came to the site but the technology failed. They couldn’t buy anything. The blood just drained from my body. But we just carried on and three days later we were transactional.”

The women knew from the start that they needed to be a substantial business. In their first year they invested heavily in offices and staff and by the end of their first 12 months trading they had spent virtually all of their initial combined investment of £140,000, which they had begged and borrowed to get together. This propelled them into an investment deal with SPARK Ventures - a move which brought them from being a company growing too fast for its cashflow into what Cornish describes as “the best thing that could have happened”.

She goes on to explain: “They were the first company to invest in lastminute.com and are very strong in the technology arena. Securing a second round of investment just 18 months later with Venrex, who deal in the high end retail area, we finally had the funding we needed.”

And investment is paying off for these companies. Notonthehighstreet.com grew fast. In its first year, turnover had risen by 600 per cent and since then has seen an annual increase of around 180 per cent. And it is forecast to hit profitability in 2010.

Notonthehighstreet.com works with around 1500 businesses and the premise is simple. Each company pays a joining fee which covers the costs of set up and provision of advice, and then notonthehighstreet.com takes approximately 25 per cent of each sale made by the companies through its platform.

“Our projected growth for this year is to go from £6m to £14m,” Cornish says, “but what is exciting is that as we grow, the businesses we work with grow as well. In our top ten partners one company is up 874 per cent from the year before. To see some of our companies grow ahead of us is a massive driver.”

And these symbiotic relationships give the entrepreneur a huge sense of making a difference. She simply loves going to work. She explains what she feels are the key ingredients that make up a successful entrepreneur:

“I am, of course, a workaholic. I find it impossible to settle for second best, if that means I have to work all night, then so be it. There is always a sense of urgency, dedication and commitment. I don’t think you can do any job well without those, but for an entrepreneur it is point number one.”

The fact that notonthehighstreet.com is a people business is no doubt key to its success over this past year.

“It seems that the small business can hold its own during a recession and we’re supporting small business.”

The fact that the company has sustained such phenomenal growth over the past four years proves that the business model is commercially viable even during the hard times.

“I think our price point is recession friendly. People who may have spent £80 on a flash gift are now spending £40 on something personalised and special and both the giver and the recipient are happy with that,” says Cornish.

Future plans include a possible push into international markets, with Europe beckoning. This will go hand in hand with a freshening up of the look and feel of the site and to deliver better functionality. There is also talk of a business community forum. Although Cornish hesitates over the term re-launch, she is clearly excited and a bit cagey about the future.

“I just love going to work! I’m a bit of a pushover really. I love the sense of team and the momentum of everyone working towards the same thing. The thing about entrepreneurs is that you have to be a bit of both. You’ve got to be prepared to go it alone, but you’ve got to love being part of something bigger.”

The entrepreneurial pair were friends for ten years before becoming business partners and Cornish describes her relationship with Tucker as a bit like a marriage: “We have a fundamental respect for each other and rarely have disagreements because I trust that in her expert areas she knows best.”

Both women are working mothers and aware of each other's family situation, giving each an understanding of where the other is coming from and contributing to harmonious working relationship. And, no doubt, a hugely successful partnership as the future rolls out.