FOR the best part of 20 years, Alice Adams enjoyed a successful career as a legal linguist. It carried her into high-pressure situations around the globe, but gave her little insight into the workings of the business world.

So when Alice's partner threw down the gauntlet, daring her to find out how difficult it was to launch and run her own company, she set herself up at a tiny table and phone socket on the landing of her Kirkbymoorside home. And from that landing, Ryedale Telecommunications took off. It was 1999 and the deregulation of the telecoms industry meant BT was no longer the only player in town. Sensing an opportunity, Alice started selling alternative providers to British businesses.

Now her company employs ten people. It has turnover of £1 million, which is expected to double this year. Her "no bombast, no bluffing and no boast" methods have put her in line for the Women In Enterprise Award and the Business Personality Of The Year in The Press Business Awards 2006.

From that landing she would talk to companies large and small, discover their telecom needs and find the best supplier for them. For this, she deployed a trick learned while working as an interpreter in Algeria. "Never betray, by any facial expression, that you are out of your depth. Be self-assured. That confidence will spread to the customer and come back to you."

Her first target, to pay all the bills within six months, was easily met. Within a year, she had moved from the landing into a purpose-built office in the garden. As orders came in, her biggest problem was maintaining the pretence that she was part of a sizeable company, rather than a one-woman band.

When her twin boys burst in, or the puppy began to bark, they nearly gave the game away. In those early years, Alice awarded business to those providers who were prepared to go the extra distance for her.

Her account managers found themselves driving her long distances to meetings and back, before she built up her own confidence sufficiently to tackle up to 500 miles a day on Britain's motorways.

They also helped write proposals, gave her technology tutorials and even handled existing customers' queries mandatory if they wanted her business!

Soon she was winning contracts ahead of the major telecoms. By autumn 2005, after three years of unbroken growth, her company was able to renovate an old gym, turn it into the Pocklington Business Centre and move in, letting out the free units to other companies. Two of these are also powered by Alice: The Real Yorkshire Pub Company and helicopter hire firm flymenow.co.uk.

Alice's success comes within the male-dominated technology and telecoms sector. She has used this apparent drawback to her advantage by recognising early on that her professional manner impressed businesses that she says were becoming sceptical of telecommunication companies' boastful bluster.