Accidental Entrepreneurs

Linda Russell

Linda Russell
Mugshots School Photography
San Rafael, Calif.
Founded: 1993
Employees: 7 contractors
Revenue: $457,000 (2007)

When Linda Russell's marriage fell apart, the stay-at-home mom moved into a women's shelter with her two children. She had no income beyond a budding photography business she started as a hobby, mostly shooting portraits of kids. Russell ran her business for four years out of subsidized housing—jury rigging darkrooms in bathrooms and sheds. "It enabled me to put some of the money that I would be putting into rent into reinvesting in my business," she says. Today she has a thriving school photography company—and her own home.