Fast, faster, fastest: Entrepreneur and Dun & Bradstreet's fifth annual hot 100 - the fastest-growing new businesses in America

Entrepreneur, June, 1999 by Geof Williams

When Hidary met Terranova-Bickford, he had left a successful children's clothing enterprise, while she had left a failed one. But Hidary, who had come from a family business and wanted to start his own company, realized all Terranova-Bickford needed was some good financial backing and an economic mindset, and since he didn't know how to design clothes . . .

The two were (pun intended) a perfect fit. In fact, the New York City company has grown so much, almost all Hidary can do is hang on. "When you grow slowly, you have time to think," explains Hidary, who should be used to growth by now: He has three boys and one girl, ages 11 to 21.

Meanwhile, Terranova-Bickford is awaiting the August arrival of her second son. She'd genuinely like to have a daughter, so will she try again? "I think I'll try one more time for a Zoe, and if that doesn't work out, I'm just going to leave it to everybody's imagination as to who Zoe is," the expectant mother says. "Maybe I'll just get a Lab or something and name her Zoe."

G.W.

MAKING THE CUT

This is how it all begins: Culling from its massive database, Dun & Bradstreet provides Entrepreneur with an initial list of fast-growing companies. Entrepreneur mails each company a form, which the entrepreneurs must complete and submit along with current financial statements. We then measure the company's sates growth from the date of inception, listing the businesses in growth order.

In order for a business to be considered, it must meet the following criteria:

* Founder is actively involved in daily operations and controls at least 51 percent of the business.

* Business was founded no earlier than 1996.

* Annual sales exceeded $1 million in 1998.

* Company meets the SBA's definition of a small business, based on the number of employees and sales figures. These numbers vary according to industry.

To be considered for our Hot 100 list in 2000, your company must be registered with D&B with current information on file. To register, call D&B at (800) 333-0505.

Dun & Bradstreet research by Steve Hess; Entrepreneur research by Liza Potter, Bowen Park and Meredith Russell

ABOUT DUN & BRADSTREET

Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), with the world's largest business information database, tracks 49 million companies worldwide, 11 million in the United Stales alone. Businesses use D&B's services to find new customers and evaluate their creditworthiness, identify potential suppliers, and collect overdue receivables.

Through face-to-face and telephone interviews and public-records searches, more than 200 million financial transactions are added annually to D&B's files in the United States alone. D&B updates its information base continually - an average of 950,000 times each business day.

When businesses are entered in the D&B database, they are issued D-U-N-S numbers (similar to Social Security numbers for companies). The U.S. federal government requires companies to have this number to bid for government contracts. Also used by the United Nations and the European Union, the D&B D-U-N-S number is quickly becoming the universal standard for identifying businesses on the Web as well.