Entrepreneurs - Oliver

Oliver comes from an academic family, but never enjoyed studying himself and dropped out of university to look for other opportunities. At 19 he was working in a gym equipment shop and, failing to interest his boss in the potential of hiring equipment, he bought one machine at a highly discounted price and began to rent it out. There was instant demand and so he left the shop to work from his first office which was 'the size of a sofa.'

He started Totally Fitness as an online company and it was the first of its kind with an outlet at Harrods and a celebrity client list. In 2006 Totally Fitness was turning over nearly £4.5m, which grew to £5.2m in 2007.

By now Oliver was also working on several other projects and since Totally Fitness fell victim to the banking crisis and credit squeeze in October 2008, he has been devoting his energies to building a new company called Lady Luisa, a niche lingerie brand, which he has set up with his fiancé.

He grew up in London and ran the young enterprise group at school. He says that making money was important to him as he knew it wouldn't always come from his parents.

When Oliver started his business it was less about the money and more about control. His view on wealth is that 'money can't buy happiness, but it helps' and that 'anyone who says they can do without money is a liar.'

He feels it's important as an entrepreneur to delegate responsibility and take a step back to let the business grow. He's learning to hand over control of the business, but admits he's never been good at being told what to do or taking authority, and has said he could never work for anyone ever again.

Oliver was named as a finalist in the High Business Growth category of the 2007 Enterprising Young Brits awards during National Enterprise Week.

Oliver's nervous about going on The Last Millionaire, but says he's not scared of a challenge, and that he's been to some pretty bad places when he went backpacking in Guatemala.

His biggest fear is being paired up with someone more opinionated than him who won't listen to his ideas.

Oliver says he has no game plan, he just wants to 'go there, focus and get the job done'. Although he'll miss having his Blackberry on hand, he thinks it could be a distraction and that the challenges will see the entrepreneurs going back to the basics of business.

Oliver wants to be the first one home, and he's used to winning whether it's in business or playing poker. The thought of being The Last Millionaire hadn't even crossed his mind. 'I'd certainly feel like a loser, the biggest loser.'