As AKQA becomes a household name in digital marketing, founder Ajaz Ahmed shies away from the limelight but not from the challenge of staying relevant.

Richard Branson on the benefits of doing business in the States and what we can do to save Britain’s future.

Adrian Moorhouse is no stranger to impossible challenges. Before starting his professional services firm, Lane4, he was an Olympic athlete, winning gold for the UK at the Seoul Games in 1988. Now, he's taking his firm Stateside. Can he go the distance?

First, the US deflated and now the UK has followed suit. The Retail Prices Index, one measure of inflation, has dipped below 0 per cent for the first time.

Shadow minister for business and enterprise Mark Prisk flies into the US of A today with a team of 20 British techies. His mission? To help the budding entrepreneurs tap into the Silicon Valley network and pitch to local investors.

For many successful UK businesses, international expansion marks the logical next step in their bid for sustained growth and competitive advantage. However, in the current economic climate, UK companies are understandably cautious about venturing into new territories.

AJT Equipment director Ian Gordon admits the testing machinery maker’s recent trans-continental acquisition was “at times quite stressful” although insists it was, on the whole, “fairly straightforward”.

Family-owned manufacturing business AJT Equipment is defying the recession. Rather than batten down the hatches, the West Midlands-based firm is buying a competitor in the US state of Georgia.

Smartfundit is riding an economic “perfect storm” to crack the US market and break into Western Europe with its online service connecting financial firms with businesses that need funding.

Edward Wray’s online gambling website Betfair processes tens of millions of bets each day – that’s more transactions than all the financial exchanges in Europe put together. But there’s one thing blocking the firm’s path to world domination: regulation.

The weak pound and strong euro has convinced HayMax founder Max Wiseberg that 2009 is the year to export his all-natural hayfever remedies.

PartyGaming founder Anurag Dikshit may face a prison term following reports he’s about to plead guilty to an illegal web betting charge in the US.

Designer-entrepreneur Sir James Dyson may build his £56m design and engineering school overseas after running into trouble setting up the facility in the UK.

UK businesses aren’t as agile or as proactive as their US counterparts, according to 1E founder Sumir Karayi, who is based in the UK but whose company's main market is the States.

Leeds-based Surgical Innovations sees fat sales off the back of the American market for obesity surgery.

Rightly or wrongly, the UK no longer enjoys a reputation for military prowess, especially when it comes to equipment and infrastructure. But one company is flying the flag for British military engineering – and is doing a roaring trade with the Americans.

What would you do with £200,000? Buy a villa in Spain? Not Roger Butterworth. He ploughed every penny into the online retailer that now sits at the top of our Hot 100.