In the midst of the current economic gloom, we may think we have it tough.

But imagine setting up a business with just £10 to earn a living for you and your family.

This is what a group of women have done – in a scenario straight out of The Apprentice – to prove that resourcefulness can pay dividends and a few pounds can make a world of difference.

The members of Ilkley Soroptimists were given a virtual start-up loan to launch their own business. The figure of £10 was chosen randomly, but it turns out to be the average overseas aid microcredit loan given to families to help them grow their way out of poverty.

And the results have been impressive. From taxi services and culinary creations to dog walking and card-making, the group has raised almost £5,000 which will go to the Soroptimist International quadrennial charity Project SIerra.

The idea came from Ilkley Soroptimist past president Liz Stringer, who wanted to find a fun way of raising cash which could also involve friends and family outside the organisation, which is made up of professional women.

“I wanted something where people would interact and which used the very diverse set of skills that we have,” she explained.

“I think giving people a notional £10 to make money has been done in the past, but I thought we could have a bit of fun and give ourselves company names. We had a noticeboard called Company House where they could put up adverts for their services and appointed a CEO. It was all really to try and make it fun.

“I had hoped we might make £3,000 and I was quite amazed and delighted that we had made so much more and that people had enjoyed it.”

A total of 24 small businesses were started around Ilkley and the variety was huge.

Pat Ansell and Barbara Lockwood, of Bloomers, sold plants and flowers they had raised themselves. Margaret Cook founded Cook’s Tours, ferrying friends to and from Leeds Bradford Airport and organising days out.

Patacake, set up by Pat Booth, and Half Baked’s Nellie Thornton and Kathleen Wilson cooked up cash in the kitchen while Libby Chappell created Ebay-Gum, selling other people’s bric-a-brac on the internet.

A coffee shop called Baristas was set up for the morning at the Clarke Foley Centre, raising £400 for Project SIerra and the local charity Bradford Night Stop.

The most successful venture was founded by Soroptimist past president and retired teacher Pat Smith, who started up clothing alterations business Seams OK. Complete with a City & Guilds in tailoring, she turned her hobby into a business and collected £500.

“The need was incredible,” she said. “I think I altered something like 70 garments. The charges were just donations really.

“I don’t like making garments for other people as it’s a very difficult decision choosing patterns, it’s too stressful.

“But I have all the equipment here and I basically did lots of shortening, lengthening, adjusting things. It meant that I was completely in control of the commitment in terms of time. I just did it to slot in with all my other activities.”

Her prize was not a step up on the entrepreneurial ladder for herself but to help women in desperate poverty to do so.

Every four years, Soroptimist International chooses a charity to support and it is over half-way towards its £1 million target to help vulnerable women in Sierra Leone.

Devastated by over a decade of civil war, the country is ranked the poorest in the world. During ten years of fighting, 500,000 people were killed, raped or injured leaving families homeless, children orphaned and nearly three-quarters living below the poverty line.

Project SIerra helps to educate young mums so they can keep their families healthy and find a trade and job.

“The project is intended to support young single women with children who have absolutely nothing,” Pat said.

“One of its projects was that they set up a room with six sewing machines and one person to teach them and they were actually then able to create a money-generating activity. They show a young girl with her child who says: ‘I can hold my head up because I’m making my own money and I’m not relying on charity’.

“The real gift goes towards helping somebody in poverty change their life, from goats to gardening equipment to sewing machines – anything that makes a big difference.

“My gift was a market stall for a lady, that was my prize. She used to sell her bread outside her home so her income depended on how many people passed by but with training and support Gloria now has a pitch at her local market and things are looking up.

“That’s the sort of thing that just in a small way makes things easier.”

The scheme was not just in honour of those who survive on microcredit but also served as a bond for women in the Soroptimist group.

“From the members’ point of view it created a social opportunity in small numbers to gather together and I loved the fact that I was on a one-to-one basis with members and they had to have trust,” Pat said.

“We meet as a big group and it’s not the same as meeting one to one. There was a tremendous sense of enrichment within the club.”

The businesses have now been wound up, but the benefits will live on in both Sierra Leone and Ilkley.

“I think the success of it for our club was obviously raising the money, getting to know each other a lot better and our skills and interests, working co-operatively, and having quite a lot of fun with a really tangible end result,” Liz said.

“The sum of £10 is roughly what people get as about the average microcredit loan in the Third World. Of course, £10 there goes much further.

“If you’re on a real microcredit you’d be buying the pots and pans and threads. We are all so lucky here that we’ve got the equipment,” she added.