Celebrities with business empires

It will come as no surprise that celebrities are wealthy, but some of them are doing more with their money than splashing out on chihuahuas and fast cars.

From Jordan to Blur's Alex James, a few celebrities have built considerable business empires with their wealth. And some of them might surprise you...

Jessica Alba

Jessica Alba recently appeared on the cover of Forbes magazine thanks to the success of her co-founded business, The Honest Company.

Specialising in baby products, it was only created in 2008, yet is already valued at $1 billion (£650 million). Alba owns around 15% of the company, which makes up the biggest part of her estimated $200 million (£130m) wealth.

Katie Price

Katie Price, also known as the glamour model Jordan, generates a vast amount of wealth from her assets. No, not those!

Modelling aside, she also has a considerable business empire, including a range of perfumes, lingerie, hair products, and even a range of horse care and riding products.

Not only that, Katie is a columnist for OK! magazine and has published several bestsellers, including four autobiographies and a series of children's stories.

Emma Watson

Some child stars may go off the rails, but not the eminently sensible Emma Watson, better known as Hogwart's star-pupil Hermione.

The 22-year old also has an interest in fashion and has modelled for a number of top brands. But she's more than just an actress-turned-model. Emma worked as a creative adviser for the fair-trade fashion brand People Tree and has launched two collections of clothing with the brand.

Alex James

Remember the skinny, good-looking one from Blur? Well, he's now a big man in the world of cheese.

Yes, the bass player owns a 200-acre cheese farm in Oxfordshire and has won awards for his produce. He even has a range of cheeses on sale at ASDA. Not bad for a man who once admitted spending about a million pounds on champagne and cocaine.

Victoria Beckham

She became famous as a Spice Girl. She cemented that fame by marrying David Beckham. But Victoria also has an astute business mind and has amassed a fortune in the world of fashion.

The mother-of-four designed a line of jeans, her own range of denim-wear, sunglasses, perfume and written two books. And some people said she was the least-talented Spice Girl!

P Diddy

Sean John Combs, also known as Puff Daddy, also known as P. Diddy, also known as Diddy has more business ventures than he's had stage names.

He's not only an internationally successful rap artist, he's a ridiculously successful entrepreneur. He has an award-winning clothing line, a chain of US restaurants and plans to open a business school. Somehow, the rap artist has also found time to help develop a vodka business.

Gwen Stefani

The No Doubt singer has created a clothing line called L.A.M.B., which stands for Love. Angel. Music. Baby. The songstress-turned-seamstress launched the range in 2003 but the range is now rumoured to make $90 million (£57 million) a year.

But this wasn't a step into the unknown for the rocker; Gwen's family has a tradition of sewing their own clothes, from her mother right back to her great grandmother.

Cindy Crawford

Many models turn designer after they've left their catwalk days behind them but Cindy Crawford didn't go down the obvious route of clothing design.

Instead, she launched a set of furniture, named the Cindy Crawford Home Collection, as well as a range of beauty products with Dr. Jean-Louis Sebagh – the man who's also known as the Wrinkle Slayer and Mr Botox.

Bruce Dickinson

If you think Bruce is just the singer for a little rock outfit called Iron Maiden, you don't know the half. He's also a published author, actor and competitive fencer.

But his business interests are even more extraordinary. He's a commercial airline pilot, with his own aircraft maintenance company Cardiff Aviation Ltd. Bruce also launched a company making fencing equipment: "Duellist".

Marilyn Manson

You may know Mister Manson as the gothic, macabre, doom-laden, scary, outrageous singer in the band Marilyn Manson. But did you know that Marilyn, born Brian Warner, also launched his own brand of absinthe?

He named it 'Mansinthe', but then 'Briansinthe' doesn't have quite the same sinister ring.

Paul McCartney

The former Beatle is one of the UK's wealthiest people, with a fortune of £665 million, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.

He set up MPL Communications; an umbrella company that owns and manages copyrights, including publishing rights to the musicals Guys and Dolls, and Grease.

Paul was the first member of his family to own a car – and probably the first to make £665 million too...

Sarah Beeny

Everyone knows that Sarah Beeny is a property developer extraordinaire, that's why she's Channel 4's house expert.

But she's also an internet entrepreneur. She created the dating website mysinglefriend.com as well as the property sales site Tepilo. Sarah has published seven books and presented a string of successful property shows.

Somehow, she's also found time to have four babies.

Kate Moss

She's famed for her incredible looks, her party lifestyle, her size zero frame and her alleged drug use. But Kate is far more than a party-girl clothes horse. She's created a clothing line for Topshop, which was also released in the US.

Not only that, Kate released several perfume fragrances and has designed a range of handbags for luxury French manufacturer Longchamp.

Bono

There are a lot of aging rockers in this list, aren't there? Musicians are clearly a multi-talented bunch. Bono has an eclectic set of business interests; He and the Edge own Dublin's Clarence Hotel.

But he's incredibly financially astute. Bono is the co-founder and managing director of private-equity firm Elevation Partners. He used this role to invest in a certain social network. You may have heard of it, it's called Facebook.

Elevation Partners purchased a 1.5% stake in the business. Since the network was floated on the stock market this week, that investment is now worth a reported $1.9 billion. Not bad.

Of course, you don't need a cheese empire or airline to grow your money. There are a number of ways for more ordinary mortals to make their cash work harder, such as investing in a stocks and shares ISA.

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