BUSINESSWOMAN Deborah Meaden is one of the “dragons” in BBC’s Dragons’ Den.

At the age of 20, when she was just out of Brighton Business School, she launched her own glass and ceramics import company with very little capital. After that, she set up one of the first franchises in Britain of Italian group Stefanel.

In 1999, with several successful businesses in the leisure and retail sector under her belt, she became managing director of her family’s holiday park business, Weststar Holidays, though she recently sold it for more than £80m.

Meaden, 47, lives with her husband Paul in Somerset.

How much money do you have in your wallet? Usually I don’t carry much, but I’m just about to fly to France so I took out about €100 (£70). I typically carry about £10 in change.

Do you have any credit cards? No, I rely on my charge cards. I don’t like credit cards because I got into a bit of trouble with them as a student. With a charge card, you have to pay it off as soon as a bill comes through, so you don’t get the chance to incur interest.

I have a Barclays Premier card, which has a £120 annual charge, but it offers a number of services that I find very useful. The concierge service, for example, helps me book restaurants, cars or even hotels when I go on holiday.

Are you a saver or a spender? Spender. I don’t get the point of money if it isn’t for spending. Having said that, I like my money to work for me. Rather than put it all into safe cash accounts, I invest it in more interesting things such as start-up businesses.

One of my first start-ups was a market research company called Marketii. I invested in it because I was impressed by the MD who I believe is very good at what he does.

I’ve recently sold my shareholdings in Weststar Holidays and am looking to invest the money into something substantial and, of course, my investments from Dragons’ Den.

How much did you earn last year? Over the past 12 months, I’ve made quite a substantial amount – several millions – after the sale of Weststar six weeks ago. I also make some money from giving talks about business and marketing, although I tend to give that away to charity. I get about £15,000 for a talk.

I also earn income from a range of businesses and investment vehicles – luckily with not too much exposure to the sub-prime market.

I have some prime residential development land in Devon. I’m waiting for the right moment to sell that off.

I’m also looking at a product that will give me exposure to the Indian residential property market. I think that’s a growth area and very different from the situation here.

Why India? It is going through a massive social shift with a big boom in the middle classes. All indicators suggest that there will be more and more people wanting to buy their own homes, so I think it’s a good place to invest while things are cheap.

Clearly the UK is going through a slowdown if not a very slight downturn, but I do not follow the “run for the hills” school. I believe there will be a correction rather than crash.

My interest in India stems from the fact that it is obviously at a much earlier stage of its development than the UK.

How much was in your first pay packet? My first proper job was working as a salesroom assistant in London. I got paid about £40 a week. I was 20 at the time and I was desperate to move to the capital.

Unfortunately, the job’s only stipulation was that you had to be 5ft 8ins, but I was only 5ft 2ins. I applied anyway hoping to talk my way in if I got an interview, and I did.

Although pay wasn’t great, the boss had a couple of flats round the corner so he provided free accommodation.

Have you ever been really hard up? I went to business school in Brighton when I was about 19 and I lived in the local YWCA. They fed me, but I had to share my bedroom with three other girls.

I wanted to be in Brighton and have a bit of fun, but I ended up racking up huge credit-card debts. It was only about £3,000 in total, but it seemed like an impossible amount back then. I ended up having to ask my parents to guarantee a loan. That gave me a 12-month window to work off the debt. I did a whole host of small jobs such as bar work, and working in bingo halls.

That’s why I replaced credit cards with charge cards.

What is the most lucrative work you have ever done? Did you use the fee for something special? Acquiring Weststar. I bought the majority shareholding in 1999 from my parents. I think I paid too much, but they think I paid too little. We had separate advisers and I remember it being pretty feisty. I can still see the look on my adviser’s face when he saw me arguing money with my mother.

My parents are completely self-made people and they believe you have to make your own way in life and I think that’s rubbed off on me.

I sold a chunk of the business to a private-equity firm called Phoenix in 2003 in a deal worth £33m but I held on to half of my shares – about 23%. The business was sold about six weeks ago for £83m, so I got a chunk of that. I haven’t decided what to do with the money yet.

Do you own a property? I have a house in Somerset, which used to be owned by William Pitt the Elder. It is a disused farm, which I bought with my husband three years ago, but we moved in only last year. It took two years to restore.

Though it has bits that are Elizabethan, it’s essentially a Georgian farmstead. Pitt added the most important historical bits, such as some of the neo-classical pillars. It’s been a lovely project restoring it. It has six bedrooms and 26 acres.

I’m very keen on historic buildings and I wanted to get it back to its old glory. I’ve taken out as much modern material as possible and replaced it with traditional materials.

Whilst we paid market value for the house, the extra spend on getting things done traditionally – which will probably cost £4m in total – means the project won’t make me any money, not for a long time anyway.

Though it’s no longer a working farm, I have three horses, two Shetland ponies, two dogs, a cat, 11 chickens and four ducks.

We also have a pig – we had two, but the other made delicious bacon. We’re now thinking of getting some sheep as well. My husband looks after the animals and the building project. I had another house in Somerset which I sold recently and I’m now in the process of looking for a flat in London – maybe somewhere round Primrose Hill.

Do you invest in shares? I do, but my decision process is quite random. I would say I’m an adventurous investor as I like to pick out things that interest me.

I recently invested in a small private bank from the Isle of Man called Conister Trust after reading some interesting articles about it.

That’s the way I decide – if it looks interesting or if it’s something I feel passionately about, I’ll put money into it.

The bank had new management and my investment has already gone up 30% since the beginning of the year. I thought about cashing in, but I think there is still room for growth.

What’s better – property or pension? I would say property, but more than that, my pension is really my business and my investments. I have a traditional pension which I got soon after starting work, about 25 years ago, but I stopped putting money into it years ago.

Also, because I don’t have children, I feel I can afford to take a few extra risks.

Are you financially better off than your parents? I couldn’t possibly say – it would be hurtful to them.

What has been your worst investment? I bought a second-storey two-bedroom flat in Minehead in Somerset in the early 1980s for about £40,000. By the late 1980s, though, my mortgage repayments became too steep and I was forced to sell for about £5,000 less than what I paid for it.

And your best? Easily the management buyout of Weststar from my parents. I didn’t think it was a great investment at the time, though, as I thought I had been overcharged.

Do you manage your own financial affairs? I make my own decisions, but I have an adviser from Barclays who helps out.

What aspect of our taxation system would you change? I’d scrap the proposed changes to capital-gains taper relief announced in the prebudget report. I think it will damage small and large businesses alike. Though it won’t stop me investing it will dampen the overall outcome of any potential investment.

While I applaud Alistair Darling’s attempts to make things simple, that was not the way to go about it.

What is your financial priority? Though we’ve restored the house, my next project is to restore an ancient vegetable garden and the rest of the grounds.

I am completely hell-bent on restoring it ethically and bringing it back to where it should be, even if it loses me money. We’re talking hundreds of thousands of pounds just on lime plastering and mortar, including the garden walls.

What is the most important lesson you have learnt about money? I hear people saying that they want to be millionaires too often, but there is absolutely no point in money unless you know what you want to do with it. I’d much rather people say they would love to do something and then work out how much money they’d need to actually do it.