Butler did it

With $33 in her checking account and $4,500 in rent due, Gina Butler's vision, to bake and sell sumptuous cupcakes with a swirly mountain of frosting, was on the verge of despair.

That was Butler's first month in business, back in February 2008. And it was fitting, if not a little ironic, that Butler's cupcake business was in Nashville — epicenter of country music, which knows all about stories of anguish and gloom. Butler herself had been a country music singer for a time. She performed on tours and in some Nashville hotspots, like Tootsie's and The Stage on Broadway.

But Butler, who had also run a cleaning business and was a server at Red Lobster, refused to quit. Days before her first rent payment was due, long lines began to form outside the cupcake store in downtown Nashville. Both locals and tourists chomped on cupcakes, in flavors from Kentucky Bourbon to Blackberry Cobbler. Crisis was averted.