IN the 1970s, when many people were installing bathrooms and telephones in their homes and tuning into colour televisions, schoolboy Simon Danczuk was still using a communal outside toilet and a tin bath.

He didn't do well at school, left with no significant qualifications and spent five years making gas fires on an assembly line.

But it was a soak in the bath, though not a tin one, which made Simon, like his Greek predecessor, exclaim "eureka!" when he realised he had the beginnings of a great idea.

It involved giving a voice to people whose opinions are rarely heard -- the "hard to reach" social groups which include drug users, beggars, street drinkers and the long term unemployed.

Since the infant business was launched it has grown from strength to strength and has provided useful information on social issues to a range of councils and organisations, including Burnley Borough Council, Westminster Council and the League Against Cruel Sports.

Simon, who celebrates his 35th birthday on Wednesday set up Vision 21 in March 1999 with Anne McNamara and Ruth Turner, founders of The Big Issue In The North. In its first year its turnover was £70,000, which rose rapidly to £300,000 at the end of the latest financial year. And the target for the end of the third year -- April 2002 -- is £600,000.

Vision 21 was voted the North West's most innovative business earlier this year and on Tuesday Simon attended an awards dinner hosted by North West Business Insider magazine which honoured the achievements of 42 of the region's best entrepreneurs and businesspeople who are aged under 42.

But life was not always as successful for Simon, who lives with his partner Sonia and son George, four, in Darwen. After making gas fires on an assembly line he worked as a labourer for ICI in Darwen. But he was determined to improve his lot and began to study in the evenings at Blackburn College, which he did for two or three nights a week for four years.

He then went to Lancaster University as a mature student and took a sociology degree before doing social research for different agencies and then joining The Big Issue in the North as a research co-ordinator then media relations officer. Simon said of his idea: "It was like 'eureka'. Goodness knows what I was thinking about at the time, but it must have been something to do with research.

"I went into work the next day, popped into Anne and Ruth's office and said, 'why don't we set up a research company?' Anne is the type of person who would not let it just stay as an idea -- she was quite insistent on pushing it forward.

"We didn't think that what we would call 'hard to reach' groups had been given a particularly good voice. I wouldn't call it a crusade, but we were determined to ensure that quality consultation was carried out among these groups."

"I had developed some expertise in reaching them -- we had already done a survey of more than 500 drug users in Manchester."

The arrival in power of the Labour government in 1997 had given Simon cause to believe that the market was expanding in terms of public sector research. Vision 21 carried out a study for Crisis, the national homeless charity, and trained people who had been homeless to interview 200 beggars and street drinkers across the UK on its behalf.

"The research that we do really needs to have some social impact. Many of the recommendations that we come up with have influenced Government in the way it deals with homelessness and street culture," Simon explained.

Vision 21 takes a less conventional approach to research and adapts its plans to make the difference between successful and unsuccessful research -- for example, making sure they interview street drinkers before 10am. Simon, a former Blackburn with Darwen Labour councillor, admits the speed of the company's success has amazed him although he realises his efforts are down to determination and hard work.

"At the moment we are doing a study for the Government's Rough Sleepers' Unit which will be used in policy," he said.

The research means everyone's a winner -- Vision 21 is paid for its consultancy work, councils and other organisations gain valuable research and the 'hard to reach' groups' opinions are aired. Vision 21 is also strongly committed to the community and this year has given £3,000 to sponsor good causes in the North West.

Simon believes the key to the company's success is its continued ability to change and adapt. "You have to keep moving, reinventing what you do all the time," he said.