- (FORTUNE Small Business Magazine) – It seems unlikely that Lionel Neff would be enamored with singing and swaying bears in fancy outfits, including feather boas. But the hard-driving CEO, who favors leather chaps and customized Harley-Davidsons, quadrupled his sales over the past five years to a projected $20 million this year with the help of Chantilly Lane, his line of stuffed bears.

PLUSH TIMES: Neff, 57, ran PBC International of Oxnard, Calif., as a latex-balloon-imprinting business for a decade before he started selling plush animals in 1990. Then, in 2000, a stuffed moose singing "Jingle Bells" took off.

HIGH NOTE: Next Neff dressed a chenille bear in a scarf and hat and inserted a recording of a young girl singing the Beatles' "I Will." Then came bears belting out "Yakety-Yak" and "When I'm 64." That helps explain the genius behind what may be the company's greatest innovation: That's the "mercy switch," as Neff refers to the on-off button.