EARLIER THIS month, Kaye Taylor had what she describes as her first real adult business moment. Taylor and Stephanie Wilson, owners of web-based gift voucher company SK Chase, were approached by a global hotel chain to roll out their software system throughout its 229 hotels in 49 countries.

It's the kind of deal that would have most emerging entrepreneurs jumping up and down in their living rooms shouting: "Yes, yes, YES!"

But Taylor and Wilson, just a few years into their first venture, turned them down. Such a move could be deemed pure folly and chalked up to inexperience. Taylor, who prefers casual dress to a power suit and carries a backpack rather than a briefcase, has an air of youthful girliness about her that might support such a supposition.

But the 37-year-old is a shrewd enough operator to have already attracted the business of 200 luxury hotels, spas and golf courses across the UK, including Rocco Forte's Balmoral Hotel, The Scotsman Hotel, Gleneagles and Chancery Court Spa in London.

SK Chase is currently rolling out its gift voucher service across the entire De Vere Hotels portfolio, which owns The Carrick at Cameron House golf course and spa facility on the banks of Loch Lomond, along with 37 other properties. Turnover is on-track to hit £5 million for the year ended October 2007 from a staff of five.

"We said no because we believe we have so much to do in the UK that we don't want to take our eye off the ball and give a competitor the opportunity to come in," Taylor says, sipping a glass of mineral water in Indigo Yard restaurant in Edinburgh.

"Steph and I are real opportunity-grabbers. But in this case, there were so many things to take into account. Culture, language, resources: we didn't want to spread ourselves too thin. It was a unique experience. We had never said no to anyone before. It made me feel quite mature."

SK Chase, whose online service enables hotels to create, sell and send their own branded gift vouchers to their customers, is in such demand that its owners have also turned down a takeover offer from a hotel services company. But with just a 12% to 15% share of the four-and-five-star market, Taylor has ambitions to achieve far more before selling out. "We're just scratching the surface at the moment," she explains.

The company offers its gift experiences of weekend getaways, gourmet meals and countryside pursuits both through its own site and from the hotel websites. For hotels, SK Chase supports the software application on its portal, processes all of the gift order transactions and prints, packages and dispatches the certificates on the same day on behalf of the client. It makes its money through commission on each transaction. With the UK gift voucher market worth an estimated £1.47 billion, there is a potential fortune to be made.

Originally, Taylor and Wilson thought their service would appeal only to the resource-restricted small hotel operator.

Formerly marketing manager and revenue manager respectively at the Town House Company, Taylor and Wilson first came up with the idea when they wanted to sell gift certificates online for weekend breaks at the Bonham and Channings hotels in Edinburgh. "It wasn't at all easy to set up. You needed online merchant status, a secure gateway," Taylor says. "We realised that some small tourism businesses wouldn't have the resources to look into all of this, and that we could sell an online gift certificate solution for the tourism industry."

Town House Company owner Peter Taylor - who later became Kaye Taylor's father-in-law - was an ardent supporter of the venture, allowing his two key employees to work part-time to pursue their dream. He also lent them £5000 towards initial start-up costs. "Peter believed it immediately, not everyone did. He sent emails out to all of his hotel buddies and said you should go with these guys'," says Taylor.

By December 2005, SK Chase had eight customers on its books. The first major break, however, came from Gleneagles. The prestigious resort invited SK Chase to audit its online gift voucher system.

"We identified that we could save them 350 man-hours a year and increase gift voucher sales by 40%. They had different systems to process gift vouchers for each sales channel, be it the web, telephone etc. They weren't able to track things like outstanding liabilities. We also saw when we were there that it was very time-consuming in terms of printing off the vouchers, packaging them up and sending them off," she recalls.

SK Chase tweaked its system, developed in partnership with technology company Ezone Interactive, to solve all of those problems, and soon the business focus had shifted towards the larger hotels.

"We realised once we secured Gleneagles that we had got our target market wrong initially. The small hotels are great to have because they have unique, remote properties that our customers like to stay in. But they don't generate the volume of sales for us to make enough money.

"Larger hotels don't want to invest in this technology because it's not their core business. They're quite willing to outsource the whole process."

Once word spread that Gleneagles had signed on, a flurry of other five-star and four-star properties started queuing up.

"It snowballed after that. It's been quite crazy. One of our clients summed it up well when he said: It's a no-brainer,'" says Taylor.

Part of their initial success is also attributed to a winning combination. The two friends turned out to be natural business partners. They have similar outlooks about life and work. Both are self-confessed health nuts - Wilson exercises everyday at the crack of dawn and is a fish-eating vegan, while Taylor practises yoga daily and quit drinking and smoking five years ago.

Both were also committed to becoming entrepreneurs long before the right idea came along, and even held a "management meeting" on Wilson's wedding day. But when it comes to the nitty-gritty of running a business, they have completely different strengths.

"We get on like a house on fire," says Taylor. "Steph very much runs the business and I am the starter of new things. My management style is non-existent. I expect people just to know what to do. Steph manages the team, makes sure we have documentation in place. Steph is very structured. She has one-to-one meetings with all the staff. The team know what is expected of them and that Steph will follow up to see if it's been done."

"Kaye's strength really lies in sales and marketing and around the business of future planning," Wilson agrees. "She's more of the visionary, if you like. We get on brilliantly. We're quite similar in personality. Sometimes people say that's not necessarily a good thing. But we both really like new ideas and are able to sit in a room, get really excited, and come up with a plan. Then it's probably me who goes away and looks at the flaws."

Recently, SK Chase has also taken on Brian Johnston, a former head of Bank of Scotland Corporate, as a non-executive director. Having someone of his calibre and experience on board also helps keep the company level-headed.

And it appears that there is no danger of Wilson and Taylor getting carried away. The SK Chase system could potentially be applied to any service-related sector, but the partners are resolutely sticking to striking deals that expand their reach in the hotels sector.

Taylor even manages to show restraint when asked about turnover projections - the most common exaggeration pitfall for new entrepreneurs. "Turnover should be £10 million for the year ended October 2008 well actually the way things are going it should be more," she pauses, "Hmm, better stick to £10 million to be on the safe side."