Jennie Johnson, 36

Managing director

Kids Allowed

Biggest achievement: Getting her childcare business Kids Allowed Ltd up and running after successfully raising £5m.

Current business goal: Open a total of 15 centres in the next five years and make Kids Allowed a top five chain in the childcare sector.

Jennie Johnson’s passion is children. She has two of her own and has set herself the arduous task of raising the “standards and status of childcare”.

After putting together funding of £5m, her first centre opened in September 2005 in Cheadle followed by openings in Didsbury and Knutsford.

“When you have an idea you are passionate about, and you do the numbers and realise that to get the idea off the ground you need to raise a total funding package of £5m, you realise you are in for an uphill struggle.

“Finding a way to deliver this has probably been one of my main business achievements,” Johnson said. “With no experience and background in childcare, other than being a mum with two children, we set about raising the funds to deliver the big idea. The structure of the funding was very different than first envisaged, but we did it.”

Johnson now heads a business expected to turn over £3m in its fourth year of trading. She intends to open two more branches in 2009. Although Kids Allowed is still loss making, Johnson expects profitability to be achieved when the third centre matures.

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