A highly successful business entrepreneur from Royston, who balances her role as a managing director, trainer, consultant, and coach to other businesswomen, said fellow businesses are missing out on a huge trick to get them ahead – employing mums.

Royston Crow: Emma, 7 and Hannah Bratton, 12Emma, 7 and Hannah Bratton, 12 (Image: Archant)

Jayne Bratton, who runs The Bratton Group with husband Steven from her home in Royston, said a key to success is tapping into what she’s coined ‘the mum market.’

Jayne, whose CV boasts IT project manager at Three Valleys Water and productivity and change manager at Tesco, said: “If I could have got the flexibility to work around my children, I wouldn’t have left the corporate world.

“The concept of employing from the mum market is new to businesses.

“But they are often highly qualified people.

“A lot of people have children and take time off, but when you leave the corporate world you can’t just do nothing.

“Being a mum is the most important job but if I was just a mum, I wouldn’t feel fulfilled, I wouldn’t be happy, and I wouldn’t be a good mum.”

The 46-year-old, founder and coach for the Royston branch of support group for women Business Babble, said the key to employing mums is about giving them flexibility and allowing them to work around the necessary school runs and play dates.

Jayne’s life is a whirlwind of different projects and jobs, enough to leave anybody in need of a lie down and a cup of Horlicks – when she met up with The Crow she had been working 16 hour days for three weeks straight – but the upbeat businesswoman says she gets a buzz from seeing people and businesses grow and develop, a quality from being a teacher at heart.

It’s not only business projects that she is involved in, she’s an active member of the community, and in the past has set up workshops for children, support groups for people who have lost loved ones and founded the North Royston Action Group.

Jayne’s entrepreneurial spirit and unrelenting optimism has rubbed off on her two young daughters.

Both her seven-year-old daughter Emma and 12-year-old Hannah run their own jewellery and crystal businesses, and most recently held their own stalls at Royston Summer Rock at the weekend.

Jayne said people presume it is her pulling the strings, but she said other than ferrying them to warehouses to source stock, and providing support, the rest is up to the business savvy youngsters.