Jayne Harris, owner of Jayne’s Bistro, has gone from café employee to business owner in the space of less than 12 months. Supported by St Helens Chamber Start Up team, Jayne’s business is going from strength to strength.
Jayne decided to take the leap into owning a business after gaining plenty of experience as a chef, deciding after 12 years the time was right for her to make the move.
Jayne explained:
“I’ve been in the café based in the Chamber for 12 years and I’ve always been a chef; so when I was approached by Ian (former employer), and Kath Boullen (Chief Executive at St Helens Chamber) to take over the café when the former owner of the café was moving on I thought why not?
“I’ve worked for so many people I thought it would be great to work for myself and, although I’d never run my own business, I knew this cafe inside out after working here for so long and I know lots of people at the Chamber so I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to start my own business with all that support around me.”
Jayne worked closely with St Helens Chamber’s Business Start Up team to get Jaynes Bistro up and running, meeting regularly with Start Up Advisers to ensure she’s on track to meet her business goals and for general help and advice on running a business.
Jayne commented:
“The Start Up Team have been brilliant, anything I needed Stella helps me with. If I need any help I know I can just ask and the whole team have been excellent at helping me set up and helping me now my business is running.”
Stella Libertini, Business Start Up Project Co-ordinator at St Helens Chamber commented:
“It’s a pleasure to see how successful Jayne has been after setting up Jayne’s Bistro. As she’s based in the Chamber building the whole company and the tenants on the ground floor have really got behind her and we’re all pleased to see the business progressing, especially now Jayne has hired two staff to help her keep up with demand!
“We’re looking forward to continuing to work with Jayne and helping her take the business forward.”
Jayne’s Bistro provides catering to the many events taking place at St Helens Chamber, alongside feeding hundreds of staff, students, businesses and visitors every week. Jayne’s Bistro takes large orders and ensures they are delivered on time to anything from conferences to open events. Jayne has big plans for the future and would like to expand this offering into more external companies.
Jayne explained: “We do work with some external companies already who place bookings when they’re coming into the Chamber for a conference or meeting, but I would love to expand the business to offer more outside catering, there’s lots of offices locally which aren’t catered for and this would be a great avenue for us to explore.”
St Helens Chamber is part of Enterprise Hub, the enterprise gateway for business start-up support in Merseyside. Offering expert advice and support to anyone thinking about starting a business, including help to:
• Understand the process of starting a business
• Research a business idea
• Build a comprehensive business plan
• Develop a marketing plan
• Create financial forecasts to understand the costs of running your business and potential income
• Identify sources of finance to get started
Enterprise Hub is funded by the European Regional Development Fund.
If you’d like to know more about Jayne’s Bistro, contact Jayne on 01744 742313 or email Jaynes.bistro@sthelenschamber.com
