Our Founder and CEO - Jayne Allman
Jayne lives in Worsley, Manchester with her husband Christopher and their three cats Misty, Thomas and Fudge!
She is a multi skilled, experienced Business Advisor and Social Entrepreneur! Jayne says " I am a visionary and I like to help make things happen for people, by collaborating with others, using their strengths to complement mine and working together to achieve joint goals. I am passionate about my work!. I'm very versatile having worked in various roles over the past 20 years which have equipped me with a great deal of useful experience and skills. I've helped thousands of people to start businesses, managed teams, project managed a £1m lottery funded contract and now I am leading the social enterprise/registered charity I founded in 2014!"
Jayne enjoys empowering people to achieve success beyond their initial expectations. Her "Business Advisor" career started in 1996 when she supported victims of the Manchester IRA Bomb disaster and since then she has worked for various organisations including business support providers such as Business Link and Salford Hundred Venture for example. She has also worked for Colleges and for other businesses as well as running her own business.
According to Jayne's mum, she was an entrepreneur from an early age at 6yrs old, when she set up a stall outside her house to sell items to people passing by. Since then she has run three other businesses (including her charity Banana Enterprise Network) and is very much aware of the barriers people face when starting a business (or social enterprise/charity).
Through her experience working in business training, advice and support, she spotted a gap in the market for a much needed support service for a specific client group and hence, her "Banana Enterprise" vision was created. At Christmas 2014, she was made unemployed after working as a Business Advisor on the Governments NEA programme, so after a 29 year career in work, she spent 6 months on "the dole".
Jayne used this time to develop her idea for a social enterprise (Banana Enterprise Network) and find funds to help her to start it and register it as a charity. Through very kind and generous people/organisations, she received donations allowing her to launch Banana Enterprise Network in Salford in January 2015 and start the first pilot scheme! Due to its success within the first 6 months, Jayne secured Lottery funding and her charity has grown from strength to strength since then.
Jayne started Banana with just £200 of personal funds and within 3 years has grown her charities turnover to over £90k. As at April 2017, Banana Enterprise has supported over 800 unemployed people, helping them to make an informed choice about whether their idea for a business is viable.
Malcolm Hewitt - Senior Trainer
Malcolm has an extensive career as a trainer delivering business planning and start up courses and workshops as well as personal development and impact training. He is a member of the CIPD, runs his own business and has great empathy with our clients. He makes our courses fun and informative, bringing personal "self-employment" experiences into our "real world" training!
Malcolm has an extensive career as a trainer delivering business planning and start up courses and workshops as well as personal development and impact training. He is a member of the CIPD, runs his own business and has great empathy with our clients. He makes our courses fun and informative, bringing personal "self-employment" experiences into our "real world" training!
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Trustee - Norma Lee
Norma lives in Bolton. She has a great deal of experience of supporting our particular client group, including working with offenders in prisons. She has also run her own business and appreciates the ups and downs of self-employment. Norma is Clerk of Bolton Quakers and a highly regarded member of the community. She is also an avid Salford Reds rugby fan too and brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to our charity. |
Trustee - Nick Tyldesley
Nick’s background is in education and curriculum management as well as school improvement. He has worked as a consultant for many years and has also worked with OFSTED. He has wide experience in managing educational change, networking, leading workshops on innovation and developing spiritual communities. He also has a substantial record of educational publications on curriculum development too. He is a primary governor at a school and his other interests include quality assurance and performance management. His skills are an asset to our charitable organisation.
Nick’s background is in education and curriculum management as well as school improvement. He has worked as a consultant for many years and has also worked with OFSTED. He has wide experience in managing educational change, networking, leading workshops on innovation and developing spiritual communities. He also has a substantial record of educational publications on curriculum development too. He is a primary governor at a school and his other interests include quality assurance and performance management. His skills are an asset to our charitable organisation.
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Trustee- Christopher Allman Christopher is married to Jayne. He is a Chartered Accountant with over 30 years experience. Throughout his career, he has supported both large and small businesses with business planning, accountancy, audit work and bookkeeping and has also provided free lance support to other Accountants. Chris undertakes voluntary work for a faith group and also volunteers at a local Homeless charity. Like Jayne, he is on a mission to "make a difference" and bring communities together. Chris says "I am an Accountant who has a sense of humour. I found myself qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 1976, 12 years after completing a Degree in Electrical Engineering! I discovered that I had a flair for figures and so my number crunching journey began! My accountancy work has taken me to various exotic places such as Sierra leone, Turkey, Blackburn, Stockport, Manchester and Salford! (sorry attempt at joke here!) and I am proud to be involved in the Banana Enterprise Network! |
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Ken Morton - Trustee
Ken is a stress management consultant. He supports people through education and training and specialises in providing one to one support. He helps disadvantaged people to reduce anxiety, learn about and use mindfulness techniques and generally help them to cope much better, with life's ups and downs. He builds confidence, helps to raise self esteem and has great empathy with people. |
HR Advisor - Alex Boyd
Working and advising within the SME Business Community for nearly 30 years Alex Boyd has gained a deep understanding of what drives the people in that community to seek success via self-employment. Whether they be existing owner managers currently running a business or people who are just setting up or those who are about to take that first tentative step to becoming self-employed. Alex supports a diverse range of organisations from Sole Traders to companies with nearly 300 employees. UK Government figures for 2014 suggest that 87% of people employed in the UK work for a business that has less than 15 employees. In small businesses people matter. The owner, their family and people who work in that business, all matter. The biggest step a self-employed person will take is to start their first employee, Alex Boyd can be there to guide the Owner Manager through all the stages of this process, minimising the risk but encouraging success.
Working and advising within the SME Business Community for nearly 30 years Alex Boyd has gained a deep understanding of what drives the people in that community to seek success via self-employment. Whether they be existing owner managers currently running a business or people who are just setting up or those who are about to take that first tentative step to becoming self-employed. Alex supports a diverse range of organisations from Sole Traders to companies with nearly 300 employees. UK Government figures for 2014 suggest that 87% of people employed in the UK work for a business that has less than 15 employees. In small businesses people matter. The owner, their family and people who work in that business, all matter. The biggest step a self-employed person will take is to start their first employee, Alex Boyd can be there to guide the Owner Manager through all the stages of this process, minimising the risk but encouraging success.
Business Advisor Team. All our Business Advisors are trained by ourselves and have run their own businesses. We recruit from within our own client network. This is because they are the best people to support others who are starting self employment and share the same empathy with each other. Our Business Advisor Training programme creates the Business Advisors of the future - ones who help us to build sustainable businesses in the community!
© 2014-2018 Banana Enterprise Network – the charity “helping to remove barriers to self-employment ’ is registered in England and Wales as a company limited by guarantee, no. 9133991 and a registered charity, no. 1161408
© 2014-2018 Banana Enterprise Network – the charity “helping to remove barriers to self-employment ’ is registered in England and Wales as a company limited by guarantee, no. 9133991 and a registered charity, no. 1161408