“I am absolutely determined, second time around, to model a much better work life balance. When I sold Kids Allowed I was the unhealthiest and heaviest I had ever been. “I remember saying to my husband after one such day ‘I’m done’ and I was. Meet the flying entrepreneur who refused to furlough staff One day I went home after a really tough day at work and realised that something had to change. “It takes a special person to do that for a long time and 18 years proved enough for me.
The sheer responsibility of looking after something so precious as someone’s child, never mind 2,000 children, can take its toll and it was beginning to. She recalled: “Kids Allowed was all consuming, from the moment I woke until I went to bed, it was there. It’s not the only change in her life as she’s chronicled her new healthier lifestyle on social media, which has included getting a dog, daily walks and losing two-and-a-half stone in weight. “We have signed off the design and will be user testing in the next few months.” Work-life balance “It’s early days and I don’t want to say too much at this stage but in a nutshell, it’s a parenting app, expertly curated, and one true place for high quality trusted information to support parents of children through their first five years right from birth,” she said. Johnson is keeping most of the details of My First Five Years under wraps but is partnering with a number of North West firms. “This idea is different, I couldn’t shake it, the more I thought it through, the more excited I got and I remain convinced, that done right, we have a world class idea that could be transformative.” She said: “Over the course of the last 15 months, I have had a few ideas pop into my head but with further scrutiny the ideas weren’t good enough to entice me out of retirement. Her latest business is a parenting app called My First Five Years, which she’s co-founded with her long-term friend Alistair Bryce-Clegg.
Johnson, who’d grown Kids Allowed to £11m turnover and provided childcare to around 2,000 children, shelved her retirement plans when she had her latest ‘Eureka moment’. Jennie Johnson is best known as the founder of leading North West nursery Kids Allowed, which was bought by Kids Planet in January 2020. A well-known entrepreneur believes her new tech business has the potential to be bigger than anything she’s done before.