EVERY time Jacqui Gernon enters her remarkable children's nursery group, Happy Jays, in The Press Business Of The Year, she ends up as a finalist.

Jacqui, who has four nurseries across Yorkshire - at Boroughbridge, York, Scarborough and, more recently, Batley - provides care for more than 400 children.

In 2004, Jacqui was in the top three line-up of The Business Personality Of The Year. The following year her nursery group was in the finals of the Progress Through People category.

Now Jacqui, aged 50, is pitching for the Women In Enterprise award. It is hardly surprising.

She previously ran her own electrical contracting business before working in accounts and administration roles for two North Yorkshire companies.

But she preferred to be her own boss and, encouraged by her husband, Tony, she gave up her job and followed her dream to work with children, initially as a voluntary playgroup assistant, while studying for a diploma in pre-school practice.

She recalls that in company with her much younger fellow students she was asked to share with the tutor her career goals. When Jacqui declared she one day hoped to own a nursery, the reaction was derisory.

"It was an odd choice for a woman in her forties who had never even had children of her own," she recalls.

She did it, but not easily. She risked both house and livelihood by investing £50,000 on fixtures and fittings for her first nursery in Boroughbridge in 1996.On the first day she had one child and eight staff.

But now the company employs 88 people and turns over more than £1.6 million. She works regular 70-hour weeks, yet still takes time to build lasting relationships with parents.