From nanny to nursery

When I interview nannies I ask about their plans for the future and often I hear that their ultimate ambition is to open a nursery. This is what Joanne Boon told me when I met her in the early 1990s. She was looking for weekend and holday work in order to earn extra money to finance her dream. She is now the owner of a popular 50-place day nursery near Peterborough. So how did she do it?

Jo gained her NNEB in 1984 and got her first job in a hospital helping new mothers with their babies. She says, 'I loved looking after the babies, but I'd decided I wanted to travel, so I looked for work abroad and got my first nanny job in Switzerland. I was there for a year. After I came back to England I did seasons with Thompson Holidays in their resorts in Tenerife, Benidorm and Portugal. During the winters I did temporary nanny and nursery work. When I'd had enough of travelling I got a full-time job at the hospital, initially helping the new mothers, and then I moved into the special care baby unit. It was then, in 1994, that I decided it would the right time to start my nursery. My mother was going to do it with me.