
Life

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20th July 2017
04:15pm BST

Of course, it hasn't always been a bed of roses and Jess tells us what it was like starting out.
"The difficulties starting up is that I'm not from Galway, so I needed to borrow money which is very scary and a load of weight on your shoulders.However, Jess acknowledges that she had the support of David and Jean Purtill, the woman who 'holds Kai together', another example of women empowering other women. This left Jess to make the restaurant a roaring success, with the European menu changing daily depending on fresh and seasonal ingredients.
"I just put my head down and cooked my heart out".This leads nicely on to Jess's advice for other women who are thinking of going out on their own.
"My advice, build a great team and network you will be only as strong as the team, the team is key".Jess has always wanted to have her own restaurant and is proof that the dream can become a reality.
"Well, I've always wanted my own restaurant probably since I was about 16 and started washing dishes in a 120 seater in my home town. My mother has always inspired me, at 17 she had my brother and nine years after me, she had a very successful business and proved to me that you didn't need a university degree, just a bit of cop on to run a business and treat your staff they way you would want to be treated".Interestingly, Jess has no regrets and says there's a lesson to be learned from everything that goes wrong.
"There's nothing I'd do again, for every hardship there's a lesson, some might be huge and knock you for six, but you recover and come back harder and the main thing is - it's not how you fall, it's how you get up again that's important".
As you'll see from her words, Jess is all about teamwork and how you can do so much more when you work with others, rather than alone. Here come the girls!
Again, we want to hear from you so you have a friend/mother/cousin/sister/like-minded female doing something great, we want to hear from you. Drop me a line at cathy.donohue@her.ie