By Steph Johnson

Last updated 12:54, Tuesday, 01 July 2008

A sacked teenage hairdresser has used the proceeds from an unfair dismissal claim to open her own city centre salon.

Jenna Nattrass: ’It’s all for a good cause,’ she says

Jenna Nattrass has put the ordeal of losing her first job behind her and is delighted that most of the money to pay for Koda hair & beauty has come from the pockets of her former bosses.

She was 19 with a mortgage when she was fired after being told she was not bringing as much money into the firm as her colleagues.

The news that she was not filling the till at the same rate as everyone else came as no surprise to Jenna – she was the only one who was part-time. “I felt like I was being made a scapegoat, they were overstaffed and needed to get somebody out,” she said.

For six months she was unable to work because the claim was in progress and she had no reference to show prospective employers.

Jenna, 20, of Broadoaks Grange, Carlisle, said: “Who would have given me a job without one? My boyfriend went self employed to bring a bit more money in, there was a lot of stress and we were worrying about mortgage repayments.

“But I’m over the moon now and so thankful to my boyfriend for supporting me.”

When the matter was settled out of court for several thousand pounds Jenna decided she wanted to be her own boss and become the kind of manager she would have liked to have worked for.

So she spent four months drafting a business plan to take over the former Elle Classique premises, with the help of nearby friendly rivals Mark and Lisa Winters, of Winters hair and beauty.

The brother and sister team taught Jenna how to work out her costs and put together the proposals which impressed the bank and secured a loan for the rest of the money she needed.

Jenna said: “They were great I couldn’t have done it without them. I was absolutely delighted, I never thought I’d get the money because of the credit crunch.”

The salon in the tribunal cannot be named for legal reasons after a gagging order was imposed preventing Jenna from revealing details of the case.