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WHEN Amanda Jenner left school at 15 her headmaster said she would never amount to anything - but he couldn't have been more wrong.
The mum-of-three, 45, from Bournemouth, is the creator of My Carry Potty - the world's first leak-proof training potty which now boasts an impressive £1m turnover.
When Amanda was just seven her mother walked out on the family - leading her father to turn to alcohol to cope.
Amanda found herself suddenly looking after her younger sister and older brother - and school gradually became less important to her.
After leaving school with GCSEs in cookery and drama, Amanda got a job at an insurance telesales company where she quickly discovered her talent for sales and came up with the idea of My Carry Potty after her son George - now 23 - began potty training.
Amanda spoke exclusively to Fabulous Digital for our #BOSSINGIT series about ordinary women who have launched incredible businesses.
Reflecting on her difficult childhood, Amanda said: "When my mum left at seven, I basically didn't attend school very much - I was looking after my sister who was five at the time.
"I helped a lot with raising her as well as cooking dinners for the family. I cooked my first roast dinner when I was eight. I used to clean all over the house as well - I was literally like Cinderella."
As well as struggling with alcohol, Amanda's father - who worked as an engineer - also suffered from depression and there were times when he wouldn't come home from work or pick her up from school drunk.
Describing how bullies used to pick on her, Amanda recalled: "People branded me as the girl with funny parents. They'd say, 'she's the girl with the drunk dad' or 'the girl with no mum'."
Money was tight in Amanda's household and the Christmas after their mother left, her father couldn't afford to buy them presents.
However, Amanda claims her difficult childhood is what has made her the fearless and savvy businesswoman she is today.
After marrying her childhood sweetheart at 20, Amanda moved to Bournemouth to start a family and had her first son George when she was 22 and her daughter Holly - now 21 - two years later.
Like most parents, potty training proved to be a struggle for Amanda - especially as George only ever wanted to use his Thomas the Tank engine potty, even when they were out in public.
Amanda said: "George was a very meticulous little boy and would only use this one potty wherever we went. I kept it in a carrier bag."
With two-year-old George and newborn Holly in tow, Amanda was on Poole high street one day when her eldest told her he needed the toilet.
Naturally, Amanda gave George his potty and poured the contents down a drain - but as she was doing this, a passerby "went ballistic" at her and started shouting "you can't do that!"
"Obviously George was mortified," Amanda said. "My two year old little boy thought I was getting shouted at because he did a wee even though he did it in the potty.
"It was my first outing with my two-week-old baby as well, so I packed us all back up in the car and went home. I was mortified, it really shocked me and, as a parent, I thought I’d failed my son because I thought I’d made him upset."
But while there's no denying it was an unpleasant being yelled at in the street, the incident did get Amanda thinking: there had to be a way around this.
It was at this point that the businesswoman came up with the idea for My Carry Potty and designed her first product - but ultimately didn't have the confidence or funds to pursue it.
Amanda split from her first husband after nine years of marriage and it wasn't until her second husband Darren - who works as a furniture manufacturer - came across the designs hiding away in their garage that she decided to take her idea further.
But it wasn't all smooth-sailing from there. After finding a manufacturer in China who would make her prototype, Amanda - who had since had third daughter Olivia - was horrified when an ADULT-SIZED potty turned up on their doorstep and realised she'd sent the wrong measurements.
Having rectified her mistake, Amanda requested another prototype and reached out to John Lewis - who were originally hesitant to deal with an individual seller.
However, they were so impressed with Amanda's leak-proof potty that they ordered 356 - but Amanda's manufacturers wouldn't take orders less than 3,200.
Determined to get her business off the ground and her potties in stores, Amanda and Darren paid £13,000 to have the products made and invested £30,000 of their savings into the business - including getting the leak-proof design patented so competitors couldn't copy them.
When the 3,200 potties arrived on their doorstep, Amanda and her pals spent four days testing all 356 which were being sent to John Lewis before hand-delivering them themselves - meanwhile, the My Carry Potty products were stored in every spare corner of their home.
The potties were an instant hit and in 2009 - their first year of business - the company sold 1,000 units and were stocked in Boots, Jojo Maman Bebe and Mothercare - which only recently disappeared from the high street.
Having recently celebrated 10 years in business, Amanda revealed that My Carry Potty had their best December sales figures on record and the company now sells 700 potties A WEEK on Amazon. Including the 140 they sold on Christmas Eve - a random burst of sales which still continues to baffle Amanda.
But what is it about the potties that have proved so popular? Well for one, it's something that children see as theirs - and Amanda encourages parents to allow their kids to pick which of their animal designs they prefer.
Likening the potties to a "comfort blanket or dummy", Amanda said: "Children like routine and consistency. They take it to nursery, they take it in the car, on the bus, on the train, wherever. It's theirs. It's their personal possession."
Following on from this, Amanda has also developed My Little Training Pants - which match the potties with their animal design - as well as My Little Step Stool for when they're ready to start using the toilet.
Last year, Amanda sold over 85,000 units worldwide - and ahead of their launch in America - the businesswoman is predicting this will increase to 200,000 this year.
Although the company turned over £1m last year, Amanda is passionate about investing back into the business and spends £150,000 a YEAR patenting her leak-proof design so her competitors can't copy it.
On top of this, Amanda has also established herself as a potty training expert and written an advice book for parents - despite the fact that she got an E in her English Literature GCSE exam.
Although she regularly appears on This Morning and Good Morning Britain to discuss potty training, Amanda says her biggest highlight was winning the British Female Inventor of the Year at the 2015 Inventors Awards.
Describing how she felt "completely out of her depth", Amanda recalls how she was grilled by the head of B&Q about why parents should spent £26 on her potties instead of a fiver from their local shop.
Amanda couldn't believe it when - after rounds of gruelling interviews and presentations - she was given the award over 50 other businesswomen at the Barbican Centre.
She said: "I got up there and I was lost for words. Leaving school, having that tough childhood and finally I got recognised as a person... I went backstage and I just cried my eyes out, I couldn’t be interviewed."
In order to communicate with her business partners in China, Australia and America, Amanda gets up at 5am everyday to work from her office in the garden and goes to bed at 11pm.
However, the mum-of-three ensures that she and her family sit down to eat together every evening - especially as cooking is her "biggest passion" other than her business.
Fortunately, Amanda now sees her mother and says that her relationship with her father is "perfect".
She said: "On Christmas Eve he came to dinner with lots of my friends and he stood up and said, ‘Without this little girl, I wouldn’t be alive today’."
You can follow Amanda on Instagram .
For more inspiring Bossing It stories, we spoke to Cherish Reardon who founded Popsy Clothing when her anxiety made it impossible for her to apply for jobs - now it's set to make £1m and Ladbaby Mum's a fan.
And Victoria Eagle was battling post-natal depression when she set up her stationery business on eBay and now it's made £500k.
Plus Cecily Mills of Coconuts Organic crowd-funded £400k towards her ice-cream company in just two weeks - and now it's set to make £1m.
