WHEN Janet Crawford ran away from home to seek fame among the bright lights of London's West End, she was embarking on an adventure that has put her at the head of one of the top recruitment agencies in the UK.

Janet, now 68, ran away from home in Wiltshire at the age of 17 to become a showgirl at the famous Windmill Theatre in London.

Now, more than 50 years on, she is executive chair of Angel Human Resources, one of the top 100 recruitment agencies in the UK.

Angel Human Resources, which has its headquarters at London Bridge, operates from 39 locations nationally.

It acquired Liz Dargue Staffing, which has offices in Darlington, Sunderland and Harrogate, earlier this year.

Mrs Crawford currently gets to the North-East branches of her business about once a month for a directors meeting.

The business she started is still family-run after 40 years.

Two of her three children are directors of the company.

Mrs Crawford said: "We have managed to remain independent for all that time, making acquisitions as we go along, rather than being acquired by another business.

"Liz Dargue Staffing was our latest acquisition, becoming part of Angel earlier this year.

"However, I can't see it being the last acquisition as we seek to grow even bigger.

"We have managed to grow the business both organically and by acquisition, and have never had to go out to external investors to fund that growth."

Mrs Crawford, whose father was a stand-up comic and mother a concert pianist, manages to balance her executive role at Angel with a busy career as an actress.

She has played roles in all the major soaps, as well as guest appearances in hospital drama Casualty and The Bill.

She said: "I still act whenever I can find the time. It's all about balancing life and work.

"Even when I'm working at Angel, I'm only a phone call away from prospective theatre work."

As such, she believes the budding entrepreneurs of the future could learn a lot from the theatre and should be encouraged to learn theatre skills to boost their careers.

She said: "Entrepreneurs need to be poised and confident and understand how to deal with a difficult audience.

"Drama training is a perfect way to impart those skills to business students."

She added: "Extending business courses in such a way could help to produce the next generation of entrepreneurs for the UK.

"All top entrepreneurs need to have a strong sense of priorities, tenacity and resilience and be able to overcome fear of rejection.

"If you analyse successful business people you will see that they have those attributes. Top actors also tend to have similar skills and that is why they do well in their profession."

At 68, Mrs Crawford is past normal retirement age, but isn't ready just yet to put away the greasepaint or pass on her executive role to her children.

She said: "Working at Angel and in the theatre helps to keep me young. I'm not ready to give that up just yet."