A reluctant singer discovered her true vocation when she had to resort to plugging her own recordings. She quickly found she was equally well cut-out for promoting music as for making it.

Now Jane Winiberg, from Leigh, has launched her own public relations agency, Delicious, to help other people develop their musical careers.

As a singer, Jane made and marketed two of her own albums as independent releases.

Having done so with some success, she is prepared to confess: "I was always a reluctant musician - never interested in being on stage.

The only reason I performed my songs myself was the difficulty of getting anyone else to sing them.

"When I released my two CDs, I had no advertising budget, no record company backing and nowhere to sell them.

"I had to promote the music myself, otherwise I'd have ended up with boxes of CDs in my garage, gathering dust."

Jane embarked on a single-handed mission to drum up media coverage and create a buzz about her products.

"It took a while, but suddenly it all clicked," she said. "And when they saw the published reviews, the sales figures and the positive feedback, other people started asking me to promote their products, too.

"By then I had got the marketing bug, so I was more than happy to do so."

Jane's first big task was to co-ordinate and promote a charity event called Drumming Up Hope, a two day concert to raise money for the Elizabeth Loury ward at Southend Hospital.

Jane said: "This was a big job, with over 70 artist to co-ordinate. It was sold out every night and hundreds of people had a good time, which just made me feel even more that publicity and promotion was the future for me."

Most recently, Jane devised the publicity and marketing campaign for progeria sufferer Hayley Okine's charity CD with the Kids Choir 2000.

The project was designed to raise awareness of the rare aging condition, along with funds for research. The result was national press and TV coverage.

"We even got the thumbs up from Simon Cowell," said Jane.

The success of the charity campaigns persuaded Jane to dedicate all her energies to promotion, and to start her own business.

She said: "When people start a new business, or bands have a product to sell, they often put all their energies into devising the business and aren't sure how to make the public aware of what they're offering. That's where I come in."

The Delicious agency now has several clients, including Big Brother 7 winner Pete Bennett's former band Daddy Fantastic, an online dating agency and an angling company.

Happy in what she is doing, Jane insists she doesn't miss active music-making at all.

"I leave it to others to be up-front doing the performing," she said.

"I've got some young people with real talent whom I'm looking after and when I watch and listen to them, I just realise I never stood a chance as a singer.

"I'm now doing what I like doing. I just love being with music and love being with musicians.

"It's taken me a long time to finally discover my niche. Now I'm just thrilled and very lucky to be doing something I really enjoy and know I can do well."

l You can read Jane's regular blog at: www.leigh-life.co.uk