Music artist Lissy Taylor doesn’t just front her band, she’s the business brains behind it too.

The 24-year-old, from Trentham, has performed on the main stage at music festivals, shared a bill with Noel Gallagher, sung for thousands at the opening of a Manchester City FC match and her last three singles have had airtime on BBC Radio One.

She has been the support artist for international touring bands such as The View, Sea Girls and The Lottery Winners and has been known to turn up at venues ahead of gigs and talk herself into being given a supporting slot that evening.

She has performed live on TV in the US and UK including Sky Showcase presented by Glastonbury Festival host Mark Radcliffe.

Lissy isn’t signed to a record label and, unusually for an artist achieving this sort of exposure, she doesn’t have a manager – because Lissy manages her career herself as a business.

Alongside performing Lissy is a music lecturer at Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group after taking teaching qualifications at Staffordshire University.

She also finds time to study for a Peter Coates MSc in Entrepreneurship at Staffordshire University, which she says is giving her a support system and a place to share ideas with likeminded people.

Originally from Stoke-on-Trent, as a teenager Lissy studied and graduated with an A+ in the United States where she also had various performances in Nashville and New York City at The Rockwood Music Hall.

Lissy said: “I run the band as a business. At the level I’ve got to, most other people would be working with a team at a label or an agency. I represent myself and build my own strategy.

“You have definitely got to have the confidence and belief you can do it and also the balls to just go out there and get it done.”

Lissy’s ambition is to become a household name and to be seen as a success story for Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire.

She added: “I see Robbie Williams as a success story to aspire to. His brand is international and he does a lot for the area and also through education.”

Lissy has entered the Young Business Person of the Year and Alumni Business Person of the Year categories of the Staffordshire University Business Awards.