Lauren Jayne was a stay-at-home mom for 10 years, taking care of her two sons, the eldest of whom is disabled, prior to embarking on her career in business. Once the eldest was in a place where he could attend school regularly, she started applying to various companies in her area and was offered positions at both an electronic components company and an exhibit house. Opting to go with the exhibit house, despite not knowing a thing about the field, she was promoted to the role of assistant to the project manager in just three months. Six months in and Ms. Jayne had become a project manager in her own right.
After three years with this company, Ms. Jayne set out on her own and established Xibeo, a tradeshow exhibit house that designs and manufactures exhibits for clients in a wide range of industries, in 2001. Today, she is the president and co-owner alongside her husband and manages operations, bookkeeping and human resources. Furthermore, Xibeo is a family business, and their staff also includes Ms. Jayne’s brother, the general manager, and her two sons, the youngest of whom is a designer while the eldest works in the front office.
Ms. Jayne is incredibly proud that Xibeo had its 20th anniversary in 2021 and has survived both the Great Recession and an 18-month shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, she is grateful to her excellent staff, who she notes are always her first priority. She wants to ensure that all her employees feel cared for and like they are truly part of the team, emphasizing that when employees are happy, everything gets better, down to the clients’ happiness. To that end, Ms. Jayne gives her employees a cut of the company’s sales goals and profit margins, provides daily meals, gives everyone a paid day off for their birthdays, and is always mindful of employees’ family obligations. She has one employee that has been with her since the company’s inception, and she has been thrilled to see him raise a family and put his kids through college.
In 2020, Ms. Jayne co-founded Baba’s Feed Project, a nonprofit organization that provides food to impoverished families in northern India. In under two years, they have already provided more than 1 million meals to people in need. As she looks toward the future, Ms. Jayne hopes to develop an education program with the organization to establish schools, send teachers to impoverished areas, and help people get jobs.
Attributing much of her success to not being afraid to keep pressing forward, Ms. Jayne has always strived to do her best and never settle for mediocrity. She would advise young and aspiring professionals that they can do anything they put their minds to. When it comes to starting your own business, it is important that your confidence outweighs your fear, and she also notes that educating a client will get you further than just trying to sell them something. For her excellence, Ms. Jayne was honored among to Top 50 Women in Business by the Pacific Coast Business Times.
Having accomplished much over the course of her career, Ms. Jayne considers her favorite parts of her work to be seeing her employees proud of their finished project and their clients’ delight at seeing the end result. Above everything, however, she cites her greatest achievement as raising her disabled son and helping him become his own person. She continues to help him as he needs it, along with caring for her mother, who lives next door to them. Ms. Jayne hopes to leave a legacy as someone who is very professional and has a kind heart.