A career break was the catalyst for Lorraine's business

Lorraine Kirrane is almost 20 years in business in Claremorris, a business that came about when she spotted a gap in the market. Lorraine is a hard worker, of that there is no doubt. She began her career at a young age, after having her son Darragh. After years in administration and banking, Lorraine wanted a complete change and that’s when La Belle Femme happened. She saw there was an opening for an underwear shop in Claremorris and set about righting that.

Lorraine is very people orientated – she speaks fondly about ladies who are regular customers but also drop into the shop for a chat – that’s how personal the service is.

We sit down to chat over a coffee one Monday afternoon in Claremorris.

Angelina: Lorraine, thank you for talking to me. Tell me a little about yourself.

Lorraine: I'm from Knock, right in the middle of the village. I went to University of Limerick after school. I didn't finish my course there because I had a baby. Darragh is now 27. So I was working with Mayo County Council for a number of years. I went back to work really early after he was born. I had huge support from my parents. They were still young themselves at the time and they were running their own business and they were minding my little boy for me while I worked. I genuinely wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for them.

Angelina: What had you been studying, Lorraine?

Lorraine: I was doing Public Administration. As it happened, that's how I ended up working in Mayo County Council, because as part of the degree, you had a placement. And I worked my placement in Mayo County Council while I was pregnant. And then a temporary position came up and I was lucky enough to get it.

Angelina: How long were you there in total?

Lorraine: I was there about four years. Then I got a job with AIB Bank, and that was a permanent job in Tuam. I had gone back to college part-time in Castlebar after not finishing my degree, and I got a certificate in Marketing, so that tied in with that position. I didn't love the bank, I loved my colleagues, but it was a means to an end, because I managed to get a home loan, and I was able to build my own house, which, again, without my parents, I wouldn't have been able to do because they gave me a site in the middle of Knock. So I built the house, and I started doing B&B as well, which I did for about ten years.

Angelina: Things changed for you when you made the decision to step away from the bank?

Lorraine: In 2005, I was involved in a bank raid where two people jumped over the counter and raided us. It was very traumatic, and I took it really, really badly. I had already been struggling with the job at the time. It was very sales orientated. We were in the middle of the boom, and it was all sales and target-based and it just wasn't for me. So I decided there and then to take a career break. I applied for the career break, and that was in the August, and by the December, I had the shop open in Claremorris.

Angelina: Where did the idea of opening the shop come from?

Lorraine: My parents would have been self-employed, so I always had an interest in being self-employed. I suppose I was just looking around Claremorris to see what services there were for women and I just thought 'You know what? There's no shop that just specialises in underwear'. I just got the idea and just rolled with it. I just wanted to do something completely different. I didn't want to go and get another office-based job or anything like that. And then, of course, I had the safety blanket of being able to go back to the bank. So I thought, 'Well, why not take a risk and do something completely different'.

Angelina: So you've seen the gap, what was your next step, Lorraine?

Lorraine: I just started researching - looking on the Internet for stockists, and I went to Galway and looked at a few shops to see what kind of brands they were selling, and then just got in contact with the companies. I had meetings with reps, meetings with the bank to get a loan, because obviously I didn't have a load of money in my back pocket to just open a shop. And again, I was very lucky. We were in the middle of the Celtic Tiger. Banks were throwing money at you. There was no hassle to get a loan. And I just started off really small and then it just got busier and busier, and it went from one thing to another. I think the biggest thing for me was starting the fittings for women with mastectomies.

Angelina: How did that come about, Lorraine?

Lorraine: Well, what actually happened for me was a customer came in and asked would I be stocking mastectomy bras. I hadn't thought about it, but I couldn’t see why not. So I started looking into getting some and getting trained to fit them. 

This lady would be a friend of mine and happened to be with the Breast Care nurse in Castlebar, who was Assumpta Walsh at the time. Assumpta just happened to mention to my friend that she was in an awful panic because the lady in Westport who was doing the fittings for the HSE was moving to Spain and that she didn't have the time to start doing the fittings again. Previous to that, they were done in the hospital.

My friend mentioned that a new girl had just opened a shop in Claremorris, and she said she'd start stocking mastectomy bras and she asked Assumpta if she wanted her to ask me if I would be available to do the fittings. So I met with Assumpta and I met with the lady who was moving abroad, and I arranged to buy her stock from her. And it just started from there.

Angelina: How is business in general, Lorraine - are there huge challenges for business owners at the moment?

Lorraine: It's tough. Especially for small businesses. It's difficult when you have rents and rates and you have staff and wages and light and heat. You have to think of every €10 you take in, how much of that goes on your overheads alone, never mind holding stock. And unfortunately, with underwear, the stock you need to hold is huge, because if you imagine if you have size 10 to size 20 in clothes stocked, which is five sizes, you have the vast majority of women covered. To cover that amount of sizes in bras, you might need 50 different sizes. The size range is huge, and the stockholding is very, very difficult. And stock control is very difficult.

Angelina: You went back to the bank at one stage as well?

Lorraine: By the time I was five years in business, we were into recession, and I had that safety blanket there of being able to go back to the bank, but I didn't want to close the shop either, because we were still doing okay, and especially on the mastectomy side of it. I had seen a huge downturn, obviously, in the recession, but we were still managing. So I put two ladies in the shop. I was just getting married in 2010, and I kind of knew we'd be starting a family. And I thought,'Well, you're self-employed, you have no maternity leave, so I thought, you know what, I'll go back to the bank for a couple of years and see what happens and at least kind of keep the two things going rather than choosing one over the other'. And luckily, it was the right decision. I stayed in the bank for about two years and then I got redundancy. At that stage, we were kind of coming out of recession a little bit and the shop had survived the recession even without me at the helm as such. I had two very good ladies and I was able to come back into it then and keep my staff on.

Angelina: You are nearly 20 years in business Lorraine, what keeps you driven?

Lorraine: I think it’s just that I love what I do. I love meeting the ladies who come in - I love having the chats with them. What I really love is seeing them come back year after year after year because a cancer diagnosis is very scary for a woman and you never know what's going to happen. But the fact that I see these ladies coming back year after year, I have some ladies that are 30 years down the road from having had surgery and they're absolutely fine. We'd know our customers very well at this stage. They might come in every year for their bras, but they might be in Claremorris besides and they'll just call in for a chat and they'll sit down and have 20 minutes of a catch-up.

Angelina: What advice would you give someone thinking of taking a step into business?

Lorraine: Just go for it. If you have a passion for something or if you think that you might like to be self-employed, just try it. I mean, it's hard and unless you're in it in a huge way you're never going to be rich, but the amount of flexibility you have in your life, is what I really appreciate. I've had two more children since I had Darragh - Ruby and Matthew who are 12 and 9. So I have a lot more freedom to spend time with them than I would have if I was working in a nine-to-five job, which to me is invaluable. So I mightn't have the massive paycheck coming home, but I certainly have the quality of life, which is really important for me. With Darragh, I spent so much time working and trying to build a career. But it's only when you look back and you realise how few years you actually have with your children that this time around, it's taught me that I really want to spend more time with them and be with them.