A New Life: Ann Kelsey, who gave up a her job in the bank, tells Elaine Edwards she doesn't rue the decision one bit
Some people just aren't meant for a career in banking - and sometimes you've got to cut and run even if there's no safety net. Ann Kelsey (34) left her college course in business studies in the late 1980s to take the bank job.
"I was in branch banking for five years because it was the safe job to get, but I have to say it was five miserable years," she says.
After some time spent abroad and a return to work here in various marketing and PA roles, she's finally set up her own business, selling environmentally friendly products online under the umbrella www.econatural.com.
The youngest of five and originally from Gowran, Co Kilkenny, Kelsey has four brothers, two of whom were also once in banking careers but who have also since moved on to other, more entrepreneurial, things.
Kelsey's husband, Michael Swift, who is also in banking, moved abroad to work for a short while and she went with him, cleaning apartments to make a living.
"It was my first time to work for myself and to get the taste that the harder you worked, the more money you got. I was only cleaning apartments, but it was my own business. Working in the bank, no matter how hard you worked, you were never going to get anywhere."
When they returned to Ireland, Kelsey spotted an advert for a job with a start-up mail order company specialising in upmarket household gifts. It was also one of the first firms here to offer online ordering, which Kelsey thinks may have been before its time.
"I literally did everything there from packing envelopes to licking stamps, dealing with media, taking orders, dealing with customers and suppliers - everything that needed to be done, I did it.
"It was great experience but it was a tough time because the company struggled for the two and a half years I was there and never really got off the ground. I stayed as long as I possibly could. In the end, healthwise I just thought the stress of this isn't good."
She sought advice from a career consultant and eventually landed a job through an agency as PA to the human resources manager in Microsoft - a fantastic experience.
Unfortunately, she was made redundant in 2004, after cuts that had already seen around 80 let go. She used the opportunity to try out an idea that had been bubbling away for years and took a part-time job while she worked on Econatural.
Kelsey's range includes cosmetics that aren't tested on animals, environmentally friendly cleaning products, vegetarian cookbooks, eco-friendly nappies, fairtrade chocolate, organic dog food, eco-friendly yoga mats and even gardening gifts.
"I used eco-friendly products initially purely because I have very sensitive skin and I couldn't use anything with perfumes. And every time I found something, usually it was taken off the market about six months later. But that's changed and it's all coming back around now. I was looking for things like that at a time when there wasn't a market for it," she says.
"I would love to get the message out there as well to more and more people that a lot of people are using products and have no idea what goes into them or about the animal testing, for example."
A present of The Good Shopping Guide had been an eye-opener, with its "green, amber, red" code of businesses' records in relation to the environment, animal-testing and child labour.
"I was looking at brands I had used in the past and thought 'I'll never use that again'," she says.
"A lot of the market out there are people who just don't have a lot of money but who are very environmentally conscious. There is a certain market as well where people have money and will buy their organic vegetables, but will still probably buy the bigger brand names because there's a huge amount of marketing behind them and because someone's telling them it's great. I don't think anyone can become immune to [ the marketing] completely.
"I think it's all down to your frame of mind and it depends on what you're buying.
"People don't even think about spending €60 on a moisturiser, but you can get very good ones that are ecologically sound and that have no preservatives for maybe €20 or €30 that do the exact same job. They're not being told on the packaging that it's going to get rid of all their wrinkles or their grey hair. I don't believe a lot of the stuff they advertise but people are really sucked in by it."
Kelsey and her husband are currently living in rented accommodation and surrounded by boxes while they wait for a builder to finish work on their Dublin home.
"He's a very optimistic person and very supportive of anything I've tried. Having spent a few miserable years in the bank, I believe you have to enjoy what you're doing."