A NEW LIFE: Myles and Mimi Doyle tell Elaine Edwards that a move out of Dublin was in pursuit of a family-friendly existence.
A booming property market combined with a desire for a more laid back lifestyle away from Dublin has enabled husband and wife Myles and Mimi Doyle to set up home and a business out of town "in the country".
Just over a year ago the Doyles sold their house in Terenure, Dublin and got what they say was "a good price". They acquired a site in Summerhill, Co Meath, on land that had been owned by Myles's father and have just finished building their home and business premises, where they have set up a new online and catalogue-based toy firm, Mimitoys.
"I had been working in the sales environment for international software companies for the last 10 years," Myles explains.
"I'd be away every week. I was gone from Monday night until Thursday or Friday morning. And it was a killer on family time, in that I wasn't seeing the kids growing up, seeing them going from babies to toddlers and it was also putting an intolerable strain on Mimi. She was the home carer for our two kids, Molly, four and a half, and Malachy, three and a half."
Mimi (33), who moved to Ireland from Paris and met Myles (35) while studying here in the early 1990s, worked as a customer service manager for Gateway until she had the children. "I stopped working when I had Molly. I couldn't work because of all the travelling. That was the decision I made."
The couple had a number of business ideas, but carried out a lot of market research before they threw themselves into Mimitoys. "We looked into doing a high-quality French deli in some of the provincial towns in Leinster," says Myles.
"There was certainly a business in it, but one of our cardinal objectives was to have a family-friendly work lifestyle. And we decided that owning a deli would be the same as owning a pub - you just wouldn't have any family time."
The idea came to them after Mimi bought some toys for the children from a mail order catalogue in France. They found many toys here "bland and highly promoted", with no value other than that attaching to the brand name.
Myles says they wanted to source toys that had more educational and social value and that would enhance the child's skills in some way.
"As part of our research we found that a child above six starts becoming brand conscious; a child under six is not so brand conscious. Parents will buy a toy based on the value and functionality of the toy. We are solely focusing our target market at the moment at five and under."
The husband and wife team recently travelled to an international toy fair in London to source stock for the venture and have tried out most of the toys on their own two lucky children first.
They are determined to keep home and professional life separate, but to make family time for themselves and to share mealtimes. With that in mind, they built a separate garage and office space alongside the house.
Myles took the advice of former colleagues, who told him he needed a dedicated working area or else he'd end up "dipping in and out of work for about 16 hours a day, and I don't want that".
Mimi initially wondered how they would settle into their new rural environment, but they've settled easily.
"Thanks to the kids I have met a lot of people. I thought not being from Ireland and moving to a small community in the country wouldn't be easy for me, but it's been extremely easy."
The Doyles have a lot of hobbies, including gardening and vegetable growing, and they like the idea of being as self-sufficient as possible. Mimi also enjoys cooking and specialises in her native cuisine. The children speak French.
High ethical standards in their business venture were important to the couple and they've adopted a strict anti-child labour policy.
"The assurance we can give is that the suppliers to our suppliers can vouch that they did not use child labour," says Myles. Consequently, the manufacturers are all members of associations such as the British Toy and Hobby Association or its equivalent elsewhere in the world, in the US, Belgium or France.
As a way of "giving something back" from their business successes, the Doyles will give 1 per cent of their turnover to a child charity in Bangalore, India. The money will bounce straight from their business account to Renewal Education Services, run by an Irish priest, Fr Eddie Cleary.
It's involved in the re-education of children who were involved in child labour practices or who were coerced into work in the sex industry.
The Mimitoys website is www.mimitoys.ie - tel: 1890 520 025.