Mary Holmes was on a shopping trip when she found her calling. Unhappy with her career, Holmes was clothes shopping with her sister, when her sister suggested she could shop for a living.

‘‘That was like a eureka moment,” said Holmes, who is now managing director of her own image consultation company, Ruby Seven.

Despite having a degree in international marketing and languages, Holmes found it difficult to find a job after university. ‘‘I had be en made redundant twice and each time I tried to come up with an idea for my own business,” she said.

Holmes was working for the business marketing division of Vodafone when she realised she wanted to be an image consultant. She enrolled on a part-time course in Limperts Academy in Rathfarnham in Dublin and found her first jobs while still studying.

Business grew through word of mouth and, in December last year, Holmes decided to work on her business full-time. She said a lot of people reconsidered their image if they had been through some sort of change, such as a milestone birthday, weight loss, marriage breakdown, or change of career.

‘‘I thought initially it would be all ladies-who-lunch types, but it’s much more mainstream,” she said. For an individual client, Holmes visits their home, looks at their clothing and gives advice on what they should be wearing for their shape and colouring. She will then take them shopping for clothes to suit them.

‘‘People see Trinny and Susannah on TV on What Not to Wear and say, ‘I’d love someone to do that for me,”‘ she said.

Holmes also runs corporate seminars offering advice to staff on work wear. She said this benefited business owners as it could improve the overall company image. ‘‘Image is important for career progression and often for first impressions,” she said.

For a full-day staff seminar, the price is roughly €1,000, depending on the number of staff.

Although based in Dublin, Holmes works with a number of image consultants around the country and hopes Ruby Seven will one day have branches nationwide.

She is looking at expanding her corporate services and has also started going to mother and toddler groups to talk to mothers who want style advice before going back to work.