Finding time for family matters

With her petite frame, coiffured hair and handbag-sized Jack Russell called Possum, she has all the accoutrements of an actress. But instead, Lorna's talents lie in a totally different direction.

Lorna runs university-to-workplace training company Graduates for Growth, is president of the Edinburgh Businesswoman's Club – she will end her tenure in March – fundraises for Mercy Corps' work in Guatemala, sits on the committee of the Friends of Inverleith Park, and, most importantly to her, is mum to 15-year-old Roman and Ayrton, 13.

She spent ten years running the Edinburgh institution Cafe Florentin with her ex-husband, Lyon-born Freddy.

"Food doesn't make you fat, it's how you think about it – I loved it! If you eat fresh pastry made from the best flour and fresh strawberries in egg custard – well I'm convinced it's a perfectly balanced meal," she laughs.

The former St Augustine's pupil who grew up in Barnton, was the business brain of the operation, which at its peak turned over 1.5 million, while Freddy was the culinary genius. Running a patisserie hadn't been in her life plan, but she had always known she wanted to work for herself. "There was an enterprise culture in the family. My grandfather had a shipping firm in Glasgow, not that he was an Onassis, and my gran ran her own shop. My own parents always told me to go for what I wanted.

"I studied catering and management in Glasgow and my thought had been to set up a catering training, but then I met Freddy while I worked at the Carlton Hotel, went to France and was introduced to patisseries.

"I was just 22 at the time. We started in Thistle Street but within six months realised we didn't have big enough facilities to cope with the demand, so we opened a 2000sq ft manufacturing base in Leith. Then we opened in St Giles Street a year later."

Just three years into the business and Lorna had her first son, Roman. "He was very nearly born in the cafe – I was serving a customer when my waters broke," she recalls.

"We had a flat above the cafe so, while we had a nanny so I could work, when he needed fed I would just nip upstairs."

Two years later Ayrton was born but, by 1999, Lorna had had enough and, with her marriage over, she sold her share of the business to Freddy.

"I've always lived the life I want to live but being a mum is first and foremost for me."

Perhaps surprisingly for a wealthy woman in Edinburgh – house in Trinity, membership of an exclusive club – her children don't attend private school. "Well, they did," she says.

"They were at Mary Erskine's/Stewart Melville's nursery and primary, but when Roman reached primary two he started saying he hated it. He wouldn't change his mind, so eventually I took him out and he went to St Mary's in Leith where his friends and cousins were.

"Then when it came to high school I tried to get him to look at Merchiston Castle and the Academy, but he wouldn't do it. He wanted to go to St Thomas's, so that's where they both are."

Lorna got back in the rat race after being asked for management advice by friends. "Then one chap said he couldn't pay me but would print me some business cards, so I was forced into thinking of a name and that's when I launched Marketing Matrix, which was a consultancy.

"That led to Graduates for Growth. When the boss came back she wanted to employ me permanently, then the boss decided to move on, so I stepped up.

"That was five years ago. We were funded initially by Scottish Enterprise, and were housed in the Chamber of Commerce, and the aim was to help small and medium-sized businesses get the graduates they needed and to keep the talent in Scotland."

She joined the Edinburgh Businesswomen's Club, a networking organisation and last year became president.

"I've been very lucky in that the work I've done has fitted well with my family," she says. "Other women are not so lucky. In fact Scotland is still too traditional in the way it approaches flexible working and the phrase 'working mother' is still used in a derogatory fashion.

"I don't see why employers can't provide childcare for female staff, get some kind of tax break for doing so, and keep motivated and skilled staff at the same time."

The other drum she beats is a desire to see a change in the tax system so graduates saddled with debt after university are helped out more when they start work.

"We have to start reducing the public sector mentality that infects so many workplaces and people in Scotland.

"We have to encourage people to take risks, to create more entrepreneurs, to have people prepared to stick their necks out and walk away from 'safe' relationships because they want to be taken seriously."

Away from business she's involved with the Friends of Inverleith Park, a place she "loves" but only agreed to sit on the committee when told her sons could come to evening meetings. "I don't like things eating into my time with my children, so they do end up coming along with me to some things, but I think it's quite good for them. I believe in community involvement – a life without it is no life at all.

"Hopefully they will have an entrepreneurial spirit, but really as long as they're happy that's the main thing. If they don't go to university and become graduates, well I wouldn't mind at all, I don't believe in the idea that you have to be in education until you're 23. You should be able to leave at 14 if you've had enough."

The future may include a book on female management techniques and steady growth of the business. She has no interest in moving to London.

"Where do I want to be in five years? I want to be on the touchline for my kids celebrating their successes."

Capital women club together

THE ESBC was founded by a group of like-minded Edinburgh business women in 1992.

The club aims to provide a positive environment in which the Capital's businesswomen can discuss the various issues that impact on their lives, whether personal or professional.

Members of the ESBC believe that there are still too few opportunities for women to meet and talk to others in similar positions. As president of the club – a position that is up for tenure in March – Lorna tries to fill this void by offering the Capital's businesswomen the opportunity to meet like-minded people to discuss the topics that are important and relevant to them.

The ESBC provides a forum for managerial, entrepreneurial and professional women in Scotland who have sincere commitment to their careers, families, the community and their own personal growth. The club's aim is to encourage personal and professional development by way of networking, training and education, exchanging views and encouraging and recognising achievement.