Businesswoman has flair for turning negative into positive
Laura Lennie
Published on
Jan 04, 2008
Evalina Alaimo had always dreamed of starting a business and last year, something happened to make that dream a reality.
After working for City Bank in Burlington for more than eight years, Ms. Alaimo lost her job.
"In February, City Bank announced workforce cutbacks, so out of 390,000 employees that meant about 17,000 employees worldwide," said the senior credit analyst. "And of course to us, we were like, 'What are the odds that it's going to affect us here?' And sure enough, we were the only division in our office, in our building that was downsized."
Ms. Alaimo was devastated.
"My first thought was, 'Oh my God, what am I going to do? This is what I've been working for and I've worked so hard to get where I am and it's all gone now,'" she said.
Ms. Alaimo told herself everything was going to be OK and forged ahead.
After looking for a job, Ms. Alaimo realized to make a similar income, she would have had to commute to Toronto.
"Already the commute just to Burlington was enough for me - I have two small kids - and I thought, 'I can't be gone that long throughout the week.' That's when my dream of starting a business started to take shape," she said.
The business started with the idea of specializing in the sale of bras, says Ms. Alaimo.
"I've always had a problem finding bras that fit and I discovered this line from the United Kingdom a number of years ago and then my girlfriends would say to me, 'I love that bra, can you get me one?' So I started doing that for my friends and family," she said.
Ms. Alaimo says she would buy bras for her friends and family, fit them and was making a little bit of extra money doing so.
"Then I thought, 'I'm going to open up my own bra store.' And to take it a step further, I thought, 'Why not add a little bit of flavour to this?'" she said.
Working with the philosophy, 'If you never try, you'll never know,' Ms. Alaimo told her husband Sam about the idea.
"I told him I really wanted to do it and he just looked at me and said, 'I totally support you; I believe in you and I think you can do this,'" she said.
On Dec. 1, Ms. Alaimo opened The Secret Closet at 70 King St. E., which specializes in designer fashions and intimate apparel for women sized A-J.
"When I came up with the concept for the store, I didn't want to exclude anyone. A lot of stores you go into, the sizes are very specific, so you either fit into them or you don't and you have to go somewhere else," she said. "Any size woman can come in here, she can get her intimate wear, she can get her dress, she can get her shoes, she can get everything all in one place and you don't feel excluded coming in here because there's something for everyone."
Reflecting on the events leading up to the store's opening, Ms. Alaimo says changing her way of thinking is what made the biggest difference in helping her get back on her feet.
"I think everybody goes through the process of being angry and being depressed over losing a job. You're going to go through that whole cycle, but once you pass through that sort of grieving process, I think you need to kind of take a step back and take a look at the full picture and say, 'Yes, this was terrible, but what can I do to make it better for myself?' It's really all about positive thinking," she said. "There was a reason why all this happened; now I'm here and I'm just loving it. I feel like I'm living my dream."
Mr. Alaimo says he couldn't be more proud.
"I'm proud of my wife just because she took on this challenge," he said. "She's a really strong woman. She makes me the person that I am, so all I can do is support her because she's always been there for me and that's what I'll do for her; whatever she needs, I'm there."
Ms. Alaimo says she's looking forward to growing the business and getting the word out that there's something new in the Creek.
"I love meeting new people, so I'm really looking forward just to making connections with people. And I'm really, really passionate about the bras only because I feel like every woman needs to be in the right fitting bra and so many of us aren't, so I get so excited when a woman comes in and I size her and I see her face when she's like, 'Oh my God, this is what it's suppose to look like,'" she said.
Ms. Alaimo is also looking forward to a whole new beginning.
"I look at it as the start of something new, I really feel like good things will come, not just for me, but for my family and the support from my family... it's just been overwhelming," she said.
Though it took something negative to get to something so positive, Ms. Alaimo says she has no regrets.
"I feel like I'm exactly where I should be now," she said. "I feel like everything that I did in the past eight years led me to this, so I'm right where I should be and where I want to be."