Angel Burgess suffered a lot of loss in a short period of time. Rather than wallow, she put her feelings into a business.

I Am Enough sells women’s clothes and handbags. Ms Burgess, a Bermudian entrepreneur who has lived in Britain since 2016, describes the business as “not only a brand, but also a movement”.

“In today's day and age the expectations surrounding women can be very overwhelming and unrealistic. I Am Enough was created to empower women today and remind them that they are much more than enough. As women, supporting and uplifting each other is the best thing we can do,” she said.

She created the online store with the unexpected help from her daughters, Zoya and Ziye Burgess, who had supported but not participated in her previous ventures.

About ten years ago, Ms Burgess opened A2Z Fashions, a women’s clothing store on Queen Street. In the midst of the pandemic she began sourcing dogs in Britain for animal lovers in Bermuda through her company, Puppy Love.

It all kept her busy, however, she started to feel “really down” after she lost her “granny, dad, stepdad and a really good friend” in only three years.

“As an entrepreneur I felt like I needed to put these feelings into a business because clearly I couldn't be the only person feeling this way,” she said.

The idea for I Am Enough “came about as most things do with entrepreneurs, some hour in the morning”.

“I had been going through quite a bit. My stepdad died really quickly. He and my mom were living in Jamaica. They built their dream house, retired, life was going good. He started to have these chest pains, found out he had cancer and 15 days later he was dead.”

Ms Burgess travelled back and forth from Britain to Jamaica to help her mother through the loss.

“I also had the girls and my grandson in the UK and I just felt like, ‘Am I enough to really do this?’ To be there for my mom, to still be a mother, to be a grandma, to take care of my swimsuit line and Puppy Love? I really felt defeated and then thought, ‘Clearly I cannot be the only woman feeling this way’.”

In the middle of the night she came up with the idea of a handbag line and the theme, “I Am Enough”. It soon morphed into T-shirts and dresses.

“The most exciting part about it, my kids love it – and they never love anything I do. They always show me their support but they never really get involved. But they could relate to this.

“Zoya had a baby while in university; Ziye was kind of toying with what she really wanted to do. She was in nursing and then decided she wanted to do occupational therapy. So we were all kind of going through this transition of feeling a bit defeated, trying to figure out what was our next move in life. It was exciting for me to relate with my children on something like this.”

To get the company going she drew on experience gained through her Bermuda swimsuit and T-shirt lines. Creating a vegan handbag took a little more research because it was a new industry for Ms Burgess but she managed to find someone who “really understood my vision, where I wanted to go with it”.

Before the year was over, I Am Enough was up and running online.

“I had this vision at night and I woke up the next day and from that day, I just jumped on it.”

The website and sorting out the handbags added a bit of time but in about eight months, the business was live.

“Most of that was time waiting for the samples for the handbags and the changes in the samples when they did arrive. But we kind of just pushed and again, because my daughters were loving it, because I really had help, it wasn't as stressful as I thought it was going to be.”

Ms Burgess has been self-employed for the past ten years. Before that she worked for Butterfield Bank and had a part-time job at the Black Horse Tavern.

“On Saturdays I spent all day on the Causeway with my two small kids vending handbags and earrings. So that's where the vision of A2Z came from,” she said.

Once she moved to Britain it became “difficult trying to maintain A2Z and not be in Bermuda”.

“It was more stressful for me, I didn't love it any more. So I had to get rid of that but I continued to do Bermuda swimsuits. Puppy Love was kind of born just through a hobby – just doing a dog here and a dog there – and then Covid hit and I ended up with 12 dogs for 3 months in my living room. It was insane but from there, Puppy Love just kind of grew and grew and grew.”

Bermudians, especially, have been equally receptive to I Am Enough.

“People say Bermudians don’t support, I think that's the biggest lie ever. Bermudians have been so amazing. I can definitely say that 80 per cent of my sales have either gone to Bermuda or to Bermudians living somewhere else in the world. So the response, the support has been amazing,” Ms Burgess said.

Although not for everybody, being an entrepreneur works for her because she only gets involved in things she feels passionate about.

“Anyone who knows me knows from little I've been passionate about animals. Puppy Love, I love it. I love to see when the puppies arrive, to know when the people are getting the puppies and now I love to see the handbags and the outfits; people are tagging me.

“So it's a true passion. And that's probably why I'll always be hustling because I could never just have a business because I know that business is going to make me money. I'm sure other people are OK making money [that way] but for me it has to be something I love.”

• I Am Enough offers free worldwide shipping for clothes. Visit imenough.co.uk/. For more information on Puppy Love: PuppyLoveBda.com; office@puppylovebda.com