Cosmetologist Iryna Bura, the wife of a veteran, has grown her own business in Lviv: from a small rented treatment room she has progressed to a modern studio on Dovha Street and received grant support from the city’s “Courage to do Business” programme.
Iryna works as an aesthetic cosmetologist. The studio has a waiting area, shelves with cosmetics, coffee for visitors and a separate treatment room. She specialises in working with skin quality: she treats acne, tackles pigmentation and couperosis, and performs photo-rejuvenation procedures.
Since childhood Iryna had dreamt of helping people. Despite having a first degree unrelated to medicine, at 25 she decided to change profession: she found a cosmetology school in Lviv, moved there, began working first in a salon and later at the cosmetology school. After her son was born she did not interrupt her career, and in 2022 she rented her first treatment room of about 10 sq. m, which became the start of her own business.
The full-scale invasion radically changed the family’s life. Before the war her husband Yaroslav worked in the police, and in April 2022 he voluntarily joined the 125th Territorial Defence Brigade, leaving his wife at home with their little son. Iryna recalls that she consciously allowed herself only one night to cry, and then focused on the household, her child, her work and even added sport to her schedule to cope with the strain of the war.
In the first weeks of the full-scale aggression, clients turned to her at least for cosmetics, and later large numbers of internally displaced people arrived in Lviv. Among her visitors were women from Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia and Kyiv. Iryna says that it was precisely work that helped her keep going during this period.
In 2023 Yaroslav was severely wounded while carrying out a combat mission: the vehicle he was travelling in came under enemy fire, caught fire, and the ammunition began to detonate. He managed to get out through the window, but sustained serious injuries, including acoustic trauma. Since then he has been left with scars, and due to his health he was discharged from service.
It was her husband who advised Iryna to apply to the municipal “Courage to do Business” programme supporting veteran-owned businesses. At first she treated this idea with scepticism, but she gathered the documents, submitted her application and completed a three-week training course at the city’s Entrepreneurship Support Centre. The knowledge she gained in business management proved useful to her regardless of the outcome of the competition.
Following the programme, Iryna Bura became one of the winners and received UAH 300,000 in grant support. With this money she purchased a modern IPL intense pulsed light system, which makes it possible to work with pigmentation, couperosis, acne manifestations and age-related skin changes. At the time she bought the equipment it cost about UAH 330,000, and now, she says, the price is approaching half a million. Iryna was determined to buy a new machine with servicing support, as she had previously had a mixed experience working with equipment.
According to the entrepreneur, the new equipment has become for the studio not just another service, but a step up to a qualitatively different level of working with clients. The community formed around the “Courage to do Business” programme has also played an important role: group participants keep in touch, use each other’s services and meet at veteran fairs.
“I have never seen an approach like the one in ‘Courage to do Business’ anywhere else. They were interested in us actually achieving results. From start to finish they supported you, gave instructions, helped you. And they haven’t forgotten us even a year on,” says Iryna.
The veteran forum in Lviv, to which Iryna was invited together with her husband, has also been important for the Bura family. She notes that this was a rare event that Yaroslav himself wanted to attend, because there he was able to talk with his comrades-in-arms in an environment close to him. In her view, the social reintegration of veterans is a complex process, so such support platforms are very much needed.
The walls of Iryna’s studio are decorated with dozens of training certificates. She emphasises that in cosmetology one must constantly improve. Now the practitioner has decided to take another step and obtain a medical education: she submitted documents to a college, passed the entrance tests and gained a state-funded place. In this way she plans to deepen her knowledge in her professional niche and remain competitive on the market.
The studio offers special terms for veterans, serving military personnel, their family members and internally displaced persons: they can receive a 15% discount on services. For Iryna this is a way to thank those whose lives, like her family’s, have been radically changed by the war.
Lviv City Council reminds residents that the “Courage to do Business” programme was created to support veteran entrepreneurship and businesses run by veterans’ family members. More than 250 participants have already completed training in business fundamentals, and over 90 veteran-led projects have received financial support from the city and donors. Lviv also has a veteran business map, which brings together enterprises founded by veterans and their relatives to help customers consciously choose such services and goods.