Meet the Cork woman running not one, not two, but three businesses

Running your own law practice would be more than enough for most people – but not for West Cork businesswoman Maria O’Donovan.

Skibbereen-based Maria qualified as a solicitor in 2010 and opened her own practice, Maria O’ Donovan & Co, in 2015.

“We now have two associate solicitors working with me and a team of four incredible support staff. Together, we practice mainly in the areas of family law, litigation, residential and commercial property, wills and probate, employment law, and company law,” she said.

“While I do a lot of work directly with clients myself, I’m also responsible for running the business and that does take a lot of my time.

“I think for anyone who owns a professional services business, that is something that you don’t fully appreciate when you start your own business, and isn’t something that you train for, so it’s a constant learning curve, particularly when growing the business,” said Maria.

So far, so busy for the mum-of-two.

“As well as my legal work, I am also a certified coach, and I have a separate business called Elevation, where I coach separated parents to communicate more effectively with their ex-partners.

“It’s about teaching skills to improve communication, to have a better awareness of yourself, to reduce conflict, and ultimately help children to be happier,” she said.

A separated mum-of-two, much of her motivation to offer the service and insights came from her own personal experience.

“I am also growing this business at the moment and will shortly be running a six-week group coaching programme which has had fantastic results for participants in previous years,” said Maria.

And there’s more…

“I am also really proud to be launching a third business called Scrio. This is a software platform for small to medium professional services firms like mine, helping them with client onboarding and compliance.

“Understandably, our industry is heavily regulated, and there’s a lot of compliance required to on-board a new client. It’s a manual process that can take from 45 minutes to an hour per person, but my product has reduced it to a swift three minutes.

“It reduces the administration burden and saves time and costs, making it a win-win-win, especially for medium-sized firms like my own, which can sometimes be forgotten about in the marketplace. In fact, my own experience was what motivated it in the first place. I’ve been working on it for a year, and I’m really proud of it.”

Hardly surprisingly, Maria has more ‘side hustles’ in the pipeline.

“I’ll shortly be launching online legal consultation services for family law. I find a lot of people who need advice in this area can put off making an appointment for a whole lot of reasons, including fear, uncertainty over costs, etc, so this is aimed at them,” she said.

Where does she get the time and all-important energy for so many enterprises?

“A lot of my time is spent in court in Cork, which is an hour-and-a-half drive each way, so I’ve lots of time to think when I’m driving up and down,” she said.

“My team gets worried when I’m in the car a lot because they don’t know what I’m going to come up with next!” she jokes.

“But more seriously, I suppose I do have an entrepreneurial mind – if I come across a problem, I like to find a solution if it means doing it myself.”

Maria’s children are grown up, which also affords her more time.

“Eva is the eldest; she is unexpectedly following in my footsteps. She works as a legal assistant in my practice and has just completed her Diploma in Legal Studies with King’s Inns. She will be starting down the path of qualifying as a solicitor as well very shortly.

My son, Feilim, is an amazing pizza chef and works in the Marina Market in Cork with Oak Fire Pizza,” she said.

Maria joined Network Ireland West Cork around 2018, and has been a member and served on their committee on and off since then.

She was named this year’s Network West Cork Established Businesswoman of the Year.

“It has been fantastic to be part of a group of like-minded business owners and entrepreneurs, and to make so many friends and connections along the way. It’s so great to know that there is always someone I can call and to have a sounding board, no matter what it is that I need, especially as a solo business owner.

“Winning this year’s award for Established Businesswoman of the Year was nice recognition for sure,” she says.

Despite juggling several businesses, Maria is a huge advocate for work/life balance.

“I started off doing everything by myself, but I’ve got a great team now, and I believe in delegating. I’m a big believer in protecting your time off. I love to travel and often take solo trips to recharge my battery – and get more ideas!”