![\"Maria](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5166850_1_articleinline_ECHO_20FEATURES_20Maria_20O_27Donovan_1_.jpg\" "\\"Maria")
Maria is a huge advocate for finding a good work\/life balance.<\/p>\nRunning your own law practice would be more than enough for most people \u2013 but not for West Cork businesswoman Maria O\u2019Donovan.<\/p>\n
Skibbereen-based Maria qualified as a solicitor in 2010 and opened her own practice, Maria O\u2019 Donovan & Co, in 2015.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile I do a lot of work directly with clients myself, I\u2019m also responsible for running the business and that does take a lot of my time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think for anyone who owns a professional services business, that is something that you don\u2019t fully appreciate when you start your own business, and isn\u2019t something that you train for, so it\u2019s a constant learning curve, particularly when growing the business,\u201d said Maria.<\/p>\n
So far, so busy for the mum-of-two.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cAs 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.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about teaching skills to improve communication, to have a better awareness of yourself, to reduce conflict, and ultimately help children to be happier,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
A separated mum-of-two, much of her motivation to offer the service and insights came from her own personal experience.<\/p>\n
Maria is a huge advocate for finding a good work\/life balance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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,\u201d said Maria.<\/p>\n
And there\u2019s more\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cUnderstandably, our industry is heavily regulated, and there\u2019s a lot of compliance required to on-board a new client. It\u2019s 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.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cIt 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\u2019ve been working on it for a year, and I\u2019m really proud of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hardly surprisingly, Maria has more \u2018side hustles\u2019 in the pipeline.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll 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,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Where does she get the time and all-important energy for so many enterprises?<\/p>\n
\n \u201cA lot of my time is spent in court in Cork, which is an hour-and-a-half drive each way, so I\u2019ve lots of time to think when I\u2019m driving up and down,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cMy team gets worried when I\u2019m in the car a lot because they don\u2019t know what I\u2019m going to come up with next!\u201d she jokes.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut more seriously, I suppose I do have an entrepreneurial mind \u2013 if I come across a problem, I like to find a solution if it means doing it myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maria\u2019s children are grown up, which also affords her more time.<\/p>\n
\u201cEva 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\u2019s Inns. She will be starting down the path of qualifying as a solicitor as well very shortly.<\/p>\n
My son, Feilim, is an amazing pizza chef and works in the Marina Market in Cork with Oak Fire Pizza,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Maria joined Network Ireland West Cork around 2018, and has been a member and served on their committee on and off since then.<\/p>\n
\n She was named this year\u2019s Network West Cork Established Businesswoman of the Year.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cIt 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWinning this year\u2019s award for Established Businesswoman of the Year was nice recognition for sure,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\n Despite juggling several businesses, Maria is a huge advocate for work\/life balance.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cI started off doing everything by myself, but I\u2019ve got a great team now, and I believe in delegating. I\u2019m a big believer in protecting your time off. I love to travel and often take solo trips to recharge my battery \u2013 and get more ideas!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Running your own law practice would be more than enough for most people \u2013 but not for West…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3702,72,4257,61,60],"class_list":["post-567472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business-movers","tag-business","tag-cork-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}