As we look back over an exciting year at Her.ie HQ, one of our highlights is undoubtedly meeting the fabulous and inspirational women we have featured in our weekly Irish Women in Business series. From every industry you can think of, these women of all ages and backgrounds have made amazing strides in their chosen fields. Here, we look back at some of our favourites from the past twelve months.  _____________________________ January Carol Anne Leyden, Director of CA Design, spoke to us about the leap it takes to become one's own boss, the challenges of selling online to Irish furniture shoppers and eating, sleeping and dreaming design. "The biggest challenge would probably be logistics. When we launched we took a punt on a lot of stock and tried to second-guess what the potential customer would go for. Your taste might not necessarily be someone else’s! So we were bringing in containers, ordering new stock while trying to shift furniture in stock. Now we have got to the stage where most items on a container is sold before it leaves the factories." Read the full interview here. February In February we met with wedding planner Sharon McMeel. Sharon talked about translating a love of party planning into a viable business, helping people achieve their vision of a perfect wedding and the importance of relationships. The best way I have to describe it is by looking at the difference between hosting a dinner party in your house and attending a dinner party in someone else’s house. If you are the host then you will most likely spend several days getting the house clean, table set up, purchasing the drinks and preparing the food. On the night you are again checking that everything is in place and the napkins are out, that the plates for the dips are washed and ready and then cooking each course as per your well thought out timeline. You are not free to fully enjoy the evening with all your guests as you always have your eye on what’s happening. The night goes really well and everyone enjoyed themselves but you are exhausted. Now switch to going to your friend’s house, you are not worrying about anything except turning up and enjoying good food, a few drinks and good company and don’t have to even think about the clean-up that night. A wedding is exactly the same and by having a wedding planner to look after all the setup, details and timelines you get to enjoy every moment with your family and friends. Read the full story here. March In March we spoke with Gill Carroll of Galway's highly respected 37 West. We discussed the changing face of food in Ireland, avoiding bandwagons and finding that all-important work/life balance. I have found that there are a lot more males in the industry but I’m not really sure why. I think women tend to start much later, after they get married and have babies. It is 24/7 and maybe women don’t want to give up their lives like I did!  Maybe they know better, because my business is my life. There’s no such thing as a day off. When you’re at home at 11pm, you’re still working mentally all the time so maybe men can do that better? Read the full story here. April Aoife Cogan of Form School was one of the Irish women in business we profiled in April. The former model told us about her next steps in business, working with a partner and thinking about all of the little details. Being a model for the past fourteen years, and working around so much aesthetically beautiful set-ups, with fashion and style and an art college background, we really wanted to work on an area that both myself and Gordon would really love to work out in. Read the full story here.   May Ashley Gribben sat down with us in May for a well-earned coffee. The 27-year-old entrepreneur spoke about finding the right partner in business, the importance of good suppliers and how a good mentor can make the world of difference. We’re all a team here and I’ll test my menus, they’ll give me honest feedback, and they come to me with ideas and we try those too. We spent 2-3 weeks testing all the foods before we opened, so I know I trust them and value their feedback. Everyone here loves food, and more importantly everyone loves homemade food. Read the full story here.   June Lorraine Fanneran was another foodie who featured on our radar this year. Lorraine has earned countrywide acclaim for La Cucina, the Limerick-based Italian she runs with husband Bruno. This year, the company expanded into the home-cooking market by bringing their own brand of sauce to shelves. I was 26 when I opened my own business. I had the big highflying sales job with the fancy suits and company car. I worked for a food company who specialised in deli food and bread so it was through this that I spotted a gap in the market for fresh Italian “fast food”. This was 11 years ago when we barely had a Dominos or McDonalds believe it or not, so we were pretty ahead of our time. There wasn’t many people my age opening businesses back then and I looked pretty young too so people used to always ask me to speak to the boss - it doesn’t happen anymore unfortunately! Read the full story here. July Iseult Ward and Aoibheann O'Brien spoke to us about their initiative food cloud earlier this year, a charity app matching local charities to surplus foods in its community. They spoke to Her.ie about the motivation to start their own business, going for coffees and bagging a nationwide partnership for their charity app. We had to make sure there was always a strong element of food safety, that we were covered in all areas of legal liabilities. We had a lot of work in making sure we covered every area. For that year we were basically taking people out to get free legal advice, free food safety advice, free insights into the food industries and then working with the charities to build up the relationship and understanding there too. Read the full story here.   August In August we met with Shawna Scott of Sex Siopa, Ireland's first health and design focused sex shop. Shawna explained how she made the transition from dropping out of college to owning and running her own business and about breaking the taboos about the use of sex toys. Advertising is difficult for most start-ups, but multiply that by about 100 when you sell adult products. Facebook and Twitter won't let me advertise with them, and some of the mainstream Irish publications would still be quite uncomfortable allowing an adult business to advertise with them as well. I've decided to work my way around that by advertising with smaller, free magazines like Rabble who have exceptional content; and by proving myself as a legitimate business by picking up a couple of awards along the way. Read the full story here. September Our September features included one on Donna Ledwidge, owner of Dream Dots, an overnight patch treatment for spots sold in pharmacies throughout the country. We spoke about not one but THREE successful launches and early days spent getting by on a shoestring. Like anyone who starts a business, I hoped all of the major ideas over the years would work and thankfully they did. I feel that I have learned so much from the good and bad times and it has made me plan and formulate better for success. I have always had the passion and belief in my products and brands. You need to be 100 per cent committed to seeing them through from start to finish. Read the full story here.   October In October we met with Tipperary-based fashion designer Marion Murphy Cooney, who bit the go-solo bullet in 2005, giving up her job in marketing to concentrate on making her business a full-time endeavour. I always have a 'to do' list and I keep adding as I achieve them... My dream was to own my own boutique and have a good brand/label. I now own The Design Atelier on Friar St in Nenagh, Tipperary, and I have 2 labels 'MMC by Marion Murphy-Cooney' which is my ready to wear label, and 'Marion Murphy-Cooney' is my couture label, both are doing really well. Read the full story here. November Last month we chatted to Ellen Kavanagh, founder of Waxperts salon first, followed by the company's own brand wax, now used in hundreds of salons across the country. With their Ingrown Hair Pads now on shelves too, it's been constant growth and innovation at Waxperts HQ. I had clear vision of the Waxperts brand from day one and it remains as strong as ever. I wanted to have a salon that put the client as number 1. They are THE most important part of our business so that is always our focus. We are dedicated to giving the very best service and treatment to our clients and our stockists. Read the full story here. December  One of our final profiles of the year featured Dr Naomi Mackle of Adare Cosmetics Clinic. She talked with us about the importance of training, her best moments in business and handling the lows as well as the highs. Patients may attend our clinic for a mole check or mole removal but sometimes they also want to discuss hair loss or ageing skin. Some of my patients were getting tired of taking long-term antibiotics for conditions like acne vulgaris and acne rosacea and if you don’t have a specialist interest and understanding of Cosmetic medicine, you are not in a position to give correct advice on treatments, skin care, hair loss etc. Read the full story here.