Going for Growth, the award-winning programme for female entrepreneurs who want to growth their business, completed its 17th cycle on Tuesday (10 June) with a special celebration in Dublin.

The programme, which is sponsored by Enterprise Ireland and KPMG, is designed to help women grow their sales, create additional employment and win exports.

A total of 53 female entrepreneurs completed the six-month programme this year, and an addition al 28 women completed Starting Stronger, which is for more recently established, ambitious businesses.

At the beginning of the cycle, the Going for Growth participants had a turnover in excess of €65m, employed over 900 people and half of them were exporters.

All set ambitious targets and built on these numbers over the last six months. 

Going for Growth is free for participants who are supported on their growth journey by voluntary lead entrepreneurs, all of whom are successful entrepreneurs. 

This year's lead entrepreneurs were Fidelma McGuirk, Hannah Wrixon, Jeananne O’Brien, Monica Flood, Oonagh O’Hagan, Susan Spence and Tara Beattie.

Photo: Olive O'Donoghue, KPMG; Jennie Haire, Gigi Supplements; Carol Gibbons, Enterprise Ireland; Oonagh O'Hagan, Going for Growth Lead. (Pic: Shane O'Neill, Coalesce)