There was a ''really good'' network of women in the city who were prepared to support each other.
''It's really surprising sometimes how people gather around you and information comes to you when you ask for it,'' Ms Irving, the owner of Seriously Twisted, said.
She also recently joined Te Kupeka Umaka Maori Ki Araiteuru (Kuma), the Maori Business Network for Otago-Southland.
She believed Otago businesses were innovative; as a result of the region's isolation, they were able to ''think for ourselves and look after each other''.
While she had grown up with a father who was an entrepreneurial businessman in Hamilton, Ms Irving initially forged a career in the public health sector.
That was until she moved to Dunedin for a job, managing health promotion staff around the lower South Island, and walked out after three months.
Her partner at the time had developed a technique for a possum-trapping friend for making thread from fur. Finding themselves without an income, they rented a shop in Port Chalmers for $10 a week and Seriously Twisted was launched in 2001.
Port Chalmers was a creative place and there were a lot of people who supported the venture.
The business grew to supplying 35 outlets around the world with Seriously Twisted designs but that was scaled down and Ms Irving concentrated on selling through her own retail store in the Octagon.
That decision, five years ago, was due to the bottom dropping out of the wholesale market.
There were many copies being made internationally, and she decided to focus on ''making in New Zealand for New Zealand''.
Ms Irving had no regrets about that decision, saying it had made it easier. To some extent, it was ''soul-destroying'', having to make 30 or 40 of each design to make a living, which hampered creativity.
It also provided an opportunity to stock other people's products; the rise of the possum-merino blend had been the ''big story'' of the last 15 years.
Describing possum as one of the world's best furs, she encouraged people to wear it, saying it was allowable when possums ruined bush and bird life. As it was a hollow fibre, it held the heat, so was ideal for warmth.
''It's a marriage made in heaven for the South Island.''
For years, Kiwis underestimated possum fur.
She wanted to show people ''what a beautiful high class-fur it is and claim it as an eco-statement''.
There was a shortage of possum pelts nationwide. Trappers were predominantly plucking possums, with the fur being lighter to carry out of the bush, while there had been an increase in demand for plucked fur due to increased demand for merino-possum fibre.
Some manufacturers of possum fur products were waiting months for enough pelts, but it was fortunate her fur content was only a small proportion of the finished product so she did not have supply issues.
Seriously Twisted was now a wholesale supplier to five stores around the country, with its biggest outlet the Dunedin store.
Ms Irving was now expanding the wholesale business again, with a new staff member and a rep on the road with the wholesale range.
A new range of coats had just been released and she was ''back creating again''.
It was a good feeling to have that balance back of being able to come up with a new colour or texture or design, while the retail store was run by Janine Weir.
Ms Irving's mother taught her to sew, knit and crochet but, but those talents ''hadn't been nurtured for a very long time''.
She got a lot of joy out of creating something that somebody loved and enjoyed wearing.
