Hearts owner Ann Budge says the challenges of the last year have taken her out of her comfort zone but the club is going in the right direction.

Budge chaired her fourth annual general meeting, during which the club's shareholders heard the costs of stadium redevelopment have risen to £15m.

More funds have been gifted by benefactors, however, taking the total from the anonymous group to £4.5m towards the construction.

After the AGM, the businesswoman shared her thoughts on a year that has included the rebuilding of the club's main stand and the replacement of Ian Cathro with Craig Levein in the Hearts dugout.

Cathro's time at the club as the youngest head coach in Scotland ended in disappointment after a run of poor results.

After an initial search for a replacement, director of football Levein returned for his second spell as manager.

The change came as complications and delays affected the work on the new stand.

Budge told STV the situation was different to what she usually encountered in business.

"It's up there [with my most challenging years in business]," she said.

"I can tell you the very early days of setting up my own business where there are long hours and not much money, there were challenges and worries.

"This year was different. Maybe just because I was out of my comfort zone.

"In all the years I was in IT I did a lot of things. I bought companies, I opened offices, did all sorts of things but I think I always felt slightly more in control."

She added: "With this one clearly the football side has its ups and downs and we have to deal with that as and when.

"We're still trying to run our core business so everything that we've been doing for the last three years we've still got to keep doing and then on top of that you've got this pressure.

"And it was pressure, to a certain extent self-inflicted because of the very aggressive timescale that we decided to go for, but I don't think I regret that because it would have been pressurised anyway.

"It would just have gone on for a bit longer."