Meet Roberta Martin, an inspiring woman entrepreneur

In the “Off The Beaten Track” project, we want to promote networking, inspiration and empathy among women by sharing inspiring stories about female changemakers, and that’s why we decided to give voice to three successful women entrepreneurs. Today, let’s meet Roberta Martin, a perfect mix of passion, commitment, dedication and high values.

A woman promoting gender equality

Roberta Martin is an Italian woman who lives in Barcelona and is a passionate and dedicated woman entrepreneur. She is the founder and CEO of the consulting company Italia Business Point and the creator of D.E.S.Y.A.M. nonprofit organization. Roberta Martin believes in women’s power and is on a mission to promote gender equality, women’s empowerment, innovation and a more sustainable society across Europe. Despite the obstacles she has encountered, she built a successful company and now wants to share her knowledge and advice with other women who want to start their business.

Read the interview

Read the interview of Roberta Martin where she talks about her career as an entrepreneur, the obstacles she has encountered and gives advice to women. 

How did you start your career as an entrepreneur?

I don’t remember the exact date, but I think that at about the age of 8 I started to become passionate about the business world. During the summer, my paternal grandfather Umberto, who was a farmer, took me every week to the livestock markets and agricultural machinery markets in Oderzo (a small town in the province of Treviso, in northern Italy). As I didn’t go to school, he always took me with him, and what I am sure of is that I was the only child. Once, he wanted me to buy a little calf, alone and without any help.

Since then, to be able to run my business, I continued my education in business economics and I entered the professional association of accountants and tax experts in Spain (Colegio Profesional de Los Expertos Contables y Tributarios de España), of which I am a member.

At the beginning of 2008, I created and set up I.B.P. SL, a consultancy services company for SMEs (small and medium-sized companies).

What have been the main obstacles or barriers you have encountered in your career as an entrepreneur?

The obstacles have been those specific to those who are active in the business consultancy sector. We must remember that I created my company at a time when many consultancy/advisory firms were closing or resizing their projects in terms of structures, resources and human resources.

It was during the Spanish financial crisis (the “depresión económica Española”) between 2008 and 2014. To carry out the project, I started with one client and almost by myself with a table, a computer and a chair.

Those were my beginnings, without a clear idea of how I could move forward, but with the assurance that, if the business did not go well, closing down the company would not be a big waste, and, even more importantly, having the moral support of my family.

I started with only one client and without asking for funding or loans. At no time to this day have I ever had to ask for funding for my company. From the beginning, I.B.P. SL has grown in a controlled way and continues to grow with this philosophy. This has allowed me to successfully overcome moments such as the Covid19 pandemic because almost 90% of my clients operate in the HO.RE.CA sector ((HOtels, REstaurants and CAfes) and food distribution.

More than the typical obstacles that exist when starting a business project, I was a bit worried and that was related to the historical moment and to being a woman. My concern was related to the future, i.e., whether I would have been able to achieve my goals and thus reach the company I have today. What helped me is my perseverance, positive attitude, hope, thinking dynamically and, of course, believing in my capabilities. And not only that, to think about the evolution of my project, starting with small daily steps, without setting bigger goals than the ones I was sure I could achieve. I saw all the other obstacles as something I encountered along the way.

What professional success are you most proud of?

Surely having run I.B.P. SL with enthusiasm and success up to now, representing an important reference for my clients. I am proud of having achieved this with my effort, perseverance, discipline and commitment. 

What knowledge do you think you should have or would have liked to have before starting a business?

I believe I have the appropriate knowledge to be able to run a business, but if I could give a piece of advice, it would be to bear in mind that an entrepreneur is not trained only through school or a technical path. We need to be trained as human beings and above all to be truly aware of the people we are. In my opinion, beyond technical learning, it is fundamental to have a good human formation, focused on empowering the self in all aspects and favouring the development of our inner strength, that is to say, the ability to protect ourselves in the face of adversity while maintaining a positive and optimistic attitude.

With this objective in mind, I believe it is important to strengthen our leadership, favouring our empowerment:

1. HAVE A PERSONAL COACH: before starting a business, think seriously about what might be the most ideal time to have a personal coach to accompany us. This work will help us to align our principles, values, emotions, our most passionate parts and, above all, it will help us to remove an important part of our self-doubts.

Learning to take into account that being an entrepreneur means being involved in a path and a life experience that occupies at least 70% of our existence.

It is about considering it as a life project and, above all, being passionate about it, having a lot of fun and having fun, with positivity, faith, hope and courage, a lot of courage.

It is a long-distance race that will never be always straight, linear and clear, there will be moments of ups and downs. This is normal.

The important and basic thing will be to maintain our essence, to know ourselves well, to know our values, to proceed in small steps to increase them little by little and to reinforce our cognition of being able to realise projects, to know how to make the necessary changes, to make important decisions, etc. 

2. HAVE YOUR OWN METHODOLOGY, which includes creating and getting used to your own rules of action and control of how you are carrying out a project. It will be extremely useful in limiting risks and uncertainties that are very present and peculiar in the beginning.

Risks and uncertainties will always be present, but experience helps us to define and control them better.

Learning to manage time more efficiently, as we are multitasking and are sometimes much more committed than men.

There is not a single model of a good entrepreneur or a good leader and there is no need to imitate other models of “successful entrepreneurs o leaders” at all costs.

We must never lose our essence.

Women have good cognitive and creative capacities that help us to make decisions and plan in harmoniously, being able to achieve our goals.

3. DEFINE PROJECTS STARTING WITH SIMPLER OUTLINES AND MOVING ON TO MORE ARTICULATED ONES.

What professional advice would you give to your “younger self”?

To be confident in my abilities, which will be the ones that will accompany me and help me in life in general and in the profession.

To keep my body strong and my mind trained, and to get close to good and positive people.

TO BE HAPPY AND ABOVE ALL TO TRANSMIT IT TO OTHERS.

And, last but not least, not to forget about myself because I am the protagonist of my own life.

What advice would you give to a woman who wants to start a business or has just started her entrepreneurial career?

Premises (intrinsic recommendations):

• We are prepared and trained as men are and, in some aspects, even more so.
• We are more conciliatory, empathetic, communicative, passionate, and more inclined to relate to everyone and at all levels to carry out quality work.
• We believe in teamwork as well as in our working groups.
• We are convinced that culture is a qualitative lever for success in life and in our profession and that it is undoubtedly one of the most important added values to carry out our projects and to carry out projects and increase people’s well-being and quality of life.
• We bring a greater vision towards the future, giving value to everything that improves, that is innovative and creative, and that does not scare us of change if necessary.
• We can foresee and anticipate adversity, knowing how to be positive.
• We are very careful to respect and contribute to the protection of the environment and we have learned to use and recycle available resources without wasting them. We do the same with time, recycling it.
• That is why we are multitasking and able to multiply our dedication to the maximum, commitment, inspiration and advocacy skills.

We know how to have a complete view of things and situations and we do not focus only on achieving short-term or “quantitative” goals, we are careful to consolidate long-term results harmoniously and try to avoid major shocks.

Recommendations:

• Maintain your essence, know yourself well and know your values because it will allow you to make decisions aligned with your values, minimizing doubts and avoiding dissatisfaction.
• Subsequently, it is advisable to move forward step by step to strengthen the knowledge of the ability to carry out projects in a way that benefits self-esteem.
• Also, to be able to recognize one’s limits, which are not the same as those of men, so we must learn to play with other characteristics in our favour.
• If family is one of your values, there will always be time for this or that reality and you will know how to combine and complement them.
• Create social networks and be active in them, knowing how to show solidarity.
• This is the only way to strengthen your identity, self-confidence and credibility in today’s and tomorrow’s society, where the role of women will certainly not be the one that is still being promoted (mothers, wives and maybe a little bit more), but rather people who bring a new creative way of doing things and are indispensable to society. 

Do you want to share an inspirational phrase? (yours or some famous personality)

 “The world is in our hands” (El mundo está en nuestras manos) – Roberta Martin