"The sooner you start, the sooner you realise how much better it is to work for yourself"
Stephanie Roberts is the founder and director of The Melbourne Minute. Prior to launching The Melbourne Minute, Stephanie worked in corporate Australia as a financial accountant while completing her CPA. During this time, she became aware of a need for professional minute takers in Melbourne. As a passionate entrepreneur, Stephanie strives to ensure that The Melbourne Minute is the most trusted minute-taking business in Australia.
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Table of Contents
Thank you for joining us, please introduce yourself to our readers.
Stephanie Roberts: I am Stephanie Roberts, the Founder and Director of The Melbourne Minute and The Minute Taking Academy.
Can you tell our readers in what ways you are disrupting your industry?
Stephanie Roberts: We strive every day to highlight the importance of hiring an independent minute-taker to ensure that what is said in the boardroom, stays in the boardroom.
Did you become a disruptor by choice or by necessity? Tell us more about the journey.
Stephanie Roberts: Definitely by necessity. The industry was very small when I started The Melbourne Minute, while the important of corporate governance has only grown.
Now for the main focus of this interview: Many readers may wonder what are the biggest challenges women entrepreneurs must overcome to be successful?
Stephanie Roberts: Unfortunately as both a mother and entrepreneur, people who know can be incredibly unsupportive of the journey. I have been told that I should give up my business to be a stay at home wife by someone who I thought I was very close to, and these archaic views are so disappointing to hear in this modern world.
How did you overcome these obstacles? Who helped you during these difficult times and how did they?
Stephanie Roberts: I started another business, The Minute Taking Academy (https://www.minutetakingacademy.com.au/)!
I’m life you have to realise that the comments of unhelpful people will not pay the bills or help you realise your financial goals, and using negative comments in a positive way will only drive you further to success!
How did these lessons shaped the way you conduct business today?
Stephanie Roberts: After the last two years, the pandemic really meant that I was spending a lot of time working as i was always home. I now have boundaries and make sure that I have a specific day set aside for my family, and have cleared a day of my weekday to ensure that I can be mum for the day. But other than that, I will continue working my hardest to reach my goals.
What advice you wished you had received when you started, that you’d like to share now with aspiring women entrepreneurs?
Stephanie Roberts: Start now. The sooner you start, the sooner you realise how much better it is to work for yourself!
Out of all of your proudest moments as an entrepreneur, is there a particular one that stands out the most?
Stephanie Roberts: After being in business for 1.5 years, I had the opportunity to work with the UN! It still is a highlight of my companies history!
What do you plan on tackling during the 2022 year? Share your goals and battles you expect to face.
Stephanie Roberts: Getting my training business The Minute Taking Academy off the ground, hiring more staff and continuing to grow! I expect the staffing shortages being experienced in Australia might lengthen expansion plans.
I’m sure our readers will be very thankful for the insights you have shared. What is the best book you’ve gone through lately and please share some take away lessons from it.
Stephanie Roberts: The Secrets of The Rainmaker is actually quite an old book but is extremely relevant in modern business. It teaches you about how fear can negatively impact your ability to be successful and promotes the fact that life is meant to be about fulfilling your dreams. I highly recommend!
Thank you so much for your time but before we finish things off, I do have one more question for you. When was the last time you did something for the first time and what was it?
Stephanie Roberts: I hired a lady to help me with the laundry, and it was life changing. Outsourcing the tasks that stress you out as you can’t find time, is very worthwhile!
Jerome Knyszewski, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Stephanie Roberts for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Stephanie Roberts or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin
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