Next in our Delftian entrepreneur series, Delft MaMa Natalia Moreno sat down with Gemma Rubio, the energetic entrepreneur behind Define The Fine. Join us as Gemma talks about her business and how she strives for a healthy work-family balance, especially as a single mother.
Entrepreneurship is a common word to hear nowadays. When I graduated from my bachelor in 2006, starting your own business was something almost exclusive for people at the peak of their career, or at least that was the case in my circle of friends. Many of my classmates dreamed of having their own business. However, the commonly asked questions made them drop their dreams: How would I find clients? How could I make me and my business visible? How could I compete with experienced competitors? and most important, Where could I get the startup money?
Today, more than 10 years later, it seems that many more people dare to start an entrepreneurship and they do not wait until they are in their 50s to do so. But what does this long word, entrepreneurship, mean anyways? According to Wikipedia, entrepreneurship is the process of designing, launching and running a new business, which is often initially a small business. The people who create these businesses are called entrepreneurs.
In this post we interview a beautifully energetic Delftian entrepreneur, Gemma Rubio, the woman behind the marketing business Define The Fine. Gemma comes from sunny Valencia, Spain, and has been living in Delft since 2013. She is also a mother of two girls and amazingly combines full time work with sharing parenting duties with her ex-husband, who lives in Switzerland.
Determination
Everything started when Gemma moved to the Netherlands in 2013. Back home she had her own food packaging business with her partner. When the economic crisis hit Spain, she set her eyes on the Netherlands and decided to move to find a job that she liked: marketing. After all, she had studied for it (MS Business Administration and Marketing Management). Thanks to her determination, she found a job only a few days after her arrival in the Netherlands. She happily worked there for three years, however, the time came when she realized that she could no longer grow in that position. At the same time, she was constantly contacted through LinkedIn by people looking for her marketing expertise. She then decided to quit her job and start her own marketing business.
Define The Fine
Gemma is passionate about communication, user experience (UX) and marketing. The name of her business already tells what her business is about. She helps her clients to define and focus on their core business and from there determine how to get to know their clients better and how to establish a good communication with them. With this starting point, it is easier to re-brand a business or to create a strong brand. Although this is a one-person business, Gemma works in partnership with graphic and web designers to provide a complete package to her clients.
Define The Fine is an online/digital business, therefore you can find Gemma via LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and of course, on her webpage. She also provides consultancy and teaches about fundamentals of marketing, customer experience, consumer behavior and strategy. You can find some of her articles at the online community www.todostartups.com.
Gemma is a member of the Interaction Design Foundation and Innovagogia. She’s also involved in Google’s Women Techmakers community, Mujeres Líderes Americas, Women in Tech and Female Ventures. All of these associations stimulate the exchange of ideas and support women’s leadership, entrepreneurship and exchange of ideas in order to stimulate diversity in business and organizations. This summer she joined as a mentor in the Women in Tech NL 2019 program.
Stay focused and structured
The secrets for Gemma to maintain a healthy balance: staying focused on her goals and keeping a structured agenda. Every Sunday night she organizes her joint personal and work agenda for the week. Everything is written down, from business meetings to the kids’ schedules. She strives to divide her time in a way that work and family are in balance. She meditates for 15-20 minutes every morning and tries to start the day in the most relaxed way possible. Setting alarms to avoid overworking is also one of her tricks. Finally, even if the agenda is set for the whole week, she goes through it every morning, since things can change.
Gemma is definitely an inspiration to many. I asked her for advice to people considering entrepreneurship. Stay focused and structured, she says. Define what you want to do and why you want to do it. Do your research about your customers and find the best communication tool between you and your customers. Networking events are very important, to exchange ideas, broaden your network, and to learn. Most important for expats, these events will help you learn a lot about how Dutch people behave: learn from that and adapt as much as you can. And finally, Gemma says, “to start is not easy but if you keep working and keep the focus, you can do it as I did it! What you believe, becomes what you create.”
Want to read other posts in the Delftian Entrepreneurs series? Check out the posts about Renny Wiegerink of Auryn Acupunctuur en Advies voor vrouwen and Jie Li, aka the Cake Researcher. Want to read more posts by Natalia? Check out her post about Halloween traditions and an interview with the formerly local entrepreneur behind DULI.
Pingback: How to revamp your CV | Delft MaMa