Spotlight On: Belinda Roberts
Founder of WeDO Scotland
he second in our series of “A Day in the Life” features highlights a typical day for Belinda Roberts, founder of WeDO Scotland (formerly Winning Entrepreneurs), a members’ organisation for innovative entrepreneurs in the Edinburgh area.
Background
Belinda is originally from Helensburgh and has lived in and around Edinburgh for most of her adult life, bar time spent living and working in Paris, Nice and London. Having started her career in the recruitment industry, she subsequently moved into training and sold her sales and management training company 10 years ago. After a brief sojourn in interior design (fulfilling her love of shopping!) and landscaping (nice when the sun shone, miserable when it rained!), in 2008 she established Scotland’s leading collaboration members’ organisation for entrepreneurs, which has recently rebranded from Winning Entrepreneurs to WeDO (We Develop Opportunities) Scotland. At WeDO Scotland Belinda has the support of an Executive team of nine Ambassadors who assist her in connecting business owners and founders to support the growth of their businesses.
A Day In the Life
MORNING: By her own admission, Belinda is not a morning person; however, she is usually up by 7:30am and starts her day with the obligatory wake-up coffee before taking Horace, her blue roan cocker spaniel, along the Water of Leith for his morning walk. She checks her emails along the way before returning home to her iPad, to which she says she is umbilically attached. Breakfast doesn’t really happen unless she’s hosting an event, although she occasionally manages a bowl of Alpen.
The phone usually starts ringing by 9am and continues throughout the day, although having recently outsourced all the administration, social media and support to The Lifestyle Company, this will soon be changing. Having spoken to the team at TLC, it’s on to a meeting at Tigerlily with a potential member of WeDO to hear about their business and decide if they will fit in with the rest of the members. Montpeliers Group Edinburgh are partners in WeDO, so Belinda’s often found in Indigo Yard, Tigerlily or Ricks. Whilst she doesn’t have a name plaque yet, she does have a favourite table in each and the staff know her order of a tall decaf Americano without her even having to ask.
Next is a quick meeting with Jim Rae of Elevate Group, one of the Ambassadors in the Exec team, and it’s smiles all round plus more tasks added to the ever-growing ‘to do’ list as Jim passes on details of more people who want to join WeDO.
LATE MORNING/EARLY AFTERNOON: A rare treat (lunch doesn’t happen very often) – Belinda is meeting one of her numerous contacts to discuss a new business she has recently launched, The Networking Coach, which coaches executives in both on and offline networking skills. Next it’s on to a meeting with TLC to discuss the forthcoming WeDO Awards Ceremony and Dinner on the 24th of November at Ghillie Dhu. She’s loving the event management not being under her remit and is delighted with the fantastic job the girls are doing.
The final meeting of the day is a review meeting with Emily Walters of EW Multimedia, who is developing the new WeDO website, and Robin Mehta of Technology Consult, along with Colin Usher and Keith Paton of Bluemungus who are developing the WeDO App, which unusually will work on all mobile platforms to accommodate all the different phones the members have. The App is an integral part of the rebranding process and will enable members to communicate more easily with one another by locating fellow members who are in the surrounding area and available for a quick catch-up via GPS, as well as by allowing them to search by name and industry sector and view their LinkedIn profiles. What Belinda loves most about her job is the variety of each day and all the people she meets – she seems to have a remarkable knack for remembering names, but she’s not sharing her secret for doing so just yet!
AFTER WORK: At 6pm it’s off to one of the many events she attends (all in the line of duty, she assures us). At 8pm the work hat comes off and it’s time to relax by catching up with friends for drinks and a bite to eat, often at her favourite Chinese, Karen’s Unicorn. After a few glasses of Sauvignon Blanc and crispy shredded chicken with honey and chilli sauce, it’s back home to take Horace out for his final walk and make a last check of her emails on her beloved iPad. She rarely goes to bed before midnight, but when she gets there eventually she’s out like a light – not surprising after all she packs into an average day!
FUN BELINDA FACTS:
- She loves to relax by cooking – an afternoon spent in the kitchen preparing a meal for friends is her ideal switch-off. Her signature dishes are smoked haddock risotto finished off with a squeeze of lime, parmesan shavings and a poached egg, followed by chocolate and orange pots.
- She’s writing a book, but if it’s ever published, it’s going to have to be under a pseudonym in case anyone she knows recognises themselves!
- Belinda paints and does pencil Winnie the Pooh sketches, many of which adorn her nieces’ and nephews’ bedrooms.
- She loves playing tennis – her competitive spirit is always to the fore.
- She is a lover of shoes and has two large shoe carousels holding 18 pairs each (and that’s still not enough room, apparently), as well as her collection of 14 pairs of boots.
0 Comments
Be the first to comment!