MBR_ISSUE 53_JULY-compressed (3)

Malta Business Review
COVER STORY INTERVIEW
BEST OUTCOMES
By Martin Vella
For the first time MBR interviewed
Margaret Brincat, Director and Managing
Partner of MBR Publications Limited
about the company’s web and social
media rebranding, technology and female
entrepreneurship. MBR is dedicated
to reporting on the most recent trends
and influencers in the local business
community and various industry clusters,
while showcasing inspiring, passionate
women within the field. In the interview,
Margaret, gives an insight on the
company’s rebranding strategy and what
it means to be a woman entrepreneur.
MBR: What are the most significant
changes in social media you have seen in
the past few years, or even the past few
months?
MB: I shall start with the past few months–
Google continues to dictate how social
media performs, its popularity and its
advantages. Because search engines
are driven by the social media activity,
businesses are getting it. They have
stopped asking the question, why social
media? They just kind of went, oh, we have
to do it. In our case, it was a question of
where do we stand, where do we need to
go, how well is it done and what types of
best business practices exist? So, in the
last few months we just continued to see
the nuances evolve with search engine
optimization and quality content actually
valuing people who have a genuine
journalism background and we decided
that we need to rebrand our company
logo, our website, facebook page and
organise a better, pronounced presence on
social media platforms.
DRIVING THE
MBR: You co-founded the company with
Martin Vella, what are some difficulties
you faced as a female entrepreneur?
MB: I can think of about 100 things to tell
you, but I shall be direct. I have worked
assiduously for the last two employers
I was engaged with, staying late hours,
marketing them and giving my all, without
hardly being recognised for it. I look at them
and am like, you have financial backing, you
have had marketing education program,
you have been singled by your colleagues
and peers in the industry. Then Martin
Vella, the present Managing Director and
lifelong partner came along budding with
ideas and dreams. So it was natural to ask
myself how do I get to that next best point.
Martin was the key to that question, and
we are a team, wherein I have discovered
that your errors and omissions decrease,
your motivational level goes up and your
success ratio goes up. The encouragement,
as well as the trials and tribulations that
came with it all, helped me be where i am
today. I didn’t have any of that– I didn’t
even think about it.
I knew I needed to do something
different with my career. I knew I had
a bunch of skills and positive can-do
I wanted to pull on and bring into my
business. Actually, I didn’t think about it-
I have a really awesome person I am in
contact with 24/7. I always say to people,
make sure you have a great corporate
companion and a great money person,
like a great financial advisor, because you
cannot make a single decision about your
business without talking to your partneradvisor
every day.
MBR: What is your end goal?
MB: Being popular as a social media
influencer never converts. Having
something compelling to say that connects
you to your target audience in such a way
as to convey you “get” their pain points,
you have a solution, and you care… that’s
what converts. Trust converts.
Markets and social media evolve in
funny ways and successful companies
are companies that consist not of people
executing business plans well, but of sales
executives who are on the balls of their feet
and resilient, who can deal with adversity
and market changes and unanticipated
events. Good sales executives can figure
out how to seize those opportunities and
move around them.
Marketers today are challenged to become
knowledgeable technologists. It’s CMOs
today who are making purchasing decisions
on CDN (Content Delivery Network), not
the IT department. In a world of Digital
Transformation where companies must
become digital to the core or bust, the
rules have changed. Perceptions and
cultures are challenged, and the ‘who does
what’ lines are blurred. Today, a digitally
savvy c-suite and board are imperative to
withstand the futuristic winds and shifting
tide. The end goal is action not eyeballs!
MBR: For women who are thinking about
starting a business, what advice would
you give them?
MB: For women who are thinking about
starting a business, I would say, why stop?
I mean, women, we can conquer anything.
Look at everything we do on any given day.
We know how to run a business, we are
great with people and we are very intuitive.
If any woman has any doubt about starting
a business, I would say why would you even
question it? We are designed to divide and
overcome. We are designed to delegate. Why
would we even question that? If you have a
great idea and you feel like you divided it up
and you have figured out your pros and cons,
risk and rewards, you know how much time it
would take and you have the group, why stop?
Younger women are experiencing rapid
grown in their careers. They are realising
that they do not have to climb the ladder
like the generations before them had to.
I had the opportunity of working with a
lot of female executives that are older
than me and I have learned the value of
being respectable, asking them a million
questions about their career, understanding
the challenges that they faced and really
appreciating that I don’t have to deal with
that. Therefore, what’s happening is that
the catalysts that have gone on for the
younger generations is why young women
are having more success today. MBR
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