Míriam Florido Bas holds a diploma in Business Sciences from the University of Vic and a degree in Business Administration and Management from the University of Vic - Universitat Central de Catalunya (UVic-UCC), from the 2001 and 2011 classes, respectively. From Sant Vicenç de Torelló, she started working as a freelancer and currently runs the management company Thot Gestió, which is specialized in accounting and tax consultancy and offers personalized services. We talk to her to gather her impressions as an undergraduate student at UVic and her experience as a female entrepreneur.
Why did you decide to study Business Sciences?
I was doing a Hairdressing training cycle and dedicated myself to it, I was independent and I didn’t want to continue studying at the start. After finishing the cycle, I found out that the degree in Business was taught at night, which allowed me to work during the day, and I thought that numbers might suit me. So the deciding factor was as simple as the schedule and luckily I made the right decision.
And what pushed you, once you had finished these studies, to continue with the degree in Business Administration and Management?
In fact, several years passed between the courses, I continued to work, I became a mother. When I decided to study Business Administration and Management (ADE), I had already opened my own agency for administrative work and this professional project was an incentive to obtain another qualification. To collaborate with the Tax Office and the Social Security Office, you must have minimum credentials, which is what pushed me to study again, so to speak.
“I have many friendships from those years. There was a lot of cooperation between us, since we had similar profiles and many of us worked and studied at the same time”
How do you remember your time at UVic and what do you value most about it?
Maybe I’m not very objective when I say this, because I haven’t studied at any other university, but I think I’m right to say that the number of students per classroom at UVic allows for very personalized attention: you have everything within reach, and the contact and dynamics with the teachers is very easy. In fact, I am still in contact with some of the teachers who remember our year of Business Sciences students as a very nice group. I have many friends from this group, and I remember that there was a lot of support and cooperation between us, since we had similar profiles and many of us combined work and studies. In contrast, the type of students on the Business Administration and Management degree was very different. They were younger than me and were not working. Naturally, I didn’t end up making that many friends there, but the ones that I did make, I remember fondly.
What was your path in the business world?
When I was studying Business, I started looking for jobs related to this field, part-time, basically to gain experience. Little by little I felt more comfortable, and new jobs came my way, with more responsibility, better pay. This increased my professional and personal value. And then the recession of 2008 came, the company where I worked closed down and, I still don’t know how, word got around that I was unemployed and companies started contacting me asking me to work with them. It was at that time that I decided to start my own business. That's how I started, without an office, just with my laptop and in a context that may seem incomprehensible: everyone was closing down and I was being asked to manage companies... but I kept going and, suddenly, everything took off.
“That's how I started, without an office, just with my laptop and in a context that may seem incomprehensible: everyone was closing down and I was being asked to manage companies”
And that's when you created Thot Gestió, your own company?
It was in 2012. Three very hard years had passed, not only for me, of course, but on a global scale, and for society, because we were in the middle of a recession. In my case, I entered a market that was at rock bottom and I had to prove that I was good. It was hard... but 2015 was a turning point and the company boomed. Now we have an office in Manlleu and we are three people, one of whom is my sister and the other is a former classmate from the Business course. Sometimes there are strokes of luck.
In a sector like consultancy, how do you differentiate yourself from others, be original or singular?
We work on tax and accounting issues, but with a considerable level of personalization. One of our strengths, and one that I think our customers appreciate the most, is that we solve any problem as quickly as possible, with guarantees so that they don’t have to worry about it once they have transferred it to us.
El cuquet de l’emprenedoria ja l’havies tingut sempre?
No... de fet, en cap moment, mentre estudiava Empresarials, m'havia plantejat muntar una empresa pròpia. Però sí que crec que les aptituds necessàries per ser emprenedora sempre les he tingut, la voluntat de desenvolupar coses a partir d’idees que em sorgien... El que passa és que en aquell moment, o en aquella època, no era conscient que allò volia dir ser emprenedora.
Have you always had an entrepreneurial spirit?
No. In fact, when I was studying Business, at no time did I considered setting up my own company. But I do believe that I have always had the skills needed to be an entrepreneur, the desire to develop things from ideas that come to me. But at that time, or in that period, I was not aware that this meant being an entrepreneur.
What are these essential skills to be an entrepreneur?
You need to have attitude and want to do it, a lot of discipline and a lot of perseverance. Having knowledge, going through university, is important, but it doesn’t teach you everything. You have to find opportunities and wise up to reach solutions to the problems or situations you find yourself in, because you can’t know how to do everything all the time. With time and work come personal and financial rewards. However, I am also convinced that not everyone is suited to be an entrepreneur, nor to be an employee. Everyone has to find the place where they fit.
What are the main difficulties in starting a business?
Not having the right attitude is one of them. The other, especially in some sectors in which the initial investment has to be very big, is not having sorted out the economic aspect. In my case it was not like that, since I started with a computer and from home.
“To students who want to start a business, I would tell them not to give up, to create a solid project and to give themselves time, because the numbers will work out right, but it’s very hard at the start”
What would you say to current Business students who are thinking of starting a business?
I would tell them not to give up, and to create a solid project with good foundations. And to give it a while, because the numbers will work out right, but it’s very hard at the start. Also, above all, I would tell them to start a business with their hearts, doing something they are really passionate about, but to work with their heads.
You have recently started teaching on a Teknós training cycle. What has it been like to come back to UVic after so many years?
Sometimes I can't believe it, that now I'm the teacher. It makes me very happy and I feel at home, because at UVic I spent some very intense years that were wonderful at the same time. In fact, I have just started teaching and I am only doing one subject of the Professional Campus on Business and Entrepreneurship for two training cycles that come together in my classroom. Of course... today’s students are very different from when I was studying: values, respect and attitude have changed a lot.