In Your Shoes - Wendy Maltman

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Wendy Maltman FRSA is the Founder and Creative Director of The Malting House. A prize-winning, honours graduate of leading design school, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Wendy has made it her ambition to champion the benefits of good design.

An early career with some of Scotland’s leading agencies inspired her to set up her own studio in 2003 offering a professional graphic design, marketing and communications service to businesses, charities and organisations across a wide range of sectors in Scotland and around the world. As part of Business Gateway’s Expert Help team, Wendy and her colleagues support many start-up and growth businesses throughout Dundee, Angus and Perthshire.

Wendy is a Fellow of the RSA and a Burgess of the City of Dundee. She is President Nominee of the Rotary Club of Dundee with responsibility for Youth Engagement. Wendy is also a member of the Museums Association and Vice Chair of Dundee Museum of Transport.

In December 2019, Wendy was inaugurated into the Dyer Craft of the Nine Incorporated Trades of Dundee, as only the second female member in its 500-year history.

www.themaltinghouse.co.uk 

Doggy dates and downtime…

I’m woken early by Beau my 7 month old Cavapoo and we start the day with “Puppy Playgroup”, an hour of madness in Invergowrie park where 20 young doggies ‘socialise’ while their human ‘parents’ look on in slightly terrified bewilderment …

I head to Perth to meet my business partner Debbie at our doggy-friendly premises in WASPs Creative Exchange and we set out for a walk in the nearby North Inch, with ‘office manager’ Daisy and her young apprentice Beau. We use the time to chat through our application for the upcoming Association of Scottish Businesswomen’s National Business Awards.

Picking up strawberries at Arbuckles on the way, and freshly made scones from The Post House, I drive over to Alyth for another doggy date with Ben Bear, an 11 week old Tibetan Terrier. After a busy week it’s lovely to get some downtime and to relax with friends.

Hanging out with the bikers!

Sundays usually have a slower pace with church online in the mornings. However, the schedule is different this week, so I head to Dundee Museum of Transport where I am Vice Chair of the board. It’s been a challenging time for the museum sector but we reopened in April with a new brand design and engaging website and the future is looking promising.

We have our Motorcycle Meet-up today and I spend some time chatting with our brilliant volunteers and some of the visiting bikers. The fine weather has ensured a great turnout with over 250 bikers attending from groups all over Scotland. I take some photos for the museum’s website and social media before leaving to join Gate Church for their Zoom call at 3pm. I’ve been a member since my student days so it’s lovely to catch up with church family that I have known for many years.

“If you fail to plan, plan to fail!”

With many plates spinning, I’m a little obsessive about organising my time. I use the Productivity Planner by Intelligent Change to prioritise important tasks for the week.

After catching up on emails, I update a client mailing list with new sign-ups from their website and prepare their regular e-newsletter for publication. I spend much of the day working on a logo design and letterhead for a new client, and I check the artwork for an annual review for an international development agency before sending it out for approval.

Beau keeps me company in our studio, in the heart of Dundee’s cultural quarter, whilst the rest of the local team continue to work from home. We get out at lunchtime for some fresh air and a waterfront.

A late evening swim at the Apex Spa is the perfect way to relax and wind down after another full and productive day.

“That’s rather smart” Her Majesty The Queen

We had our weekly Team Meeting today. It was good to catch up with Debbie, Lorne and Ramanee to chat through all our live projects and upcoming work.

Later, I had a call with one of our London-based clients to discuss their website. As accredited Wix Partners we work with businesses all over the UK, and internationally, providing support, and helping them get their websites looking and working the way they want them to.

At 6pm I met up with Women Ahead committee members Alison and Caroline for a lovely walk through Tentsmuir Forrest, before picking up a fish supper from the Tailend and heading back to the studio to finish off some work.

A late email from a client made my day – a video link showing Her Majesty The Queen unveiling a plaque I had designed for the opening of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders Museum at Stirling Castle!

Upskilling, invoicing, interviews and board meetings….

This morning I supported Debbie and, our in-house digital media specialist, Ramanee as they delivered an informative online workshop on “How to be savvy with your social media”.

The end-of-the-month invoicing session was followed by an interview with a recent graduate for a junior marketing role. As a female-led business, we recognise the challenges many women face throughout their lives and are passionate about supporting them at all stages in their careers.

We do our best to keep our skills up to date so in the afternoon I joined a training session with Wix looking at optimising “core web vitals” – or how to implement best practise to make your website run more efficiently!

To round off a busy day I had the monthly board meeting for the transport museum this evening. We discussed progress on planning and fundraising for our ambitious move to the Maryfield Tram Depot.

New year and new role

After a call with a client to discuss their business launch marketing strategy, I headed over to the Caird Hall for my Covid vaccination...

I have a regular Rotary commitment on Thursdays and whilst we are still unable to meet in the Invercarse Hotel for our lunchtime gatherings we have a Zoom call instead. It’s the first day of the Rotary calendar, with former Courier journalist Andy Argo taking the chair as president in our centenary year. I’m stepping up into a new role as President Nominee in a two-year lead in to being president in 2023/24. I’ll be the 100th president of the club, and only the second female to hold the esteemed position!

I spend much of the afternoon redeveloping a website for a business that has recently rebranded and I have a catch-up meeting with another client to discuss their social media strategy and plan for the coming month.

Deadline day!

I worked from home today with the first task being to send out artwork for the DACC Quarterly Economic Indicator brochure and PowerPoint presentation to be checked ahead of the Chamber event next Tuesday.

Following a recent restructure of the business to allow for growth, I took some time this morning to do some training on our new cloud-based accountancy software – everyday’s a schoolday!

Ramanee and I met on MS Teams to discuss a marketing proposal for a new client, and I had a call with one of our website clients to chat through progress on their site ahead of the launch next week.

I spent the remainder of the afternoon editing a video for our ASB Awards application and gathering testimonials to support our submission from our clients Gleneagles Hotel, and Business Gateway, where we provide Expert Help in marketing and branding to their start-up and growth clients.