Powerful Inspiration.
MaryBeth Smith has been in the corporate business world for nearly three decades. In addition to that, she is the founder and owner of Roundabout Catering — a company that has grown into seven business units, including Roundabout Grill, Tannenbaum Events Center, Roundabout Meal Prep and Party Rentals.
MaryBeth was one of 40 women who were recognized as Sierra Nevada’s Powerful Women at the 2nd annual awards by the Northern Nevada Business View. The top 40 finalists included women from a broad variety of professions representing several communities throughout the region.
“The word power means leader, mentor and teacher,” said MaryBeth. “It’s the ability to elicit change by working with others to achieve a common goal. It’s the ability to teach, direct and guide others to achieve greatness. It means mentoring and being a role model to others and leading by example.”
MaryBeth is the perfect balance of ingenuity and inventiveness for Chef Colin Smith in both marriage and business. Helping to grow the company through acquisitions and leadership, she is the backbone of the Roundabout organization.
She is a mentor, an extremely successful businesswoman; and has built Roundabout from the ground up mostly while maintaining a full-time career in the medical field and raising five children.
Her advice for small business owners? “Those that want to own their own food and beverage business need to understand it inside and out – because it can put you under quickly,” she said.
Although MaryBeth operates a tight ship, her caring attitude and natural business instinct has led the company into double-digit growth year-after-year. MaryBeth treats the staff like a family and empowers her team to believe what they can achieve.
“Many of the crew in the kitchen have been with us for 12 years,” she said. “We offer our staff financial power of the company within the employee program which has been beneficial to our consistent growth. Take care of your employees and they take care of you, I always say. I hire people who are better than I am.”
MaryBeth attributes the growth of Roundabout to the philosophy of paying all startup costs themselves without investors or the bank. She said you must also understand that you’re not an expert in every area and understand how necessary it is to outsource when it comes to certain services.
“For instance, outsource marketing to grow your business while you’re focusing on running it; outsource HR to ensure that things are handled correctly in every instance; outsource a good payroll company so you don’t get in trouble with taxes. We have seven separate business segments as single units – that way we can identify any labor or cost issues singularly.”
If you know MaryBeth, you know she has a sweet, generous soul, and yet is also a phenomenal business person. Whether she’s on the catering line serving up some delicious appetizers or behind her desk evaluating the numbers, her heart and soul are in everything related to the Roundabout company. She is an inspiration to us all.