“It’s not about the hours, it’s about the passion”

Danica Fava CMgr MCMI’s business journey began, somewhat unexpectedly, at just 19. A business graduate, she’d been working in events as a post-college summer job when her now business partner came to her with an idea and asked her to run the company. She didn’t hesitate.

“I was young and I thought, ‘why not?’”

Danica is now business partner at Outdoor Living Malta, which delivers team-building activities for conferences and corporate events. It’s Malta’s longest-running and largest company in this sector, delivering corporate activities ranging from filming your own TV ad to organising a medieval tournament.

“It’s not easy for me to switch off”

Starting a company so young can be a blessing and a curse, Danica says. 

“Learning opportunities can be limited. You don't have these big bosses with many years of experience, so it’s learning by doing constantly. Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you get it wrong.”

But the upsides of starting a company from scratch can also be huge. Danica’s team is very close-knit. With a full-time team of six and a bank of freelancers, she says her management philosophy champions flexibility and a results-oriented approach. 

As a mother with family commitments, she’s also instilled an ethos of work-life balance into her team. 

“It’s not easy for me to switch off,” she says, “but I have a family, so I need time with my kids as well. I work around my kids and my team understands this. So none of us works a nine-to-five job. It’s not about the hours, it’s about what you give – it’s about the passion.”

That emphasis on passion extends to Danica’s approach to recruitment. “When I was younger, I thought that skills were everything. But now, when I employ people, I look for that passion.” 

Cultural compatibility is especially important in a small company, regardless of whether someone has the best skills for the job on paper. 

For Danica, it’s about working to maximise individual strengths. “None of us is perfect, but we all have things we’re better at than others.”

“You always need a backup plan”

Though her roots are in Malta, Danica has lived in the UK for the past 13 years, after her husband was offered a work opportunity. At the time, they had no children, but now they have two – aged 11 and 7 – born and raised in the UK.

Never one to shy away from a challenge, Danica decided to try leading remotely. 

“My home is my office and I have my team in Malta. I visit around four times a year,” she says. “When you work remotely, it actually involves a lot more communication, and you also need a lot of trust, so it can work in your favour.”