Bakery | 4 years with Young Startup

Remco Beekman’s desire for working independence began at an early age. For as long as he could remember, this succesful baker wanted to run his very own company – first having his sights set in the transport industry, before his passion for all things cuisine led to him having dreams of opening his own restaurant.

After successfully completing a hotel school course, Remco spent some time working in various roles. “I gained five years of experience in business,” he explains. However, the step towards entrepreneurship did not happen until Remco’s girlfriend at the time and her father convinced him to take the plunge.

“They were both real entrepreneurs,” remembers Remco. “They had a beautiful family business. With great admiration, I listened to their stories, choices and dilemmas.” After some serious conversation, the pair motivated Remco to quit his job and follow his dream of entrepreneurship. Company formation soon followed, and Brabantsche Worstenbroodjes BV was born.

Remco’s company makes sausage rolls for all tastes. In addition to sausage rolls baked to a traditional recipe, Brabantsche Worstenbroodjes BV also specialises in chicken, vegan, lactose-free and gluten-free variations. Remco is also insistent in putting a regional or seasonal spin on things from time-to-time: “We create truffle around Christmas and asparagus in the spring.”

In addition to putting a unique spin on a culinary classic, Remco is also committed to helping those who often face barriers when trying to get on the job ladder:

“We work with a large share of colleagues who struggle to get a regular spot in the current labour market,” explains Remco. “Colleagues who are deaf, have autism or who find it difficult to work for other reasons can often work for us. We are proud that 25% of our workforce consists of these talents!”

Yoga | 1 year with Young Startup

For the past 12 years, Noëlle Sterk has been making yoga a considerable part of her lifestyle – both personally and through the creation of her business, De Tempel. Following a career in radio, she made the leap to freelancing and teaching but soon found that she was losing precious time on the physical side of her career.

As Noëlle explains, “I found that I was always lugging things around. Furnishing for an event here, a tent with stuff there. With my yoga mats to the beach. And back again.”. From her ambition, and drive to create her own space, De Tempel was born. With the support of Young Startup, the vision could become a reality – transforming an everyday space into a centre of spirituality, passion and love.

While Noëlle’s 12 years of experience celebrating the world of yoga are nothing to sniff at, before De Tempel she spent a great deal of her time “teaching and freewheeling”. Over time, she saw the need for a more permanent fixture in the community, swapping out yoga retreats for a real-life space that she could fully commit to. As she explains, De Tempel was created from a place of love: “where everything would come together under one roof. Where we would celebrate connectedness instead of making war on differences. I did not know what that would look like exactly, but it would be a very nice, warm place where people would feel at home”.

Originally De Tempel was planned to be a collaboration between Noëlle and a good friend but she ended up doing it solo. While difficult, she stood up to the challenge and aimed to make De Tempel all she dreamed of – a space filled with passion, supported by Young Startup to ensure its success from the offset.

Gym | 5 year with Young Startup

The 9-5 life is not for everybody. For Tobias Krone, disaffection with his own health and frustration in his previous job role led to a pathway towards entrepreneurship, from which the personal trainer and conditioning expert has never looked back. At first, Tobias started offering personal training sessions for just one day per week, with some sporadic evening work thrown in for good measure. However, as business began to improve, he decided to go full-time: “when I didn’t have any hours left I finally made the move” explained Mr Krone.

The enthusiastic personal trainer heads up his own firm, Tobias Krone Strength and Conditioning, which offers fitness tutoring on a one-on-one basis, as well as in group sessions.

“I give personal training and strength and fitness training to small groups” says Tobias: “in addition, I treat people with muscle complaints – think of neck and back complaints. This combination allows me to serve my customers optimally.”

The concept behind the company is to offer high-quality physical training sessions in a friendly yet focused environment, where everybody is made to feel welcome. Tobias uses his own personal drive to help his patrons attain their goals: “I go for results and expect the same of my customers.”

In a crowded market, Tobias knew he would have to adopt a different approach in order to make a success of his business, and has distinguished himself with a unique selling point:

“I don’t just focus on groups of people who want to lose weight. This is of course the largest target group [in the industry], but I can also help people with injuries or motivation problems. Every training session becomes personal and that is how you achieve the best results.”

Design studio | 8 year with Young Startup

Young entrepreneur Mick Keus has a passion for fashion. While Mr Keus has a keen flair for designing and creating custom-made vintage Levi’s 501 jeans, it wasn’t until getting involved with Young Startup that the budding artisan realised that he could further transform his talent into a full-time career.

“The idea originated and was there without me realising it – doing what I enjoyed and further developing the idea I had in mind” explained Mr Keus. The next logical step was to form a business: “to turn my idea into reality, entrepreneurship was the only option.”

Mick’s company MICKKEUS is the only one of its type that customises jeans in such inimitable style. The business employs three other permanent colleagues and is further bolstered via the help of interns.

While the designs might be unique and eye-catching enough to light up the trendiest venues in Amsterdam, Mick is surprisingly low-key when explaining his vision: “the concept behing MICKKEUS is a durable pair of trousers for a fair price with the best service.”

Since forming, Mick’s company has gone from strength-to-strength and his creations have featured heavily on the blogosphere whilst also garnering attention on social media sites like Instragram.

While MICKKEUS continues to enjoy success both locally and internationally, Mr Keus has no intentions of resting on his laurels. While he admits “how we are doing now is great”, the young entrepreneur also has a future vision for the company which will focus on slow-and-steady growth, with Mick hoping to “sell more online and grow within the limits” of a company which offers such a bespoke service.

Office space | 5 years with Young Startup

When the sales expert Arnoud Kuipers was given the opportunity to become his own boss, he didn’t need any extra encouragement. With his company 123aftersales, he helps self-employed people and SME’s to improve and increase their customer base, and ultimately grow their business. In November 2018 he was proclaimed “entrepreneur of the month” by a county election. An enthusiastic startup, motivational speaker, trainer and writer of the book “In 10 steps from customer to ambassador” Arnaud works from a sought after location in the center of town.

Arnoud encourages his customers to take after-sales to new heights. He does this by helping them understand the importance of after-sales through his training and lectures. Together with his clients, he devises and implements new strategies to make their company more desirable, both to do business with and to work for. Arnoud’s goal is to turn customers and employees into ambassadors for your company and in his book he explains how you can achieve this in 10 steps. The right after-sales strategy is a crucial part of this.

From his beautiful Young Startup workplace, Arnoud devises his strategies during office hours. He also prepares his training and lectures here and by turning his training workshops into a fully immersive experience is seen as one of the top after-sales experts out there. His ethos is centred around promoting motivating and inspiring messages and knowledge sharing in the field of customer experience, customer loyalty and after-sales.

According to Arnoud, the biggest advantage of running your own business is the freedom it gives you. And it is this freedom that allows him to closely monitor the balance between his private life and work life. “It is easy to work 80 hours a week when it’s your own business, but I usually stick to office hours,” Arnoud said. Visitors are always welcome to come and join me for a cup of coffee during these office hours, but evenings are my own.

Design studio | 3 years with Young Startup

Kosmo, one of FAIR2 Media’s owners, has always had an entrepreneurial streak, having gone straight into self-employment after completing his studies. Explaining his philosophy on work, the young businessman said: “our starting point is that you must do work that you enjoy; we have a company because we like it, get energy out of it and enjoy it.”

“That of course does not mean that it is always a party. Sometimes there are difficult periods. Just like everyone else, we also have to work on good communication and co-operation.”

After pitching his ideas to friends Matthias and Margo, the two swiftly joined the company, with further staff being added at a steadily increasing pace. By 2019, FAIR2 Media had become a fact.

It’s fair to say that innovation is at the heart of everything FAIR2 Media does. The firm creates concepts, develops prototypes and designs products with both physical and digital components.

“We help clients find a solution to their problem” explains Kosmo: “not everybody has a clear picture immediately. Our work consists of designing, programming, electronics, graphic work, carpentry, being able to work with laser cutters, 3D printers, circular saw, paint and a photo studio. Sometimes we take the sewing machine for the finishing touch, or the soldering iron or welding machine. Or whatever it takes to make the best product.”

This multi-faceted approach is one that has served FAIR2 Media well: “our entrepreneurial goal is slow but steady growth” explains Kosmo: “perhaps a team of about 15 people who can each earn a good income from the company”.