Studio Spreekwoord utilised the expertise of our starter and business coach Marco Gorselink via Brilliant Work, and now its founders, Yvette Haas and Debbie de Munnik, have a firm grip on the (entrepreneurial) reins. “We’re creatives who come up with 100 concepts a day. Our coach Marco asked the right questions: ‘Who are your clients, really?’ and ‘Do those ideas align with your goals?’ Without coaching, we’d be less stable as a company now. We can do a lot ourselves, but it’s good to be able to test ideas with someone who also asks critical questions.”
‘Support from a business coach provides stability’
Proverbs as a tool
The young company from Nijmegen develops walks for municipalities and recreation entrepreneurs where proverbs form the common thread. Using language as a medium, Yvette and Debbie tell the story of a city or tourist location in an accessible, playful way, especially to young families. Besides walks, they organise workshops for both children and adults. Proverbs are also central there, for fun, for learning, and as food for thought; are you biting off more than you can chew? Are you going somewhere with lead in your shoes?
‘Walk Your Own Path from Your Own Mat’
Coach Marco Gorselink of Brilliant Work guided the young entrepreneurs through a coaching programme. “Start-up entrepreneurs have many questions about leadership, communication, how to generate sufficient income, how to hire staff, which strategic collaboration partners they want/need to engage with, and so on. The Flemish coach Jan Bommerez says about programmes and projects: ‘begin with the end in mind.’ I always ask at the beginning: what result do you wish for?
“I guide 9 sessions: the first 3 are about identity, direction, and your added value. The second part of the session focuses on objectives and actions. You need to know why you’re doing something, otherwise you’ll remain unstructured and without focus.” Marco refers to the so-called Golden Circle model. “Many companies can state what they do and how they do it, but not why. Debbie and Yvette do what they enjoy, and they want to convey that enjoyment to their clients. I summarise the first 2 parts as: ‘walk your own path from your own mat’. It’s not perfect Dutch, but it sounds good. For Studio Spreekwoord, the ‘mat’ is enjoyment, and the ‘path’ is bringing that enjoyment to the client. Once the foundation is solid, we move on to brainstorming in the third part.”
Balancing working ‘on’ and ‘in’ your business
Marco: “Many companies are excellent in their field, they have expertise, but mission and vision are also important. I call that the balance between ‘on’ and ‘in’: working on your business and in your business. With my business administration and psychology background, I have an affinity for both the hard and soft sides of entrepreneurship.”
The entrepreneurs agree: “The combination of the ‘people person’ with the pragmatic business administrator; that’s good. We’ve brought in focus, and the financial part has also become clearer. It’s good to know that things are going well, because you can test it against a certain target figure or amount, or the number of assignments. Our direction is also clear. We’re not a proverb agency, but more of a concept agency, a creative agency. That insight came thanks to Marco, because we spent so much time on who we are, what we do, what we want to project, and what our distinguishing feature is. It felt a bit like scattered shots, now it makes sense. You’re certainly allowed to take a different turn once you’ve set a direction; you then do it consciously.
The die is cast
How did Yvette and Debbie come up with the idea for Studio Spreekwoord?
Yvette: “I teach at the HAN, on the ‘Entrepreneurship and Retail Management’ programme. When students asked what my entrepreneurial dream was, I had to think of a dream I’ve had since I was 18: a proverb museum, where you can ‘go to bed with the chickens’, ‘wash a piglet’, and ‘come straight to the point’. But setting up a museum isn’t just something you do. The students’ question did make me think: how can I do something different with proverbs? That’s how the concept of a city route came about, where the ‘bullet flies through the church’ and ‘hot cakes fly off the counter’, and then the ball started rolling.”
Debbie: “Yvette and I worked together for years and remained friends afterwards. When Yvette asked me to design the route booklet – I have a background in communication and design – I was immediately enthusiastic. Not only about her ideas, but also about creating something beautiful together again. We quickly realised: we want to do this more often. One assignment led to another, and now we’ve been going for 2.5 years already.”
Future
The women clearly see their “dot on the horizon”: “We want to be the creative agency for companies that want to make their location more enjoyable for visitors, whether it’s a campsite, restaurant, or library. We want to add a fun experience for guests, a pleasant place where families connect and have a lot of fun together. Proverbs make language more fun, and we make places more fun.”
Do you, as a start-up entrepreneur, also dream of no longer being adrift but having the reins firmly in your own hands? Then feel free to contact us without obligation.
Are you also a start-up entrepreneur in the province of Gelderland, or a cultural entrepreneur in Overijssel (registered with the Chamber of Commerce for no longer than 5 years)? Then it’s even possible to work with a coach with the help of subsidies!
