Brilliant Work celebrates its 7.5-year anniversary:
interview with Lizanne Jakobs (founder)
”I lived in the UK for a long time, and I had already started coaching there,’ says Lizanne Jakobs, founder of Brilliant Work. ‘Upon returning to the Netherlands in 2014, I noticed that there wasn’t a business coaching agency that truly provided all-round support for freelancers, SMEs, managers, and teams. And almost no one worked with subsidies back then. So, I just started doing it myself.”
Lizanne started working as a business coach 13 years ago in the UK. ‘My eldest child was born, and I was looking for something closer to home where I could still use my business knowledge. I also worked with subsidies as a coach there. When I returned to the Netherlands, I naturally did some market research, and it turned out that there were already around 100,000 coaches and advisors. But most of them couldn’t make a living from it; they did it on the side,’ Lizanne explains. ‘Because I had the knowledge and experience from the UK, I started looking for subsidies. That’s when I thought, ‘I’m just going to try it.”
”I started cloning myself”
”Initially, I wanted to start for myself to provide myself with work,’ Lizanne explains. ‘Soon after founding Brilliant Work, I decided that I wanted more of an all-round company in the sense that I wanted to offer coaching in all areas, such as start-up coaching, marketing, leadership, sales coaching, etc. I have quite broad work experience myself, but I also wanted to offer services for things I couldn’t do, like HR and digital marketing,’ she explains.
”I then started looking for people who specialized in those areas, like Martine Pauw in HR. But I also wanted to attract people who, like me, have broad experience. ‘You have to clone yourself,’ someone once told me. Ivar van Asten and Willem van Putten are good examples of that: they are also all-round coaches and advisors with a lot of international experience.”
”Our clients often have more than one challenge.”
”The clients we have also don’t want to go to 12 different agencies when they’re looking for business coaching. They often already have an accountant here and a lawyer there, and then they’d like the coaching and advice to be arranged by one agency,’ Lizanne explains. ‘For the client, it’s especially convenient that they can find everything under one roof with us. They can then more easily vary in which coach and type of coaching they want. And also use a subsidy budget with multiple coaches covered by it.”
”Clients often come to us with one specific wish or problem, such as increasing their turnover or exporting. But as we go along, it often turns out that there are more wishes or pain points, such as the atmosphere in their team or how they are going to boost their productivity.”
Every beginning is difficult, and that was true for Lizanne too
”In the beginning of entrepreneurship 13 years ago, I found the dealings with the tax authorities particularly difficult: how does VAT work, tax returns, and keeping your own accounts? I could get quite nervous when I received another letter from the tax office,’ Lizanne recounts. ‘I think this applies to many startups: how do you ensure your financial administration is well-organized? Fortunately, during my coach training at Ology, I had several people I could always call.”
”Actually, my passion for coaching and advising stemmed from one of my previous jobs. As a Territory Manager at Hyster & Yale forklift trucks, I visited various distributors. From Poland to Malaga, I went to see them, and there I not only saw cultural differences but especially how they had organized their businesses, for example, their inventory purchasing,’ Lizanne explains.”
”Here, it’s crucial that the departments collaborate well with each other, but also that there’s logical thinking within the company. If you think carefully, you know exactly what you need in stock when you look at the number and type of forklifts you service for customers in your area. It works the same way for other companies: if all processes and objectives are optimally organized and there’s good communication, it’s more enjoyable, less stressful, and the company is more profitable.”
Difficult & fun clients
”Difficult clients, for me, are clients who are not open to change,’ Lizanne explains. ‘It’s very easy to point to the economy or your staff and say, ‘it’s not my fault at all.’ You yourself, as a director or manager, really have to want to see what your role is in the whole picture. Clients who say, ‘just give me 10 tips,’ that doesn’t work. I also find clients who say in advance, ‘that’s not possible here,’ difficult: business coaching really has to come from both sides.”
”I find clients fun when multiple issues are at play. So, for example, a company with multiple departments and more complex business processes,’ Lizanne explains. ‘And of course, I like clients who are open to coaching; who really get to work with it after your visit.”
”I still have some goals myself”
”A coaching trajectory is successful when a client has achieved their own goals. I personally find it very rewarding to bring out the goals poster, which we work with a lot, from the beginning of the process and say, ‘look: this is what we’ve achieved.”
Where does Lizanne herself want Brilliant Work to be in 7.5 years? ‘I actually hope that in 7.5 years, we’ll still be doing what we’re doing now. I do hope that new clients will find us even more easily and will also be more aware that there is a lot of subsidy available for coaching and advice. I myself would still like to write a book about good entrepreneurship. But I really hope to have written that much sooner than 7.5 years from now,’ she says with a laugh.
Lizanne has three more tips for entrepreneurs:
- You really need to look at what you’re good at and, at the same time, whether anyone is actually waiting for it. Sometimes there’s too much competition for a certain service or product, and then it costs more energy than it yields. Look for something that people are waiting for.
- Your balance between thinking and doing needs to be right. Some people spend 10 years in their shed brooding over a physical product or endlessly thinking about their logo. They go bankrupt because they have no revenue. You also have people who are only ‘doing’ things, but they get burnt out or can never grow because they are always too extensively occupied without thinking about strategy or growth.
- Learn to deal with setbacks: as an entrepreneur, you really need to be able to handle setbacks. Sometimes things don’t go as planned, or the work isn’t as enjoyable anymore. You’re definitely allowed to be upset for a while, but then you have to do something to address the situation. Don’t dwell on it! As the English say: when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.
