Nederlands
ManoMedia
Sam van Wieren, Bas Schipper, Nik Olieslager and Stijn Paludanus are entrepreneurs and students. In various combinations, the five students run three companies for web design, corporate identity and image management and social media management. At first they did this literally from their student rooms, but recently they chose to rent office space at Business Centre in Breda.
Entrepreneurs and students
"We know each other through high school and our friend groups, which partly overlap," says Sam. "Three years ago, in addition to my studies at the TU in Eindhoven, I started various businesses such as a webshop." Bas and Stijn have also been working on their business ManoMedia for several years. First as part of their studies, but soon it began to take on more serious forms.
Rhythm in the day
The desire to rent an office space was partly prompted by the corona pandemic, Bas explains. "I live in a studio of 20 square meters and that's where everything played out in the past year: living, studying, working. At one point I really started to long for a tighter rhythm in the day: getting up, going to the office, coming home again. That's one of the reasons we started looking for office space." Stijn was also in need of a different workspace. "Because of corona you're almost always at home, but in terms of business that's not ideal. I knew Daniël Kandel, the owner of Business Centre, through the grapevine and asked if he had any space for us. I am very happy that we were able to get such a nice office where we can all work more productively and effectively."
Helping each other
The gentlemen have now been based in Business Centre for about two months and so far they like it. Nik: "The people at reception are friendly and it's handy that you can have packages delivered. The meeting rooms are also almost always available and spacious enough so that you can maintain sufficient distance." Sam concurs. "Instead of working alone in your attic room, it's nice to sit together here with people with the same mindset. For example, I once had an appointment with a company that was not yet ready to work with me, but wanted to do something about their website. I passed it on to Stijn and Bas. That's how we help each other."
Suggest
Stijn, Bas, Nik and Sam can also offer added value to the other companies in Business Centre. Sam: "We have already introduced ourselves and left business cards, so people know that we are here and that they can come to us with questions about online marketing or a website. In addition, it is useful for us to know that there are also lawyers and accountants in the building; we may be able to knock on their doors in the future."
Future
By moving to an office in Business Centre, the students are also taking a step towards the future. Stijn: "With ManoMedia we already notice that we are taken seriously as a company in a different way. It is different from running a business from your bedroom. We can continue to build our company from here and that feels good."
