ManoMedia

Sam van Wieren, Bas Schipper, Nik Olieslager and Stijn Paludanus are entrepreneurs and students. In various combinations the students run three companies for web design, corporate identity and image management, and social media management. At first they did that literally from their student rooms, but recently they chose to rent an office at Business Centre in Breda.

Entrepreneurs and students

"We know each other from secondary school and our groups of friends, which partly overlap," says Sam. "Three years ago, alongside my studies at the TU in Eindhoven, I started several businesses such as a web shop." Bas and Stijn have also been running their company ManoMedia for a few years. At first as part of their studies, but it soon became more serious.

Rhythm in the day

The wish to rent an office was partly prompted by the corona pandemic, says Bas. "I live in a studio of 20 square metres and last year everything happened there: living, studying, working. At some point I really started to long for a tighter rhythm: get up, go to the office, come home again. That is one of the reasons we started looking for office space."

Stijn was also ready for a different flexible workplace. "Because of corona you are almost always at home, but that is not ideal for running a business. I knew Daniël Kandel, the owner of Business Centre, through acquaintances and asked if he had space for us. I am very happy we could get such a nice office where we can all work more productively and effectively."

Helping each other

The gentlemen have now been at Business Centre for about two months and so far they like it. Nik: "The people at the reception are friendly and it is handy that you can have parcels delivered. The meeting rooms are almost always available and spacious enough." Sam agrees. "Instead of working alone in your attic room, it is nice to sit here together with people with the same mindset. Once I had an appointment with a company that was not ready to work with me yet, but did want to do something about their website. I referred them to Stijn and Bas. That is how we help each other."

Introducing ourselves

Stijn, Bas, Nik and Sam can also add value for the other companies at Business Centre. Sam: "We have already introduced ourselves and left business cards, so people know we are here and that they can come to us with questions about online marketing or a website. It is also useful for us to know that there are lawyers and accountants in the building; we may knock on their doors in the future."

Future

With the move to an office at Business Centre, the students also feel they are 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. From here we can continue building our company and that feels good."