When I click on your profile on Linkedin, I immediately notice that you are involved with multiple companies. How does that work exactly?
“Haha, yes that's right. It's like this: during my studies I followed the minor 'Entrepreneurship'. At that time I started my first online business: a wedding website. At first I ran this company by myself and later my partner Lodewijk joined. After that I started ThePerfectYou , a lifestyle website. Also followed Ambitions , a website for working mothers. In the meantime we are also internationalizing and I started a platform where you can meet digitally. Mombitious.”
Is 'entrepreneurship' in your genes? Sarah grins. “Definitely! My parents had their own business; exporting flowers. As a little girl I would go around the neighborhood selling things, like decorative marbles from a flower vase.”
Who do you see as your source of inspiration as an entrepreneur?
“My father. We used to go to America for business and I would follow the business conversations my father had. I also watch foreign entrepreneurs like Tony Robbins, Amy Porterfield and Jasmine Star.”
You have been an entrepreneur yourself for fifteen years now. How do you continue to respond to trends and developments?
“That is an art; building something and making sure it catches on. That is exactly what I like most, building a niche. Figuring out how to best approach your target group. I do that mainly on intuition, my partner looks more at the facts. We are a good duo. The big picture, the energy and the inspiration… that is what I mainly focus on. I have a sense of style and keep an ideal client in mind. That works!”
Step on the gas you say. Are you impatient?
“Yes! I sometimes launch something before I have informed others. Then I go too fast.”
Looking back: what developments have you gone through as an entrepreneur?
“First of all, getting married looked so different when I started. It was very cheesy and there were few options. Fortunately, that has changed a lot. With ThePerfectWedding I show that getting married can be done in many different ways and especially in a way that suits you/you. Getting married can be a lot of fun! Our market position has changed a lot in recent years. In a positive sense, we now have a strong market position. People who are thinking about getting married have most likely already clicked on our website. What I found difficult at one point was that we were no longer in the start-up period.”
So being a start-up has made you think? “Absolutely.”
What struck you at that time?
"All decisions were made by the two of us, which slowed us down considerably. Furthermore, there were many ideas that we could not act on. Again, because everything went 'through us'. Our innovative power declined.
I also noticed that the people who worked for us sometimes found it quite exciting. We had become a major player in the market and many eyes were on us. Well, when you stick your head above the parapet, you are sometimes put down as a company. I wanted to get people 'on' again, which is why we started to organize our company as self-governing.”
You work with the Holacracy method. Can you explain in simple terms how this method helps you in organizing your daily work?
“It can help your company move forward faster. If you don’t have a Holacracy, all the arrows flow to one or two people, through them and out. That’s a slow way. Now there are all these arrows, which allows you to have much more impact. Decisions are made in different places. That allows everyone to be better than yesterday. It gets better every day. I think that’s really great.”
How does that work in a time of crisis like now, do you still encourage autonomy? “Wow, well we had a blueprint of our strategy. That suddenly became irrelevant when the corona crisis broke out. We then decided to take a closer look ourselves and set priorities. It was planned to assign a number of Lead Link roles (which we both fulfill) to others, but we postponed that. On the other hand, our office is still closed, so our colleagues at home also have to make much more decisions for themselves.”
What kind of 'leader' do you see yourself as?
“As someone who can turn others ON and make them enthusiastic. I stimulate progress.”
How do you celebrate successes?
“Hmm, I'm doing really badly!”
The last time. When was that?
“Two weeks ago. We had the highest number of visitors in Germany at the time. In a separate Slack channel where we celebrate success, we celebrated this together. I think it is very important to pay attention to the success of others! Furthermore, I was very proud recently! During the corona period, I started The Business Lab for our customers (many of whom are sole traders). I started giving mini courses there and I am now also selling them. For example, I talk about working efficiently, the ideal customer, mindset and growth.”
Does this corona crisis also provide a different perspective on being an employer? “Certainly. We can now largely choose a rhythm that suits us much better than before the crisis. I think we now choose much better how work fits into our lives, also because we have more space. Not having to travel to work anymore gives us much more free time. For example, I now pick up my children from school every day. We also give that freedom to our employees. In that sense, I think that everything you do in your life now flows much more together. That was tough at the beginning, but now it creates more and more possibilities and opportunities. As an employer, we now focus much more on output and give more freedom in how people achieve that result. Mini-entrepreneurs within the company.”
So more letting go and more trust? “That’s what it’s all about and that’s quite a tough part. But it makes work a lot more fun! People do the work in their own way and that’s not always the same as how you would do it. Of course, things sometimes go wrong. You have to learn to embrace all that as an entrepreneur. Be open with each other, start a conversation. It also helps to provide transparency in turnover and costs.”
In five years, Weblab will be…
“We have built even more platforms, closely related to ThePerfectWedding .nl . We are also active in more countries.”
Known all over the world?
“Why not: YES!”
