Present-day entrepreneurship is about more than just money

'Chapeau that you work a lot for your own clients, with many of your colleagues it remains hobbying,' responds Rick, owner of a well-known training agency, after I tell him that there are no intermediaries between me and my new clients. 'Hobbying, how denigrating that sounds,' flashes through my mind, but one breath later I understand what he means to say. 

Many fellow trainers enjoy leaving entrepreneurship to agencies. They receive prepared assignments, send an invoice for executing them and everyone is happy. That's how I started too, and there's nothing wrong with that. 
But it doesn't suit me anymore, I didn't set up my own business for this. Ready-made assignments give me the same trapped feeling as the job descriptions my managers used to lock me into. 

I don't fit into one box, which is sometimes difficult for others to understand. 
'Why don't you present yourself as an agency' a friend asked when I was re-branding Mind-Act last year. 
'Because I'm not an agency,' I replied. 'I'm Nicole & More with my network. I like to speak to the client myself to understand, conceptualize and also personally do what it takes to contribute to lasting results.' 
So, she was quiet about that for a moment.

It's certainly not the easiest path. For example, the other day I saw a call from former ABN AMRO colleague Gaby van Kesteren. 'Ambitious women entrepreneurs sought who want to grow! You're welcome with a minimum turnover of €500,000.' I don't make that yet, but does that make me any less of an ambitious entrepreneur? Rationally, I understand why this limit is set, but my entrepreneurial heart doesn't feel taken seriously enough. I tell this a few days later to @Angelique Reitsma, my former client from ING, who recently started as an independent absence specialist. She is curious about my experiences and I am curious about hers. We have agreed to meet on the crowded terrace of Oranje Buiten in Hoorn, and when I walk up to the bar I recognize @Arnoud Ruiter, the owner. 
'Do you remember who I am?' 
He laughs, 'Yes of course Nicole!'

Fifteen years ago, I hired him at ABN AMRO, before that he was a private servant to Willem Alexander and Maxima and pretty soon after that he let his entrepreneurial and hospitality blood run free, with a nod to the Dutch royals for whom he still works occasionally. 

After a tour of the casual-looking but perfectly organized beach club with meeting and party venues, which once began with two containers, he relaxed and joined us at the table. Unlike other hospitality businesses, he has no shortage of friendly and professional staff, and thus plenty of time to tell us about this place and his ideas for developing new initiatives. 

He tells us how he has organized his whole business around the wishes of the guests, who like to eat within twenty minutes, and how he starts with young staff who are allowed and able to do more and more, and so grows with and in the business. During Corona he started delivering chicken and fries almost immediately, fifteen minutes after ordering someone was on the sidewalk, his staff did this without grumbling with their own cars and bikes. I tell him that I immediately in the very first lockdown week proclaimed 'that can be done online, let's do a pilot', and when this went well in no time was the expert in online teaching. 

'You're only as good as your last assignment, keep exceeding yourself and only do what you really like and what you're good at,' I tell Angelique a little later as Arnoud is getting us another drink. 'That works, my clients come back and introduce me within their network. 'Not going for the easy road and constantly reinventing yourself as an entrepreneur, being creative and innovative, surviving without support packages and being willing to take risks, that's what we toast to,' I say when Arnoud returns. Our three glasses clink together and I hesitate whether to start with an old-fashioned 'bitterball' or a more modern gamba from the delicious Maximatoren Arnoud just returned with.

On the way home, I see my own satisfied look in the rear-view mirror. How nice that variation is, working on your business one day and in your business the next. I am again bubbling with energy and ideas for the re-branding of Being on Mission that I am now focusing on. So...ABN AMRO and Fempower Your Growth, maybe think about redefining 'ambitious entrepreneurs?' Because present-day entrepreneurship really is about much more than making money. If so, I'd love to be there next year!