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Your business plan is ready.
Your financing is in place.

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Your business is registered with KVK.
Next up: finding customers.

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It's challenging to find customers, especially
in the beginning. Where should you start?

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A good website and
findability on Google?

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Social media? Or a flyer in the letterbox?
Consider your customer, your target audience.

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What do they need and
how do you reach them?

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Adjust your communication accordingly.

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Build a network, both online and
in person at networking events.

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Among other things, that's a good
place to perfect your pitch.

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In a pitch, you explain in just a few
sentences what your business does,

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and how you can help your customers.
How did these entrepreneurs approach this?

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We approached brands,
approached agencies.

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That we liked, that had a beautiful vision,
or that we already knew.

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We would go by and we just pitched.

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We started here, in Heeze.

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We noticed very quickly that there were
also a lot of customers from the Randstad...

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and from central and northern Netherlands
who were interested in our products.

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That's why we wanted a second showroom.

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With the location of showrooms, you manage
that geographical spread.

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You look at where many people live and where
lots of new housing will be developed in the coming years.

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Because that is an important indicator
for the amount of furniture needed.

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These days, everything goes online.

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Word of mouth is still the most powerful.

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But social media is very important.

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That you are visible,
that you're easy to find on Google.

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That way, you can also
attract customers.

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Over the past 8 years, our
experience is that we've...

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benefitted to an incredible degree
from the internet.

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Word of mouth is still
far too slow in this respect.

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With that, you often don't reach the people
who are also looking for a table.

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So you do have to really target online
to go and get your sales.

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You also have entrepreneurs
coming together.

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That includes me, from our sector.

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And then we get together,
once, twice, sometimes 3 times a year.

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And we spar about
things we encounter.

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These past years, we've learned a lot
from other entrepreneurs...

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who may be much further ahead than us.

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If you sit with them for an hour and a half,
you learn a lot from that...

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and you can easily apply it to your own
situation, without it costing money.

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Brands invite us to networking drinks,
and I do get an invitation every week.

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It's very good to keep doing that.
-Yes, really good.

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And we actually have
a lot of contacts.

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When they see you, you're
back to being top-of-mind.

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They also remember what you're from:
Oh yes, those girls are doing well...

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or they've just written a book.

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Then you end up back
on the top of the pile.

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Yes, really that physical presence. Despite
the fact that we're in a digital world.

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What I also want to offer as a tip:
always go for coffee with someone.

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You can get pretty far, and odds are
you'll get just that one chance.

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And now it is time for action.

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Check out tips and tricks on KVK.nl...

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about finding customers, marketing, and using
social media for your business.

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Make sure your website is secure and in order.

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Find out which networks
are active in your sector and region.

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Want to know more?

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Visit KVK.nl/en/starting.