I studied International Business and Management Studies at HES in Amsterdam, with a minor in Entrepreneurship. I also completed the Young Enterprise Cambridge exam, an extracurricular entrepreneurship qualification. More recently I have added my Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. After graduating I have built client portfolios and partner networks, first in telecom and later in wine, always on the basis of trust and mutual respect: building something good together. That thread runs through everything I’ve done since.
From 2018 to 2023 I have built a fine-dining restaurant together with my then-partner, with a new chef’s menu and matching wine pairing every two weeks. As hostess, maître d’ and sommelier, I was the face of the business and led the front-of-house team. Marketing, communications, organisation and the full administration were also mine to run. Five years in which we kept moving through the COVID restrictions (from 2020), with a drive-through, home-delivery menus, and a sail-through right on the water. Five years that also brought everything an entrepreneur can face, from leaks to floods. I understand now why people say good help is hard to find. Closing is the hardest decision an entrepreneur can make. We made that one together too, when it was time. I then wound the business down with the same care we’d built it with: handling every reservation and supplier personally, right down to the very last task, handing over the keys.
I know the full cycle of entrepreneurship, including the side nobody puts in a success story. That’s exactly why I can hold up a mirror that doesn’t come out of a textbook. Now I’m building again, with even sparren, and through freelance work in improvement management (operational excellence) under the company name ESWAD. Only things that give me energy and that genuinely add value for entrepreneurs and businesses.
