How nice to meet you!

I meet Sanne at the start of her business

At first glance, her drive seemed to be based on achieving financial success. But after an in-depth conversation, I discovered there was more to it. It turned out that Sanne had started her business in the hope of making her father proud. She had grown up in a family that had always had to fight to make ends meet. Her father was sceptical of her decision to start her own business. Security, working for a boss, not taking risks, that made much more sense. But Sanne has a strong passion and knows she can do this. So her investment is not just to make a profit, but also an emotional investment in her relationship with her father.

‘She knows she can do it.
She also knows she doesn't have to do it all alone.’

What are your dreams, fears and hopes? 

This conversation confirms for me that behind every entrepreneur is a human being. I like to surround myself with all kinds of different people and am always very curious about why someone does what they do. Because behind every investment decision is a personal story, full of dreams, fears and hopes. I am therefore inspired to help entrepreneurs not only achieve financial success, but also realise their personal goals and values. This is what drives me in my work as an investment manager.

Nice to meet you, I'm Ingrid 

I am not an investment manager. I am Ingrid and my function is investment manager. For me, that is a substantial difference. Do I talk to entrepreneurs? Then I see the person and not the function. That immediately creates a different basis for our relationship. 

‘Asking for help is not failure, it is growing.’
 

Photo shows Ingrid with team MKB at LIOF

We are all different

We can't all do everything equally well and we don't like everything equally. In short: nobody is perfect. And they don't have to be! That applies to me, but also to the entrepreneur. It takes courage to express that. Especially if you yourself feel you have to be perfect and be good at all aspects of entrepreneurship. Rest assured, no one is!

What are you good at? 

Within LIOF, we use a tool with which we visualise an entrepreneur's natural strengths. This allows us to see at a very early stage what this person does best and what energises him or her. It also provides insight into the situations in which the entrepreneur is likely to need help. Or which tasks he or she would be better off leaving to someone else. Do you know this as early as possible? Then you can already discuss it and take it into account, when forming a team, for example. 

Dare to be vulnerable

Trust is the basic prerequisite for having such a conversation. So that you, as an entrepreneur, dare to be vulnerable. I have experienced in practice that this is a great advantage. An entrepreneur of a rapidly growing company got completely stuck at one point. With tears in his eyes, he confided in me that he no longer knew how to keep all the balls high. Together, we worked out which tasks he could best hand over. And which additional team member was needed to successfully take over those tasks. It wasn't easy to talk this out! But in the end, it benefited both the entrepreneur and the company - and thus also the shareholders.

This was possible because the basis of our cooperation was trust and connection. Then asking for help is not failure, but growth.