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Closures, debts and a broken future perspective. The lockdowns during the corona period hit small entrepreneurs hard. In Utrecht there was therefore extensive, personal help from the municipality.
Mathijs Steinberger (AD)
October 15, 2023
Lindsey Knoop (center) in her shop. Photo: AD/Angeliek de Jonge.
Lindsey Knoop was one of those entrepreneurs who asked for help and came out better with her fashion business. Because: she was not entitled to national support measures and to make matters worse, her boutique with women’s clothing was robbed during a burglary. “A bad time,” she reflects on AD.nl. “I really had my back against the wall.”
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In 2016, Knoop (35) opened her boutique Tenue de Ville. In the center of Utrecht, on the Oudegracht, but not in the busiest part. She attaches great importance to personal advice: the store is open three days a week for free walk-ins and the rest by appointment.
In the first year of corona, thieves empty the entire store. Her boutique is currently full of stock that she had not yet been able to sell due to the lockdown. “It was precisely the period when we could sell again. Mentally, that burglary was very intense.” She moved later that year. At 65 square meters, the narrow store is too small to keep a distance of one and a half meters. She finds twice as much room to grow at the Oudkerkhof, because despite everything she sees a bright future.
The subsequent lockdowns lead to plummeting incomes and mounting debts. The government’s financial aid schemes offer little relief. “The turnover of the previous year was taken into account. But then I was still in the smaller store. I now had significantly higher expenses.”
“An entrepreneur does not talk to the government, but to a like-minded person”
‘Felt so powerless that I had no right to anything’
“I inquired everywhere, but fell through the cracks. It felt so powerless that I had no right to anything. I sometimes thought about quitting.” A loyal customer worked at the municipality and pointed her to a new project in which entrepreneurs receive help. In Ondernemer Centraal, Utrecht and a large number of other organizations work together to provide coaching, advice or financial support.
The complicated cases end up on the so-called Breakthrough Table. Various departments of the municipality are represented there to find creative solutions. Coaches talk to entrepreneurs there to provide them with advice and assistance.
The coaches are also entrepreneurs themselves and that makes a big difference, says Gert Jan Jansen on the Haar of the project. “An entrepreneur does not talk to the government, but to a like-minded person. I know what it feels like when you can’t pay a bill.”
Also read: One in three companies fear bankrupt customers due to recovery of corona debt
Podcast Fashion Inside
At Lindsey Knoop, he looked at her accounting and found that despite the restrictions of corona, there was potential in her company. “Gert Jan really gave me confidence. He convinced me to take out a loan, which allowed me to grow further.” Utrecht has an arrangement with lenders; In special cases the municipality will pay part of the interest. The loan enabled Knoop to invest in new inventory and led to growth in turnover.
,,It’s going very well. It’s getting busier, the team is expanding and so is the collection,” says Knoop with satisfaction. “My position is moving more and more into the background. We want to be even more innovative and we have started making a podcast: Fashion Inside.
Entrepreneurs from surrounding municipalities can now also report to Ondernemer Centraal for help. Coach Jansen op de Haar. “We know our way around municipalities and can communicate with creditors. The fact that someone is watching often gives energy.”