The 10-year anniversary of BENK PROJECTS

 

"At the time I am writing this piece, we are having the aftermath of the corona crisis and hope to put this misery behind us soon. I am having difficulty getting used to the new normal and would like to return to the old normal."

On March 30, 2010, John Keijzer and I started BENK PROJECTS at the height of the economic crisis. Both of us felt we had filled our backpacks with the right experience to start as entrepreneurs and due to circumstances this was the right time to start. Many people declared us crazy, we left our steady job, nice salary and lease car behind and traded it in for a lot of uncertainty at the time of the crisis. We said the low point has been reached so it can only go up from here and we are confident in what we can do.

In the broom closet (literally) of facility point on Cork Street, we found our starting location for a few hundred euros a month. Our motto was to do nice work with nice people and nice companies and all on an equal basis. Nice and simple, but to this day we stick to it. It's fair to say that our intention during the startup went totally awry, as we had set ourselves the goal of working nicely as a couple without internal colleagues and endless meetings since some of these things had bothered us most in our last jobs. Meetings still don't happen much, but we did start looking for internal people after a few years and have since found a fantastic internal organization built up with people I wouldn't miss for anything.

We have achieved great results over the past decade, and we are in a different place today than the broom closet we started in. Our office in Rotterdam now sits overlooking the airport on Linatebaan, and the Meppel and Antwerp locations have been added over the years. Some 200 people work for us and we work with the finest companies within oil & gas and energy & infra. Over the years we have transformed from a global player within the technical sector into a specialist within this sector. This ensures that we are of greater added value to our customers and employees.

The "marriage" between John and myself is still intact after ten years. The question is sometimes asked how we have lasted with each other and the answer to this question is mutual respect. We had this even before we started this adventure with each other and it has only grown over the years. It is also important that you don't both do the same thing within the company. John has more focus on the financial part of the company and I am more concerned with the general business.

At the time I am writing this piece, we are having the aftermath of the corona crisis and hope to put this misery behind us soon. I am having difficulty getting used to the new normal and would like to return to the old normal. Without the corona crisis, we would have celebrated our tenth anniversary and stopped by with the famous apple pie, as we do every year on our anniversary. Unfortunately, this and all the other great ideas have gone to waste for the time being. Despite this unpleasant period, in which we are suffering a lot of damage business-wise, it is nice to see that a great degree of togetherness has developed, I always say it will be good for something.

On to the next decade! I wonder what crisis we'll be in then......