At Breda University of Applied Sciences, there are several students who already started their own business. I had the privilege to interview Stijn Blankers about his business.

Stijn is a third-year Leisure Management student that runs his own business as a freelancer under the name Blankers Event Support. Besides Blankers Event Support, he is also the owner of the concept Dorpsgek.

What is your business about?
“Blankers Event Support is about assisting clients with events. This can vary between concept development, organization, coordination, marketing and general advice. I started this about two years ago, however, since this year I started to become more serious about it. Currently, I am really working to get my business out there”.

“With Dorpsgek we yearly organize multiple dance festivals for youth from Tilburg and surrounding areas. I started this together with two friends three years ago”.

How did you come up with the idea to start your own business?
“From several clients I got the question if I wanted to make some extra money by helping them out at events. They asked for my expertise and I wanted to take it to a professional level. I am very happy that I did since a lot of satisfied clients keep coming back with different projects”.

“Dorpsgek started with just three friends wanting to organize a nice party and this grew into an own organization”.

How do you combine school with your own business?
“Since Blankers Event Support is project-based, I can easily manage this in combination with school, I just have to plan well in advance. However, Dorpsgek does take a bit more time, usually I spend one day a week working on it”.

What are your future plans with your business?
“My future plan with Blankers Event Support is to keep growing and really get my spot as a freelancer in the event branch. This means that the number of clients needs to keep increasing the coming years”.

“Considering Dorpsgek, we really want to expand to the bigger event locations in the city. A big festival for about 10.000 visitors would be amazing”.

Do you have advice you would like to give students?
“The most important advice that I can give is to start early with building up your network. The more people you know in the business, the easier it gets. Especially building a name for yourself and getting projects is easier if you already have an existing network”.

If you want to stay updated about upcoming events, check out www.dorpsgekudenhout.com. Here you can find all information about Dorpsgek. If you want to know more about Stijn, you can also check his LinkedIn Profile here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stijnblankers/?originalSubdomain=nl.