Many students dream of starting their own company one day. Students who already made this dream come true, can provide you with the tips you need. In this article, BUas student Vita Luijten, who founded the film-and photography company ‘By Flare’, tells you all about her company. To read about more students’ start-ups, you can click on this link. But first, let’s dive into the successful company ‘By Flare’! 

About Vita 

Vita Luijten, who is in her first year of the Creative Business program, runs the company ‘By Flare’ together with a friend of hers. She always knew that she wanted to be an entrepreneur and discovered along the way that she liked film and photography. Her friend loved the idea of doing the business's economics, and with this combination, a film- and photography company was born. 

Learning at BUas 

Vita started her business even before she started her study. With the Creative Business program, she hopes to gain more knowledge to be able to expand her company. She feels like an entrepreneur rather than a student when she works for her company, even though she realizes she still has a lot to learn. She tries to find out what she likes so she can specialize herself, the study at BUas helps her to find what she is looking for. To give an example, Vita has always loved photography. She learned many other ways to be creative in her time at BUas, but this made her realize that nothing was as fun and suited her as good as photography. This made her decide to focus ‘By Flare’ on making pictures for couples and families. Before, the company also made videos and pictures for other companies and videos for individuals. This is also right away a tip she wants to give to starting entrepreneurs: start small. Vita knows that she will gain knowledge and experience during her study, and that she will have the money to buy the right equipment in a few years. That is why she already made agreements for projects she will do after her graduation. Right now, as she is still a student, she keeps her projects small.   

“I feel like an entrepreneur, but I keep learning things all the time.” 

The start of a business 

By Flare gets its customers through its social media accounts (named: ‘By Flare’ active on all platforms), and by word of mouth advertisements Vita does at school. Getting to know new people is one of the things Vita likes most about running her own company, just as gaining experience in the field, and having the feeling of being independent. Getting the company registered at the Chamber of Commerce was also a big moment for her. It was the first time she realized she actually had a business of her own!  

“I thought getting registered at the Chamber of Commerce was cool. It feels good to be able to do your own thing and to not be dependent on others.” 

Start-up struggles 

Of course, owning a company is a lot of work and Vita admits that she sometimes finds it hard that the company takes a lot of time and effort. Also keeping clear communication with her co-owner is something she still wants to work on. But let’s be honest here, running a business at 19-years old is pretty cool and it is only logical that there are still points of improvement. 

Thinking in solutions 

If you are looking for a photoshoot yourself, feel invited to get in contact with the company through their social media channels (By Flare) or their website https://www.byflare.com/. For many start-up companies, it is too expensive to have the perfect gear right from the start. Vita also experienced this, but she cleverly solved this problem. ByFlare doesn’t charge much money for a shoot, since they realize that they are a starting company that still needs to develop itself. And for companies, they have an even better deal. They offer their services for free in exchange for promotion. That’s right! You just found a place where you can have a professional shoot, for a student-price. 

Ready for the future! 

Because Vita still studies at BUas, she immediately gets to apply what she learns at school in her company. She hopes to have a big company one day in which the next generation of BUas-students can do their internship. 

“When we learn new techniques, we apply them in our company right away.” 

To read about other BUas students that started their own company, be sure to check out our article on students’ start-ups on pages 87-90 of the new BLEND magazine.