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FRANÇOIS VERHOEVEN, OWNER IBIZA ESTATES

François Verhoeven is the founder and owner of Ibiza Estates. Together with his team, he helps clients find their dream home in the luxury segment on the island. Verhoeven doesn't know the phenomenon of "working for a boss" and is moving steadily through this corona year in part because of his trading spirit. But who helped him get his dream job? Who was his wheelbarrow?Text: Mical Joseph
Image: John van Helvert

What was your very first job?

"I never worked 'for a boss' and always traded on my own. From the age of fifteen I had a thriving business in clothing sales of the Diesel brand. This was together with a friend. He bought the sample collection and then we sold it on to peers and their parents in Waalre and Eindhoven. During my Small Business studies in Haarlem, I took it bigger: I bought up Ralph Lauren clothing and had boys sell the collections in the five largest student cities.

In my senior year of college, something disastrous happened that changed my life overnight. My father drove into a ravine in southern Germany and broke every bone in his body. He narrowly survived and had to rehabilitate for two years. As a result, I had to take over the business at the age of 21: the event agency HV Productions, now Pink Orange, in Eindhoven. This car accident gave me an accelerated course in growing up."

How did you end up in your current job?

"In 2000, my father slowly came back into the business. A year later, in 2001, the tragedy happened at Dance Valley. During the final hours of the festival in Spaarnwoude, there was a huge storm with heavy rain, during which the 90,000 visitors had difficulty getting away and people became hypothermic. After this incident, I had an idea that eventually turned out to be a gap in the market: the Lockerbox. The Dance Valley fiasco was mainly caused by storm and rain. As a result, people got hypothermia because the visitors did not have coats with them due to the absence of checkrooms and lockers. This got me thinking and I invented - as the first in the world - the transportable checkroom lockers at festivals. In 2010, I sold the shares.

I then founded a design studio with Serge de Warrimont in 2006: Big Bang International. The studio designed well-known sports gadgets such as the Nuon Nederlamp, Heineken Trumpet, the Jupiler Alphorn, Coca Cola Botlehorn and the Vuvuzela. We sold 7.5 million vuvuzelas during the 2010 World Cup.

Together with my associate, I saw another opportunity: real estate in Ibiza. This idea came from my own personal experience, after I moved into our first vacation home with my partner. We encountered so many problems, the purchase process was difficult and things were not properly regulated. It occurred to me then: how nice would it be if you could be reliably and properly guided during the search and finding of a house or vacation home in Ibiza? With the sales branch of Ibiza Estates, we have a unique formula in terms of exclusively guiding clients and a streamlined purchase process."

In that, who was your wheelbarrow?

"I didn't have a wheelbarrow, I did have a mentor, this was my father. He coached me until he had the accident, after that I had to figure everything out on my own. My father instilled in me that I should always keep going and never, ever give up. Also, positivity was an important pursuit.

Besides my father, René de Bruin, the former CEO of Björn Borg, has also been an important mentor. I did all of Björn Borg's events for about seventeen years and he has really become my second father."

What is your greatest passion in your profession?

"My greatest passion is making people happy: both privately and professionally. It makes me so happy to see people beaming when they enter their villa in Ibiza or when a grand event has passed with flying colors. A few weeks ago we launched the NO-SHOW BOX concept where consumers could order an online dinner show, featuring Jeroen van der Boom and Martien Meiland, among others, with a dinner box. The box contains delicious ingredients for your own three-course home dinner from two-star chef Dick Middelweerd I am then so proud of the team how they handle everything with both hands and pack those thousands of boxes."

What has been the biggest learning moment in your career?

"That being an associate is sometimes more intense than a love affair. Of course, you share so much with an associate and during my career I have had a number of times when I was not on the same level with them. In bad weather you get to know each other really well and if you can keep an overview together and navigate through the storm in question, you can talk about perfect companionship. Through certain circumstances, I have learned how I don't want it anymore. It is very important for me to think solution-oriented and creatively."

For me, entrepreneurship is about seeing opportunities, tackling them and developing them. Keeping agreements, not giving up and remaining honest are also very important. If you continuously keep these conditions high, you can be successful in business."

What advice would you give your 18-year-old self?

"See where your weaknesses are as early as possible and work on them. Entrepreneurship is always about growing and developing yourself. Also, focus is important: don't lose sight of it."

Have you been a wheelbarrow for anyone?

"I don't have one specific example, but I do regularly hear that through my energy and drive I may motivate and excite people to go to the next level with a particular idea."