Three years ago, he did nothing on social media. Now he has 367,000 YouTube subscribers and 523,000 followers on Instagram. From tile dealer, Chahid Charrak (Zeewolde, 1990) became a social media canon. "Trading and videos reinforce each other. If you use YouTube or Instagram well, you can grow so mega fast as a business."
"My father is Moroccan, my mother Dutch. I was born on Waalstraat, in the Rivierenbuurt. I was a mega busy little guy and was already walking at six months. Outside, my mother held me by a rubber band so I couldn't run away. When I was two or three we moved to Zeewolde. There I had a super fun childhood. Always outside, playing soccer, fishing... In the school vacations I worked in the pallet trade. I took apart broken pallets and made them usable again. All the time I was working with nail guns, reciprocating saws and circular saws. That's where I learned to work, physically. I was also the only one my age who had money in his pocket. Getting sandwiches, scoring French fries. When I was twelve my parents split up and it was a bit of every man for himself. I had just entered high school, but I preferred to work, to earn money. My stepfather was in the sanitary tile business and could still use two hands. Then he would call in sick and I could go tile with him. My parents would never have allowed that, they both did high school, but he was very lenient. And since the divorce, my stepfather had the biggest say in what I could and could not do. He raised me to a large extent. I also learned a lot from him. For example, one time he had given me a bicycle, which I had broken within a week. Then he bought another bike from my hard-earned money. I thought: fuck! That's how I learned to be frugal with my stuff."
"I went back into pallets - work, work, work - and even lived with the owner of that company for about two years. Bizarre: I never had any hassles with Compulsory Education. When I was sixteen, I went to Vilnius with an older employee to set up such a toko there as well. Using sign language, I taught the local people there how to recycle pallets. Spending money was difficult in Lithuania, so I saved a lot there. When I demanded a raise and didn't get one, I decided to go back to Holland. To my colleague in Vilnius I said, 'My stepfather made so much money with tiles, let's go into that business together too.' Through relations of my stepfather we managed to arrange a small building in Tiel and with his help and network of suppliers we filled it with tiles and bathroom furniture. That's how I started my own tile store. The first year I only worked and even slept in the shop - there was just room for a bed and a refrigerator with a television on top. Around the corner was a gym, that's where I showered. I went from 66 to 90 kilograms because I only ate microwave meals and doner sandwiches."
"I advertised on Marketplace: 'Cash-and-carry at Megadump in Tiel, open every day from nine to nine!' The first few months remained so quiet that my business partner decided to quit. I hobbled over to my stepfather to ask him to buy him out. He was furious: 'I'll look like an asshole to the suppliers! I'll tear up the whole business, fuck you!' Eventually he stepped in, and I was half the little boy again... But at least I could move on! I learned a lot by listening to the customers, what they wanted, and to the suppliers. One time over coffee they dropped the name of someone who was "destroying the whole market. I immediately called the guy and made an appointment with him. That's how I got in touch with a new supplier of tiles for very little money. That way I could lower the price and had more margin and marketing spend. The first year I had sales of six tons, then it rose to a million. I hired more staff and expanded with branches. Currently I have six tile and sanitary ware stores: in Tiel, Dalen, Zeewolde, Wormer, Meppel and Eindhoven. In 2021 we had a turnover of 50 million, and in 2022 I expect a turnover of 60 million. But I will keep less of that. The shit is on because of all the hassle in the world. Transportation costs are higher and product delivery is also a thing. So sometimes I have to switch to another supplier who charges a higher price."
"Yes, but then I also have to set up a 10,000-square-meter logistics center. And I already have my hands full with the wholesale business, showroom and webshop. We also do have our own lines, including Salenzi. I set that up six years ago. At a trade show I saw pink, matte black, blue, army green and many other colors of sanitary ware for sale. I thought: fuck it, I'll order a few pallets in stock and try to turn that into a trend - then I'll be the only one, because nobody dares to do that in the Netherlands. And I succeeded. We delivered the tiles to Corendon Mangrove Beach Resort and Van der Valk, among others. Even Eric Kuster came to me: 'Do you have any more army green?' Me with a toilet bowl and a fountain to Eric Kuster, haha."
"Yes, just trying. Another thing: once when I was walking through the warehouse, I saw that we still had a hundred floor pipes in matte silver. That color is a hundred years old; I wouldn't get rid of those things. I thought: what if I had them powder coated in matte black? Those tubes cost 5 euros to buy, I put them online for 89.95 euros and lost them in no time. I was the only one in the Netherlands with the color matte black. Then I also started painting faucets, sinks, shower heads and whatnot, in green, pink, blue, even gold. My competitors thought: where did this guy get it? They started ordering from me. You know, you always have to try to get a head start. First you grab margin and when the competitor keeps up, you go into the crowd. I get a huge kick out of that little game."
"It's bizarre how we keep growing. Every year we want to take time to reorganize, but we keep peaking. And so the workload remains high. But I perform well under that."
"I invest in bricks and mortar. Together with my associate Eelco, I have about sixty apartments that we rent out. For myself, I had a villa with indoor pool built in Zeewolde. And three years ago I bought a Lamborghini with 639 hp. How come? Eelco and I once went on a tour of Scotland with a club of entrepreneurs. They all had a fast car: McLaren, Ferrari, Lamborghini... We drove behind them in my four-seater Porsche Panamera. The brake discs, the brake pads, everything started to burn. Eelco and I were like: let's buy a supercar too. We had 150,000 euros to spare. I don't know anything about cars. I like certain models, but don't ask me what kind of rims are on them. One of the entrepreneurs introduced me to Pon Leusden. One day we got a call from this car dealer: 'We have a Performante here, do you want to test drive it?' My companion and I went to Leusden, took a short drive, immediately bought two brand-new Lamborghinis, for just under 350,000 euros each. He a yellow Huracán Spider Cabrio, I a Huracán Performante in the color Oro Elios. That night we showed up at a party, all proudly proclaiming that we had bought a Lamborghini. My friends wanted to know what color. When they heard I had a gold one, they laughed at me. Fock, I thought. The next day I called Pon Leusden: 'Can I still change the color?' 'Shouldn't do that, you'll regret it, gold is really beautiful.' I lay awake one night, the next morning I decided to leave it as it is. And now I'm very happy with it."
"We went to StreetGasm, Circuit Zandvoort, I won the drag racing competition on Supercar Sunday... At that time I wasn't on social media, so no one could link me. 'The guy with the golden Lambo,' that's how I was called. A colleague advised me to create an Instagram account for my Lambo. 'You do it,' I said, 'Only I don't want to be on it myself, just my car.' He gave the account the name Dutch Performante. It took me a month to spell that flawlessly, haha. He had put some pictures and videos on it. Retroactively, I was recognized and in no time I had thousands of followers."
"In the corona days, I started using Instagram for lifestyle and crazy videos as well, and suddenly it went really fast. Later YouTube joined that, after Sem Meijer, full-time car & social media nut, once posted a video with my Lambo. Through him I came into contact with YouTuber Boaz. He lived half with me at one point. We would go cruising, do fun things, make videos of that. He tagged me, I tagged him and, whoopa, another few thousand followers. I just couldn't keep up. YouTuber Don de Jong joined us, it was very playful, I didn't have a plan."
Curious about the rest of the interview? The winter issue of MASTERS was created in collaboration with Jordi van den Bussche. Many will know him as YouTuber Kwebbelkop, yet he has been working hard as an entrepreneur for some time, as he reveals in the Big Interview. What's new is that his company JVDB Studios is offering to do social media marketing and short-format content marketing for other companies. "They can also go and figure it out themselves, but we cracked the code." Jordi gives a stage to like-minded entrepreneurs such as Jay-Jay Boske, Demy de Zeeuw, Chahid Charrak and Marcella de Bie, and discusses developments around games, crypto and NFT: "Just as bitcoin turned the financial system upside down, the same will happen with gaming." This extra-thick winter issue also features Lengers' first own ship, an interview with Corendon chief Atilay Uslu, specials on the new BMW 7 Series and Samsung foldables, and - exclusively for MASTERS! - an interview with Max Verstappen.
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