“Entrepreneurship is looking for solutions. They are always there"

Some are born entrepreneurs, others get caught up in it. The latter applies to Koen van Wijngaarden. With a Bachelor's degree in Sociology, a job in the government seemed obvious. But he chose entrepreneurship anyway. 'A former member of my student association had an e-commerce company and was looking for students to work in the warehouse,' says Koen. He asked me if I happened to know anyone. With two friends, Coen and Charles, I set up an app group for students who wanted to earn extra money. We called ourselves KC Studentenwerk. Not much later, Corona came. E-commerce exploded while students twiddled their thumbs in their rooms. This is when the initial idea for our business was born. Our recruitment agency grew from ten to hundreds of students. With Black Friday 2020 it had already become so big that we had to rent coaches to take all students to work.'

No minimum wage

Although Koen had meanwhile switched to study strategic management, something of his background remained visible in KC Studentenwerk. Thanks to his bachelor's degree in sociology, he knows more about society and the labor market than the average entrepreneur. In any case, just like his two partners, he has a social commitment and he wants to make the temporary employment sector more social, contribute something to a better society. ‘Many employment agencies want to earn as much money as possible from temporary workers. So they pay as little as possible. With us you earn a hundred euros a day, well above the minimum wage. We also do not work with youth wages. Because that would mean that students under 21 get less. But if you live together in one student house, and one earns more than the other while both do the same job, we don't think that's possible.'

Jump forward

In the first years, KC Studentenwerk worked exclusively for one client, the e-commerce company of the former member of the student association. But that started to hurt. Koen says: 'Our temporary workers were on the payroll of this company, so we had no control over the payment. Our students were paid properly, but they sometimes had to wait a few weeks before the money was in their account. When you are studying, money sometimes is so tight that you want to have access to your money immediately.' Koen, Coen and Charles decided to take the leap forward. They renamed their company Knikkers and made fast payouts their unique selling point. The specially developed app – called KnikkerBAAN – has a button. "If you click on it, you will be paid immediately," says Koen. "You worked in the warehouse for a day and the money is already in your account on the way back to your student room."

Rolling out

Meanwhile, the number of customers of Knikkers has grown to about twenty. The similarity is that the customers are mainly (but certainly not only) companies in the logistics sector. The logistics sector is attractive because it operates 24-hour shifts, so that students are very flexible in choosing their working hours. It is also possible in the logistics sector, for example, to work only 8 hours a week. Koen: 'Other employment agencies want you to be available for as many hours as possible per week. But as a student, eight hours a week is often the maximum achievable.' Don't Knikkers' customers want students to come and work more than eight hours a week? Koen: ‘With a busy study program, that is simply not always possible. But ten thousand students live in Tilburg. That is a labor potential of 80,000 hours per week. That is a huge offer.' Knikkers now wants to expand to other student cities. 'We can easily copy our business model, because the situation in other student cities is comparable to that in Tilburg.'

Social profile

Knikkers found the most difficult thing so far to go from one client to two. Koen: 'We had no track record and there is a lot of competition in the temporary employment sector. And there are quite a few bad apples in this industry, which makes companies suspicious. Before we could meet with potential clients, we had to do a lot of acquisition. But once we had a conversation, we were able to convince them quickly. We are attractively priced because Knikkers is a highly automated company, which means that costs are lower than at many other employment agencies.' What also appeals to clients is the social character of Knikkers. Not only do students get paid better than at many other employment agencies, Knikkers is also committed to foreign students. 'Especially if they come from outside the EU, it is difficult for them to find a part-time job. We help them with a work permit. Of the 500 students who work for Knikkers, 200 are not from the Netherlands. I am proud of that.”

Enjoying

Koen graduated in January 2023. What has he gained from his studies? 'During my master's I was able to mirror what I learned in practice. Zoom out, see what was happening inside the company. Consider, for example, the way in which you position yourself in the market. What are the external threats and internal forces? I learned how to make such a framework during my studies.' The university also helped Koen with his entrepreneurship. He was given a special status, which gave him more freedom in organizing his studies and studying pace. Finally, what are the most important lessons he has learned as an entrepreneur in recent years? ‘First of all, that doing business is really fun. It gives me a lot of energy. Another lesson is that as an entrepreneur you are quick to solve a problem and then move on to the next problem. My lesson was to enjoy the success more. Celebrate the solutions you've found, because that's an important part of the fun of doing business.' 

Knikkers