Meet the Entrepreneur: Emma Verschure

Q: Emma, could you introduce yourself and your company?

A: I am Emma, 25 years old, and the founder of Emma’s Tax Law. I started my business 'accidentally' during my HBO studies in Fiscal Law and Economics. After obtaining my pre-university education (vwo) diploma, I started a blog and an Instagram account. After 3.5 years, it was time to register it with the Chamber of Commerce. At that moment, VAT declarations had to be made, and my fellow bloggers asked for my help. I didn't feel like doing this for free, so my business was spontaneously born. We are now almost 4 years further, and it was the best decision ever. I have now completed my master's in Fiscal Law, and I am currently pursuing a second bachelor's in Law. Emma’s Tax Law now consists of four girls. We primarily help female, neurodivergent entrepreneurs with their tax affairs and administration. We do this through training, but also by actually taking it over from them. We are very active on social media, where we share useful tips daily. Furthermore, we fully support our clients in financial matters.
 

Q: What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about entrepreneurship?

A: Many people think it's a way to get rich quickly and assume that every entrepreneur is indeed wealthy. If I were in business just for the money, I would have stopped a long time ago. Building a successful business requires a lot of passion and perseverance. Entrepreneurship means hard work. Your hourly wage is not always high, and you have to find that worthwhile. If you start a business for the wrong reasons, you will find entrepreneurship very disappointing. Business growth costs money. People often see only the success stories and not the difficult period that precedes them. Entrepreneurship is not always a path of roses and moonlight. Keep this in mind if you're considering starting a business.

Q: What makes your business unique or stand out in the market?

A: We focus on a very specific target group, who have always felt misunderstood. The brain of a neurodivergent individual works differently, and this is often not understood by people who are not knowledgeable in this area. This leads to a lot of misunderstanding, as previous advisors didn’t grasp why someone would freeze up when it comes to taxes and accounting. This is challenging because if the advisor shows this lack of understanding, even less gets accomplished. Since we do understand how it works, we approach things very differently. If something is not working, we do it together. No question is too bizarre for us, and we do everything we can. Our service is unique in this respect, as it goes much further than what others offer. You can compare us to an external financial department of a company. We take care of everything and even have login details for platforms like PayPal to download data, so the client doesn’t have to worry about it. This makes things much easier for everyone. We combine all this with being as accessible as possible and keeping it as fun as possible. Not every entrepreneur can outsource their taxes, so we've also developed training sessions where the entrepreneur learns to prepare tax returns themselves. In these training sessions, we make it as fun as possible, and even celebrate the end because the return has been filed. Finally, we are the only office that is super active on social media and even acquires all our clients through it. 

Q: What is the most important lesson you learned as an entrepreneur? 

A: There is no quick or easy way to the top. It is hard work, but it will eventually be rewarded. And be especially creative, thinking outside the box. You'll have competitors no matter what, but by being unique and daring to be different, you give customers a reason to choose you. This ensures you gain an advantage. This way, customers are suddenly willing to pay much more, and the price even becomes secondary in their decision-making. Those are the clients you should aim for. Hassle over invoices is the last thing you want and it only uses up energy instead of being productive.

You'll have competitors no matter what, but by being unique and daring to be different, you give customers a reason to choose you Emma 

Q: When were you most proud of yourself? 

A: There have been many moments when I was very proud of myself. I started at MAVO and eventually obtained my VWO diploma. Alongside my studies, I built a successful business, completed my master's, and started a second bachelor's degree. In July, I hired a staff member, which was a great step. Recently, we shifted our target audience to neurodivergent entrepreneurs, creating a unique position for ourselves and making customer acquisition suddenly much easier. The influx of new clients has been and is phenomenal, which is of course fantastic. To say which achievement I am most proud of is difficult, as all these points are significant accomplishments. I am proud of all of them, and one could not have happened without the others.

Q: What is your life motto? 

A: The key to success is to start before you are ready. It's important to have a clear goal for your business. But along the way, everything turns out to be different than you initially thought. You can spend a lot of time devising plans so that you have everything on paper. However, in practice, things often turn out differently, making it really a waste of time. Know what you are doing and set a goal and direction, but start as soon as you can, because that's the only way to get somewhere. You have to start to get anywhere."

Want to know more about Emma's Tax Law? Visit their website!