An anonymous handwritten note leads to a new business in Zuidwolde by two young entrepreneurs. Marloe and Jeroen, aged 10 and 11, received permission from the mayor today to start their ‘Shop in the closet’.
“Dear Madam Mayor and Aldermen of De Wolden. We would like to open our own shop if we can”, read a card that was delivered to the town hall at the end of May. Sender unknown. The municipality started a search and soon came into contact with one of the mothers of the children. Today they were allowed to come by to explain their plans.
“They want to start a company, a ‘shop in the closet’. They want to start it in a center for the elderly,” says mayor Inge Nieuwenhuizen after the business meeting. The two were a bit nervous before the meeting at the town hall in Zuidwolde. “That’s why they put everything on paper,” says Nieuwenhuizen.
That ‘everything’ included a lot. “They had made a whole business plan for the shop, which should be a cupboard from which all kinds of things can be sold. They want to start it in a center for the elderly, so that you can immediately talk to people because sometimes people may live there who feel alone. .” So corporate social responsibility. “They had thought about everything. They can’t be fresh products, because they are only there for one or two afternoons. So they think about balls of wool. Advertising has also been considered.”
And so the mayor had no choice but to give permission for the new venture. The children exchanged ideas with the municipal council for five quarters of an hour today. Alderman for Economic Affairs Gerrie Hempen-Prent also joined, as did Marijke Scheper of the entrepreneurs’ association in Zuidwolde, for the necessary tips.
“Young learned is done old. You have to cherish this,” says Mayor Nieuwenhuizen about the meeting. “It is good if children learn to do business at a young age.” After the meeting at the town hall, a sales location was immediately looked at, because the delegation visited De Zantingehof. Soon there will be discussions in that apartment complex about the cabinet store.