Startups

„ ‚Welcome to our website!'

– this sentence triggers allergic reactions in me!"

Quote: Reemt Windmann

The dream of owning your own business. For many young people it remains just that: a dream. In an interview with the founder and managing director of HomepageLieferanten UG, Reemt Windmann, I want to learn more about the motivations, political aspects and difficulties of starting a business.

The 25-year-old already began pursuing his goal of owning his own company ambitiously during his bachelor's degree in economics. Meanwhile, after successfully completing his studies, he devotes himself full-time to his company. The young team, averaging just 23 years old, consists of 10 staff members: copywriters, programmers, production manager and managing director.
The HomepageLieferanten are a website service provider that creates and maintains websites for its customers. "So we produce a tool for our customers and maintain it in the long term," explains Windmann. This involves the attractive and appealing design of the web presence of various clients. The guiding principle:

„We create pages that tell stories."

Customers include merchants or self-employed individuals, such as lawyers and architects. Social media marketing, for example via Facebook, is also part of the remit.
First and foremost, I'm interested in the question of motivation and the reasons for building your own business. Windmann responds that this has always been his wish. Essentially, it's about being able to achieve success early on and self-employment means that you have everything in your own hands.
Certainly there are many young people who have good ideas but still don't dare to take the step into self-employment. The young entrepreneur agrees with me on this point and notes that our generation seems significantly more risk-averse than earlier ones. "In my industry it's comparatively easy to start because you don't have to make high financial outlays from the outset, which minimises the risk." Alongside his studies, Windmann invests approximately 4-5 hours per week in his company: "Depending on whether and what orders I receive." Windmann has been working on building the company since 2010, with the company registration taking place in 2011: "Effectively we're only in our second year at the moment," says Windmann. Since 2016 he has been running the company full-time.

A major contract from the renowned confectionery Hussel in 2015 represents a decisive turning point. Windmann can reinvest the proceeds generated and moves in early 2017 from his previous home office to an office building of the TGZ (Technology and Founders' Centre Würzburg) at Hubland.

I want to know which aspects represent the decisive pros and cons of self-employment for the young managing director. As an outstanding pro-aspect, he mentions flexible time management. You can freely decide how much work you invest and anyone who overworks does so by their own choice: "Of course there's a lot of heart and soul in that too."

He views critically the problem of missing statutory insurance, as well as the risk and uncertainty. "I think the intended income of a self-employed person should be 50% above the hourly wage of an employee in order to offset the risk somewhat." This view also describes Windmann's definition of a successful business: "I wouldn't describe my own as successful in this sense. Currently I earn less per hour than I could earn as an employee." However, Windmann's company generates enough to live on. Not many young entrepreneurs can claim that.
From my question about the need for more experience exchange between startups, we move on to political and social aspects. The prevailing regulations in Germany make it difficult for small businesses to gain a foothold. "It seems as though the government has little interest in supporting and promoting new business start-ups." Windmann also wishes for more opportunities for exchange between founders. He formulates the idea of city-initiated clusters. This involves a spatial, sector-specific concentration of producers, service providers or institutions. This would facilitate business-to-business communication and would also be advantageous for the consumer. Overall, it can be said that politically several steps are still needed to facilitate and support new business start-ups in Germany. From a societal perspective, Windmann regrets that startups are often viewed with "envy, ridicule or schadenfreude". Depending on whether they are successful or fail.

"In starting a business, timing, team and idea play the decisive role. In that order. A good idea, such as Uber, didn't work before because not everyone had a smartphone. That means the right timing is often decisive for success or failure," explains Windmann and elaborates:

"It makes sense to finance yourself from other sources initially. This ensures that beginner mistakes can actually be made – without serious losses. That's extremely important, you learn from that.

I would advise everyone to start up again several times over."

We thank Reemt Windmann for the interview!

Homepage-lieferanten.de

Franziska Koller