How amazing is fate?
How many stories start with a chance encounter? This is exactly what happened with Julie Taylor and Louisa Stewart at the end of 2018. We wanted to share our story with you.
If you’ve ever heard the expression “trailing spouses” that is what we are. Our respective other halves found work in a beautiful city called Leiden in The Netherlands. Julie has a Project Management Office (PMO) background and has worked a number of years in corporate settings. Louisa is a virtual administrator (VA) and has been involved in NGO work and Virtual administration for a number of years.
It had to be destiny! What was a chance post on a Facebook group has ended up into an amazing business relationship; a partnership that’s forging ahead and leading to new opportunities. Thanks very much to musician David MacGregor for posting about a wee town in Scotland. We both lived and worked in the Edinburgh/Fife area for the last few years. After a few meetings, network events and a dozen or so coffee mornings later the Blue Ninja partnership became a reality.
Aligning Goals
We must caveat that business relationships take work and there must be rules and clarity between both parties of what the goals are. If these don’t align then is your business likely to succeed? Happily, we both have a complimentary work history and align with each other’s skills very well. We are professional and dedicated to good business practices so that came through instantly.
We registered our business at the KVK (Dutch Chamber of Commerce) in The Netherlands at the end of December 2018 in order to be ready for 1 January 2019….that’s the way we both think! Louisa had already been registered as a sole trader and still running Blue Ninja Consulting Ltd in the UK. We knew she would have feet on both sides of the water but we couldn’t miss this opportunity so we have thought logically about what our plan will be.
From Louisa’s attic office overlooking the canal, the company has expanded to work from the business centre at the World Trade Center (WTC) The Hague and haven’t looked back.
Support Networks
With the support of our other halves, key business people in Leiden (and a special shout out to RongHua Ching from Hotspot Central Gastrohome for facilitating business gatherings), Blue Ninja found its legs. We are networking like crazy and reaching out to the business world in Leiden, The Hague, Rotterdam and Amsterdam but we knew part of our success will be on the shoulders of amazing chance encounters and incredible people.
With any business we are mindful of our legal obligations, how we balance out our professional and personal obligations etc. We’re both so happy to be Blue Ninjas and be working together to help businesses implement effective processes and procedures both in The Netherlands (with English speaking businesses – we have started Dutch lessons!), the UK and globally.
Our professional ethics and personal attitudes are at the heart of what makes us a great partnership and we know that will come through to businesses who partner with us.
Read more about us here
[activecampaign form=3]
Trackbacks/Pingbacks