Peter Weber on ZPRadio: “Former entrepreneurs want to transfer knowledge”

Peter Weber is one of the volunteers of Stichting Ondernemersklankbord. This is an organization that helps ZP'ers and SMEs run their businesses. “We are entrepreneurs who no longer have a business,” Peter tells ZP Radio.

For 35 years they have been helping ZP'ers and SMEs

“The Entrepreneurial Sounding Board has been helping entrepreneurs for 35 years. We consist of 300 volunteers divided into 20 regional teams. We are former entrepreneurs with a lot of knowledge that we still want to transfer to other entrepreneurs. We adopted this concept from America and mainly help self-employed people and SMEs.”

“Every year there are about 3,000 applications from entrepreneurs. Usually these are people who seek help too late. Then they have problems that are already at an advanced stage. What many people don't know is that we don't just help people who are in trouble. We also help startups or guide acquisitions.”

Listening and giving advice

“Many start-ups fail after two to three years. A lot of knowledge is lost there. These entrepreneurs need someone to listen to them and give advice. An entrepreneur who wants our help can apply through our website. We then look at the region in which this person is located. The regional manager then asks for statistics and additional data and determines which specialist is needed.”

Knowledge from all angles

“Our volunteers keep their knowledge up to date. The entrepreneurs who volunteer are usually between 55 and 65 years old and have a lot of knowledge they want to share. I myself have 28 years of experience in the entrepreneurial world and 10 years of experience as a volunteer. My colleagues have similar backgrounds. We enjoy sharing our knowledge and experience with young people. We have a large number of specialists in each team. In addition to former entrepreneurs, there are also former lawyers, lawyers, marketers and even ICT consultants.”

Listen to the full interview at ZP Radio.

More information? Check out Ondernemersklankbord.nl.