“I knew for a long time that I would one day be my own boss. But I just didn’t know with what. You don’t just start a business if there is no passion for a particular product.” When Paul Roosen got to know the window and door sector, that click was there. Together with Stefan Poelmans, he founded Het Ramenhuis. A conversation about what it means to Paul to become and be an entrepreneur.
“When I was 15 years old, I knew it: later I will become an entrepreneur,” Paul Roosen begins. “I had just organized my first party in an Antwerp nightclub. And I loved managing that whole process: booking the bands, booking an MC, making flyers and posters…”
“The result of all that hard work? Minus 3,000 francs. My dad was happy about that (laughs). Because he was seriously worried. If you had made a profit back then, you wouldn’t have continued your studies. But I made a loss and dutifully continued studying. Yet I had a taste for it: taking charge of things, being the connecting factor, and having final responsibility for the success or failure of something. Still, that entrepreneurial dream faded. I went to work for a boss and did that for 16 years.”
“I started as a sales representative in the food sector. After that, I made the switch to the financial sector. Later still, I went to work for a packaging company. Traveling every week, from the States to Japan. As a young guy, I saw all the continents of the world.”
“I was lucky,” says Paul Roosen. “The luck that I could learn a lot about marketing, sales, and production from my jobs. But also about the organization itself: the operations and the structures. Then you see in practice what is well-organized and what could be better.”
“My next job was franchise manager at one of the bigger names in the window and door world. That’s where my ambition to become an entrepreneur resurfaced. The first time was, strangely enough, during my job interview. I was sitting around the table with my future boss and when he looked at my CV, he said: Why aren’t you actually self-employed?”
“I had asked myself that a few times too. But without doing anything about it. Looking back on it now, I know the reason: I just hadn’t found a product that fascinated me. I did want to become my own boss… but with what?”
“It’s not like you wake up in the morning and think: Hey, I don’t know anything about it, but I’m going to start a lingerie company from scratch. Or that you say, without any feeling for the hospitality industry: I’m going to start a restaurant next month. I just hadn’t found a click with a product I really wanted to go for. Until I ended up in that new job.”
“My job as franchise manager consisted of starting up new branches,” Paul recalls. “From A to Z. And as soon as everything was running smoothly, I let it go and moved on to the next one. It might sound cheesy, but I really fell in love with the product of windows and doors then. That’s when two things came together: the passion for a product and the will to start something myself. And there was a third important factor: my colleague at the time and now co-manager Stefan Poelmans was also walking around with those ideas. Without him, this would never have succeeded.”
“A good 25 years after that first party, the time had finally come: I resigned and became an entrepreneur. Together with Stefan, I founded Het Ramenhuis in 2011. Meanwhile, 21 people work there and we have branches in Hasselt and Leuven.”
“How do I look back on those six years? I’ve often asked myself: would I be a better entrepreneur now if I had started earlier? Or am I where I am now precisely because I worked for a boss for so long? That’s something I haven’t figured out yet (laughs).”
As an entrepreneur, I look up to…
“Sergio Herman. That man is a brand. In my opinion, he is even better as an entrepreneur than as a chef. And that’s saying something. He has an incredibly good sense of marketing.”
If there were twenty-five hours in a day then…
“I would go to Ibiza a bit more. No, seriously: then I would make more time for my family.”
When stress hits then…
“I am at my best. Then I can focus better, I am sharper. Music is very important to me. The right songs can make me shift up a gear or just make me calmer.”
If I had an unlimited marketing budget then…
“We would have a Ramenhuis on Ibiza now! No, here too: we are doing well. Maybe I would explore the TV and radio story more then. But if you really want to do that well, you need substantial budgets.”