Fair play with solopreneurs and clients
Myler won the golden FD Gazellen Award five years ago, thanks to sales growth of 1503%, and was proclaimed the fastest-growing company in the Netherlands. This innovative intermediary brings independent professionals in ICT and business services into direct contact with clients, but also with each other. Altuïtion played an important role in the creation of Myler's marketing strategy and brand positioning and the translation of the brand values into the final service provision.
“Kites rise against and not with the wind.” This ancient Chinese proverb unknowingly formed the basis of the first discussions about Myler in 2008. The two initiators, Achmea Innovation and project-management agency Numa Group, noted that the market for highly educated solopreneurs functioned extremely poorly. Both the professionals and the clients were held in a stranglehold by intermediaries who often managed to achieve exorbitant margins with all kinds of loan constructions, stacked rates, and penalty clauses.
"It's safe to say that there was a real element of injustice in the market," says Myler. "So we saw good opportunities for a party that works directly with clients and professionals, based on a transparent and flexible business model. As the phenomenon of communities quickly developed among self-employed professionals, it was also obvious to use the power of social media. And just like that, the idea for Myler was born.”
Solid foundation
With the help of Altuïtion, this idea was then elaborated into a marketing strategy and brand positioning. An innovative aspect of this was that the input of solopreneurs themselves was immediately taken into account. “We formed a group of a few dozen solopreneurs, the alpha community, and interactively tested our ideas and considerations with them,” explains Myler. “This not only led to innovative solutions, but also immediately created support for the initiative: If you can participate as a professional and are also heard, you also feel emotionally invested as a type of co-owner." Myler also sought contact with clients in order to identify their specific requirements. This solid foundation ensured the company's rapid growth after its founding in 2009. "What has certainly also helped is that, with the support of Altuïtion, we have communicated our brand values very consistently from the outset,” says Myler. “We have made it clear time and again that we are there for the high-end professional business market in ICT and business services, and that we want to put an end to the abuses in that market by offering flexibility and transparency. That message has been received extremely well, both among the target group and in the media."
Exceeding expectations
Together with Altuïtion, Myler also examined all customer processes in order to gain insight into the moments of truth in service provision. “Our target group has high expectations,” says Myler. “They are professionals who earn a good living and are accustomed to a certain standard of service, but who you can only impress when you exceed those expectations on certain essential points. We have therefore created a number of Customer Journeys to see where there are opportunities for improvement. Some of these have now been implemented, but the results were so positive that we are still using the Altuïtion report to optimize our customer processes.” An example of this is the 30-day payment guarantee that Myler offers to self-employed professionals. "Clients sometimes have very long payment terms, up to 90 days. That can mean that, as a solopreneur, you can work full-time for three months without receiving any money. We therefore offer a form of pre-financing so that every solopreneur can count on the first cash flow after just one month," says Myler. With fast and targeted innovation, Myler has developed into a market leader in an astonishingly short period of time.
