Ideas Incubator: a springboard to launch your business
Building your project on good foundations is essential! Easy to say but not always easy to do. hub.brussels supports you in this important step with the Ideas Incubator: 7 days of training to help you challenge and develop your business idea.The call for applications for the 7th edition is currently open. Sign in!
Since 2019, the Couveuse d’idées has enabled more than 80 ambitious entrepreneurs to develop their concept and lay the foundations of their business project. Meet two former participants: Alice from Café Boudin & Mingjia from Bonjour Bonheur.
Building your project on good foundations is essential! Easy to say but not always easy to do. hub.brussels supports you in this important step with the Ideas Incubator: 7 days of training to help you challenge and develop your business idea.The call for applications for the 7th edition is currently open. Sign in!
Since 2019, the Couveuse d’idées has enabled more than 80 ambitious entrepreneurs to develop their concept and lay the foundations of their business project. Meet two former participants: Alice from Café Boudin & Mingjia from Bonjour Bonheur.
Alice: from communications officer to coffee shop manager
In 2020, Alice worked at a non-profit organization as a part-time communications officer. Once a week, she worked as a waitress in a restaurant. One morning she came to the realization that she enjoyed working in the restaurant much more than crawling behind her computer and working out communication plan…. And so she decided to open her own Coffee Shop in Brussels!
“I had no idea where to start! I was particularly naive at the time. I still remember the first thing I did when I decided to throw myself into this adventure: request quotations for mugs from ceramic artists. I had absolutely no idea what essential steps I needed to take first.”
And then came the Idea Incubator
“That free training from hub.brussels gives you the chance to spend seven days thinking about the basics of your project: defining your individuality and your target audience, determining the values your project represents, developing a pitch, etc. These are essential steps to make your idea concrete. You can also test your concept with other entrepreneurs, reflect on your motivation and discover whether entrepreneurship is something for you.”
From those reflections and those meetings, Alice eventually opened Café Boudin in December 2021.
Mingjia: from saleswoman to manager of her own store
After 15 years at luxury fashion brands, she wanted to open her own business selling clothing and accessories. When she approached the Idea Incubator, she had already thought a lot about her project, though she didn’t know how to make it concrete.
And then came the Idea Incubator
The idea incubator is not just a theoretical training program. Both coaches and participants exchange experiences. “These contacts with people who are in the same start-up phase are particularly interesting,” says Mingjia. Under the guidance of hub.brussels, Mingjia opened her boutique ‘Bonjour Bonheur’ on July 1 in the center of Brussels, at 35 Rue de Flandre.
Are you ready for a commercial adventure? The seventh edition of the idea incubator runs from Tuesday, May 30 to Thursday, June 1 and from Tuesday, June 13 to Friday, June 16, 2023.
Alice Dutordoir
Founder of Café BoudinThe Couveuse d'idées enabled me to meet other entrepreneurs, to explain my concept to them and to get confidence in my idea. I also discovered all the support structures that exist. All this helped me to plan the key steps before opening my Coffee Shop
Mingjia
Founder of Bonjour BonheurInitially, I found it especially difficult to find information on how to get started. At the idea incubator, I really found all the information I needed as a starter. You also get to know all the actors in the Brussels business community.
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