Melvin Sevenich did not lack diligence and entrepreneurial spirit. During holidays, the student had not one paper route, but fifteen districts. “To earn as much money as possible. Then I had to deliver 4,400 newspapers on Wednesday afternoon. They did not end up in a bush somewhere, but were delivered properly.” Still, his parents were deeply concerned about his future.
He failed twice at HAVO 4, so he had to leave school without a diploma. “I didn’t feel like learning. I thought: I understand it better than you do.” His parents were angry and gave him compelling study choice advice: Sevenich had to work in healthcare. He followed it up. Was also familiar with the sector.
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His other part-time job was doing odd jobs at the nursing home where his mother worked. He completed secondary vocational education as a nurse and subsequently completed his studies as an anesthesia assistant. His parents would not have guessed that the ‘troubled child’ of the time now leads a company with more than five hundred employees, who are seconded to healthcare.
‘No way out’
The road there was not without bumps. Sevenich was able to start working at the hospital in Roermond. He soon decided to quit his job and be seconded. “You earn a higher salary and are more flexible.” However, due to the financial crisis, the hospital had to save on temporary workers.
Sevenich received an offer from the secondment agency to work in Switzerland. He was not interested because he had to leave his wife and four children behind. But there had to be bread on the table. “I saw no way out.” He went and never came back. Even though he sometimes only saw his family once or twice a month for one or a day and a half at most.
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The salary made up for a lot. “That was fantastic.” However, the secondment company went bankrupt, so he switched to a peer. “He soon found out that the director was ‘shaming’ on things. “We did not get the high wages we were promised.” It led to the plan to start a secondment company myself, together with a Dutch colleague: Bibi Lemmers.
‘Highest wages’
They had to cough up a starting capital of a quarter of a million euros, but because they had saved well, they succeeded. Flexhaus was founded in April 2022. They did not advertise, but promised on social media the highest healthcare wages in Europe. Sevenich: “A nurse earns 12,000 euros net per month with us. It went really fast.”
But they also worked incredibly long days. “At 5 a.m. I got up and turned on the computer. At 7:30 am I helped put the first patients under anesthesia for surgery. By 5pm I was done and started making contracts and conducting interviews. We maintained that until the end of 2022.”
Stijn Koster no longer in the list of young millionaires
Even millionaires cannot avoid it: they get older. With all the unpleasant consequences that entails. For example, Stijn Koster from Kerkrade, IT entrepreneur and sponsor of Roda JC, no longer appears in the Quote Top 100 of Young Millionaires. For the simple reason that he has passed the age limit of forty. He and other oldies make way for youngsters like Melvin Sevenich from Roermond. Due to the departure of fortysomethings Adriaan Mol (Mollie) and Robert Vis (Bird), the total equity of the 100 richest young people has fallen sharply: by more than three billion euros, so that it only amounts to 5.4 billion this year. The lower limit for a listing did increase, from fifteen to seventeen million euros. The top earner is Job van der Voort (34) of Remote.nl, with 600 million euros. The women still have some work to do. There are six in the top 100, the first of which is in 37th place. This is Sharon Hilgers from My Jewelery. Well-known Dutch people include DJ Martijn Garritsen, fashion entrepreneur Nikkie Plessen and model Doutzen Kroes.
From the beginning of 2023 – Flexhaus had sixty employees on the payroll – office staff were hired and the owners focused entirely on the management of the company. In two years, Flexhaus has experienced enormous growth. Last year’s turnover was fourteen million euros and will be more than double this year.
‘Low estimate’
Sevenich and Lemmers invested part of the profits in real estate. Fifteen properties were purchased in the Netherlands and Spain and on Bonaire. “The first building we bought was in Roermond.” Their performance was noticed by business magazine Quotewhich included them in the Top 100 of young, self-made millionaires.
With an estimated fortune of seventeen million euros each, Lemmers and Sevenich come in alphabetically at places 96 and 99. Sevenich thinks it is “underestimated”. He says that an offer has been made for 49 percent of the shares of forty million euros. “Based on figures from 2023.”
They have no problem selling the staffing company. “We can use the money to do other things that we like.” Such as expanding their car collection, which consists of exclusive and very expensive sports cars. “We have 22, the showpiece is a gold Ferrari. We use them for racing, but we also take them to the office. I still remember when I bought the first supercar and had to transfer 110,000 euros. I recently bought a 7.5 ton car without thinking about it. A strange sensation afterwards.”
This year, the long-distance relationship with wife and children will also come to an end. After ten years they will soon move to Switzerland.
