Functional smartphone advertising: the start-up of Marc van de Logt

How do you ensure that your start-up grows into a successful mature company? Poelmann van den Broek helps you with the legal issues. In this blog "Start-ups & Downs," you can read real-life stories. For example, Marc van de Logt tells how he experienced starting up his company Smartphone Cleaner, which offers a smartphone advertising gadget.

Starting a new business takes time, Marc knows by now. But not that much time either, because within two years Smartphone Cleaner has grown from an initial idea into a company that is starting to thrive and whose growth he even had to slow down for a while because he wants to do it right. And all because, as a graphic designer, he had seen a bit of it....

Marc: "In 2012 I started as a freelance graphic designer, after working for several employers as an employee. After four years, I noticed that I started to become repetitive in terms of my work and therefore became less and less enthusiastic. During that period I also started supplying promotional materials and so a gadget came my way that allows you to clean smartphones via an adhesive cloth. I was immediately sold. Then I came up with and set up the concept of Smartphone Cleaner myself, including the name. At first I did it alongside my other work, until I decided to quit as a freelance graphic designer and continue full-time with my new company."

Marc's start-up in brief

In early 2016, Marc started his company Smartphone Cleaner. With it, he offers companies a small, handy gadget that can be ordered completely in house style or with an advertising message. "Your brand in the customer's hand," Marc calls it on his site. The big advantage of the cleansing advertisement is that it can easily be stuck on the smartphone for later use. In this way, the brand or advertising message remains in view of the target group for a long time.

Supply to reputable parties

The numbers Marc was selling were increasing. His customer base was also expanding with increasingly nice references, such as Antwerp Police, De Persgroep, Mercure Hotels, various municipalities and the Education Executive Agency: "My site is being found more and more, also by reputable parties. The best part is that I landed the biggest order so far by doing cold acquisition myself. I think that is the biggest up this year, because cold acquisition is not my favorite thing to do. Another up is that at the beginning of 2017 I had resolved to say goodbye to my web design work and I succeeded. It wasn't easy, but for now it's been a good move."

Accepting limitations

A luxury problem, we can call Marc's first down. He has limited the expansion of his working area to Belgium in order to first achieve more continuity in the Netherlands: "I actually wanted to grow much faster, but because I am a control freak, you do run into limitations. Launching Smartphone Cleaner just takes time and I have to accept that. I have also learned not to want to do everything by myself, but to enlist help when necessary. Others can also help me further."

Another down that Marc experienced was saying goodbye to a former associate with whom he had formed a limited liability company together. Funny detail: the settlement of this succeeded entirely on his own, without the need for a lawyer.

Expanding in the future

The future looks bright, says Marc: "For 2018, I foresee at least as successful a year as 2017 was. I want to expand to a total of eight Western European countries. In the Netherlands it is already going very well and I also get regular requests from Belgium. I want to continue that to other countries, with Italy and Denmark being the first two. I have contacts there, so it is easy for me to explore those markets first. I am also going to set up a consumer branch of my company, under a different name. Poelmann van den Broek is helping me with that by advising on trademark and copyright protection."