Olive Operations, your business support partner in Spain, widens its range of services!
Olive Operations joins forces with De Supporters & RentMyBrain. In addition to assisting international companies to set up in Spain, Olive Operations expands its activities by offering administrative support (De Supporters) and consultancy (RentMyBrain) in the field of finance, operational efficiency & HR. And always tailored to the needs of the international company in Spain.
The collaboration with De Supporters and RentMyBrain is a logical next step for Olive Operations. After all, they have been offering these complementary services in Belgium since the summer of 2020.
Two years ago, the Belgian Els Van Humbeeck (45) started assisting international companies that wanted to establish themselves in Spain. Olive Operations was born.
“We try to unburden companies looking to expand their business to Spain” says Els. We do market research, look for partners, help them find the right location or office. We also ensure compliance with the Spanish law and we develop a personnel policy. Salary packages are different and extra-legal benefits are used differently in Spain than for example in Belgium.
Tech hub
Valencia, home of Olive Operations, is a vibrant city and well on its way to becoming one of the most important tech hubs in Southern Europe. It is therefore not surprising that especially tech companies are finding their way to this destination. They would like to offer their products and services on the Spanish market or see Spain primarily as an expansion of their talent pool.
In Belgium and the Netherlands, for example, it is no longer evident for many companies to attract affordable and good IT profiles. The labour market is very tight, so they are increasingly looking beyond their borders for these profiles. Olive Operations can help companies that want to ‘nearshore’ in two ways.
Some of these companies want to keep everything in their own hands and would like to start their own entity with a local location manager at the helm. Especially if they are interested in offering their services abroad in the future, this is an interesting option,” knows Els. Others are looking for a specialized partner that can put together a dedicated (development) team. Here too, Olive Operations helps in selecting possible partners and guiding and establishing the cooperation.
Joining forces
A year ago, Olive Operation was ready to hire its first employee. “Paola is our local representative in Valencia”. Els recently moved back with her family to Belgium, closer to the customers. It is there she started working closely with Anke Vandenhouwe (38) and Ben Leo (54) from De Supporters and RentMyBrain.
Ben was CFO of de Persgroep and Medialaan for years. He also studied lean management and became so enthusiastic that he wrote a book about it: “Towards a lean culture”. Anke first worked as an auditor and met Ben when she started working as a Finance Manager at Medialaan. She can fully express her passion for administration and people within De Supporters and Rent My Brain.
Soon, the three former colleagues decided to join forces into one single company. The partnership with De Supporters and RentMyBrain means that Olive Operations brings a lot of financial expertise and a motivated team on board. “Together with our team of 20 Supporters and Brainers, we have a great deal of knowledge and experience in finance, HR and operational efficiency. So we can always call on the right Supporter or Brainer, tailored to your needs,” says Anke. And if they do not have the right match in house, they go looking for the ideal profile.
“In Spain, we continue to work under the Olive Operations brand but now we also offer Olive Supporters and Olive Brainers”, says Els. Our focus is on language skills (mainly Dutch, English, Spanish) and a Northern European attitude. After all, Olive Operations mainly focuses on international or internationally-minded companies. This is how they want to make a difference.
Companies looking for administrative support in Spain in the areas of office management, finance or HR, can now contact Olive Operations. Administrative help can be called upon in a very flexible way: for a few hours a week or full time, to cover a temporary or permanent need, remotely or on-site.
You can also turn to them for projects in finance, HR or operational efficiency. “For some projects, we will work with Belgian Brainers, for others with local specialists. This always depends on the assignment,” says Ben.
The expertise of the Brainers mainly lies in the professionalization of management reporting, the analysis and implementation of new accounting packages, cash flow analyses, post-merger/acquisition integrations, operational efficiency or back-office processes and lean implementations, but also HR consultancy and coaching.
As an entrepreneur, you might have little knowledge of team management and coaching your employees? The specialists of RentMyBrain (Belgium) and Olive Operations (Spain) are your in house coach and will help and guide you all the way. They take over a bit of coaching from you, advise and guide you in difficult conversations or performance reviews and they can also take over recruitment for you.
No doubt about it: Olive Operations has drastically increased its service range to take care of all your B2B support needs. “This is how we deliver on our promise of being ‘your one-stop shop’!”
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