Curious about the story behind Tilstra Services? Read how Chester Tilstra tells us about his dream to transform his sole proprietorship into a thriving company!

How it all started
Tilstra Services was founded in 2008. I started as a sole proprietorship and worked as a freelancer on assignments at various organizations. The idea arose from the need to not only support payroll processes, but also to offer a broader vision within the triangle of HR, payroll and finance. I wanted to help companies work better together within these three disciplines. These departments often do not communicate optimally, while there are enormous opportunities with good automation and change management.

The growth of the company

In the beginning I worked as a freelancer and went to clients myself. Around 2017-2018, I started serving my own salary clients in addition to my regular assignments. In 2019 I received a large assignment at Intertrust, for which I had to hire additional people. This was a turning point: I had to shift my focus from executive work to building a team. Today we have a team of 40 people, 13 of whom are permanent employees and the rest freelancers. It's great to see how we were able to find the right people in one go and build a strong team.

Our mission and services

From the start, our mission was to support companies in their core processes and help them realize their goals. We wanted to be a partner that not only provides advice, but also contributes to implementation and thus makes a real impact. In the beginning we mainly focused on payroll administration and consultancy. We later expanded this with HR services and finance solutions, with which we now offer a fully integrated range of services.

Milestones and vision for the future

An important milestone was our switch to a professional CRM system in 2022, which made our work more efficient. In addition, we took Nmbrs software in-house in 2020/2021, which gave us more control over our services. Since 2020, we also offer HR services, which completes our service package. Another milestone is the introduction of our triangle model, in which we combine administration, consultancy and project management. This allows us to support customers at every level.

Our ambition is great. We want to become a shirt sponsor of Ajax and continue to surprise customers with innovative solutions. Our goal is to be a full service provider within the triangle of HR, payroll administration and finance. In addition, we want to continue to strengthen our team with Young Professionals and offer an excellent onboarding process. We do not have to take over everything from customers, but we want to intervene where necessary. Through good management we can achieve great things together and let customers rely on a complete team.

Proud of our team

I am extremely proud of where we are now with our team. What was once my dream has become reality, but we continue to dream. Together we achieve great results for a broad group of customers. Het mooiste is dat we dit als team doen; success does not come from one individual, but from everyone working together.

Would you also like to collaborate with Tilstra Services? Then contact us now!