Patissier Prenger has been in business for four generations. What began as a modest family bakery is now being expanded year after year by entrepreneur Steve Bouman. Steve took over the business from the Prenger family when he was twenty. “I don’t come from a wealthy family or a family of entrepreneurs,” Steve explains. “After completing my training as a pastry chef, I started working and saved up 25,000 euros. I used that money to start my business. I had no idea how to run a company and just managed my team the way I thought I should.”

Still, Steve was doing something right. The bakery achieved at least 18 percent annual revenue growth. In 2022, he opened a second location to handle the growing number of orders. “I’m a pastry chef, but I’m also an entrepreneur,” Steve explains. “There are pastry chefs who do the same thing year after year, generate the same revenue, and are satisfied with that. That’s not me. The word ‘satisfied’ isn’t in my vocabulary. I want to challenge myself and get the most out of my business.”

Stress Chameleon
When Steve opened the business in 2014, he had three employees. Today, 27 dedicated staff members work in his bakeries. Although Steve’s team has grown in recent years, he was unable to delegate more responsibilities. He kept taking on everything himself, leaving him with a to-do list that never seemed to end.

“I wanted to keep everything running smoothly for 27 people, but that’s just not feasible,” Steve now realizes. “It took an enormous amount of energy, and I was always ‘on,’ even when I was with my family. I used to come home having tackled hundreds of tasks, but I’d only managed to get halfway through them all. Because I couldn’t finish anything, I was constantly thinking about work.”

That had an impact on Steve’s family, though he found it hard to admit at first. “My five-year-old son was just like a chameleon,” he says. “When I was stressed, he was too. I knew he was sensitive to that, but I swept it under the rug. To be honest, I even found it annoying that he took after me so much. My relationship with my wife Mandy, with whom I work in the business, wasn’t going smoothly either. Mandy is more realistic, sees more obstacles ahead, and doesn’t move as quickly as I do. I didn’t have the patience for that.”

Regrets
In the winter of 2023, Steve had dinner with two consultants from Straight-Line Leadership. “I went in skeptical, because I knew that a Straight-Line Leadership membership was expensive,” Steve recalls. He had often considered joining in the past, but the investment had always held him back. Something changed during that dinner.

Steve: “The fact that I was harming myself by pushing myself too hard was one thing. But as the conversation went on, I realized I was also letting the people around me down. I saw what kind of leader, father, and husband I really was. At that moment, I thought: this can and must change. I decided to just give it a try. After a few months of membership, I regretted not having started sooner.”

Pride and Responsibility
Steve realized that by doing everything himself, he was taking responsibility away from his team. With that insight, he began to let go of control. “I used to do all the planning myself,” he explains. “Now I let the manager handle that. He’s in charge of it and discusses the schedule with me. Another example: I always wanted to personally handle deliveries for a major client. I convinced myself that it was important to show my face, but that was nonsense.”

The entrepreneur went from being a do-it-yourselfer to someone who develops leaders within his company. At first, this met with resistance, because team members were used to their boss solving everything. But Steve had that under control as well. He did try to delegate, but as soon as things went wrong, he would take over again. Ultimately, he realized during his membership that this was due to his communication style.

Steve: “I used to just tell people what to do, but I never took the time to explain it properly. Now I make sure everyone understands what we’re trying to achieve, which means things almost always go smoothly. I’ve noticed that team members take pride in being able to carry out their part of the work themselves and really feel that sense of responsibility.”

works at the company That pride had a positive effect on the team, and consequently on Patissier Prenger as well. Steve was able to open a new location, and both his revenue and profits grew by 38 percent—nearly double what he normally achieved.

“That’s all because I now have time to work on my business, rather than always being tied up working in my business,” he says. “For example, I realized that we could be more effective by investing in high-quality machinery. Most of what we do is still manual labor, but certain processes simply don’t need to be done by people. That saves us a lot of time. Before, I was too busy to think about those kinds of things.”

Peace at Home
As Steve slowed down and improved his communication, his relationship with Mandy also improved. Because he took the time to explain things to her more clearly, they experienced less stress at work. At home, too, their conversations became better and more meaningful.

“We used to just make small talk. Through my work with Straight-Line Leadership, I realized that I was deliberately leaving things out of our conversations. I saw her as a complainer who only saw problems. Eventually, we had an open and honest conversation about it, after which we decided to discuss everything from now on.”

Now Steve and Mandy are having the best conversations—including about their future. “We never used to talk about where we wanted to be in twenty years. We’re really on the same page, and it’s almost impossible to put into words what that has meant for our relationship.”

Whereas Steve used to be constantly on the go at work and never stopped even at home, he has now found peace. And his children can tell, he says: “The moment I turn the doorknob at home, I leave everything behind and become the father my children deserve. They don’t have to feel the stress of Mom and Dad. The best part is that even my sensitive son is going through life with more peace and resilience. The fact that he’s picked this up from me makes me very proud.”