Soft Landing
Reorganise without reputational damage — by helping departing employees land as independent entrepreneurs.
Tom Koster & Partners · Silvolde
Transition Programme For Organisations
The Soft Landing
Reorganise without reputational damage — by helping departing employees land as independent entrepreneurs.
For leadership, HR and finance teams at organisations in transition.
Every reorganisation follows the same script: months of negotiations, lawyers, a drawn-out legal process, and a departure that leaves a bad taste. It costs you money, time, and your reputation as an employer. There's a route that turns this around.
One thing is certain: your employee is leaving. The only question is how — and what it costs you.
The classic route makes you pay twice
You pay the exit package first. Then you pay again — in negative reviews, in a damaged employer brand, and in the quiet demotivation of the people who stay. Classic outplacement barely softens the blow: it just shifts people from one job to the next, while the labour market is tight and suitable roles are scarce. The message that sticks is one of being cast off.
From employee to entrepreneur
The Soft Landing flips the script. Instead of handing your employee a final cheque, you give them a start for themselves: a proven business model as a Digital Concierge — a regional digital advisor for small and medium-sized businesses, deployable in any market. No leap into the unknown, but a fully worked-out model with personal guidance, a complete curriculum, and a technical team that handles delivery. Your employee doesn't leave as a casualty, but as an entrepreneur.
The mechanism
The money you're paying anyway becomes start-up capital
The exit payment you're already budgeting for doesn't have to disappear into a farewell. With The Soft Landing, part of it can finance a business of their own — or give the whole business a flying start. The same money, a completely different story: not a cost, but an investment in your people's future — a story your leadership can defend, your works council can support, and your employee can embrace without resentment.
The comparison
Why The Soft Landing beats the classic route
| Classic outplacement | The Soft Landing | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Finding a new salaried job | Building a business of their own. Full-time, or part-time alongside another job — including part-time employment elsewhere. |
| Depends on | A tight labour market and open vacancies | A proven model for more than 30 years |
| Message | “You've been let go” | “You're getting a springboard” |
| Exit payment | Disappears into the farewell | Becomes start-up capital, or part of it |
| Employer brand | Comes under pressure | Is strengthened — you show yourself a responsible employer |
| Relationship after departure | Severed | Potentially your first client, at arm's length |
Not a disguised job — a real business of their own
Many employers consider letting a departing employee continue the same work as a freelancer. It feels like the easy way out, but it isn't: the same tasks, the same client, the same dependency — just without the security of employment. Your former employee effectively stays tied to you, and you remain responsible for what happens to them. That's not a landing. That's postponing the same problem.
The Soft Landing works differently. Your former employee builds a client portfolio of their own across multiple small and medium-sized businesses — in the local region or far beyond it — delivering new services, not their old role in a different jacket. Genuine entrepreneurship, with no employment relationship. You're welcome to become their first client, provided it's limited, at market rates, and at arm's length. That way, your employee leaves with a future instead of a file.
What the programme includes
- Personal one-on-one coaching from Tom Koster, from first step to first client.
- A complete online curriculum and access to the private community.
- A proven revenue model with a technical team handling delivery — the largest share of project revenue stays with the entrepreneur.
- Support all the way to the first paying client — not to a certificate, but to first revenue.
An example
From student to a high six-figure business
Mart started out as a student in digital services. Using the Digital Concierge model and Tom's coaching, he built an independent business that now generates well over six figures a year.
The next step
Schedule a discovery call
In that call, we'll work out together whether The Soft Landing fits your organization and your upcoming transition. No sales pitch — just an honest assessment of whether this will work for your people.
▶ Schedule your Zoom meetingYou can also email me with 2 dates and times. I'll then get in touch to schedule our Zoom meeting.
[email protected]
European Marketing And Sales Systems B.V.
Berkenlaan 98
7064 HT Silvolde
The Netherlands
Phone/WhatsApp: +31 6 57 22 82 10