"Entrepreneurship is just a process of trial and error. The more you try the better you get."
Herby Fabius (https://herbyfabius.com/) is an author and entrepreneur residing in Connecticut. He founded BillionSuccess.com, an interview site where he conducts interviews with entrepreneurs and business authors. Over the years, Billion Success has featured some of the most successful entrepreneurs/authors in the business world.
Aside from speaking with amazing entrepreneurs and authors, Herby was also the co-founder of Triplefy, a tech startup out of New Haven, CT. Triplefy was an online platform created specifically for small business owners that allows them to sell online gift certificates.
Now Herby dedicates himself to sharing a positive message and stories to encourage others to become entrepreneurs and self-published authors. He is a business enthusiast and a success motivator.
His Amazing Company
Billion Success
His Website
Our Burning Questions Answered
Tell us about your business. How did the idea for your business come about?
The idea came to me a while back when I wanted to learn how to start online businesses. I was trying to learn as much as I could on how to make money online. The interviews were the best way to fast track the learning curve for me. I was asking people questions and realized I am not the only one with these questions. I realized that others could learn from them just as much as I had.
Just like everybody else, I Googled how to make money blogging. Of course, it all seems glamourous at first, but nobody tells you how much content you need to write, and how much traffic you need to generate from those content to make a little bit of money.
The interviews provided exactly what I needed as a new blogger. It provided fresh content from real experts. (less writing for me) and the site grew faster because they would all help promote their own interviews.
What are the highlights and low-lights of being an entrepreneur?
For me. the highlights include:
• Books sales and reviews
• When readers reach out to me about things they saw on my site
• My name being mentioned on other blogs
• My site being featured on blogs & online magazines
And the low-lights:
Include not knowing whether you’re on the right path. As entrepreneurs, we do things with no indication that what we’re doing is going to work. It’s like working in the dark. It is exciting, but at times you just want to throw in the towel.
What helps you stay driven and motivated to keep going in your business?
For one, I like what I am doing. I get to speak with amazing people every single day. Every day I see what the site can become so I keep doing it. Another reason is that the kids are watching.
As parents, we don’t realize how much they’re paying attention to what we say and do, but they are. So, for my 12-year-old son who I encourage to read daily and learn about finances and businesses, I must do what I preach or at least let him see me try. Kids learn by watching. They tend to do what we do, not what we say.
What do you feel is a helpful pattern or formula to becoming a successful entrepreneur?
The pattern is simple really. Create, share your creation, adjust, then repeat. (Keep sharing Daily)
1. Do the one thing that matters most every single day. Nothing else gets done in the day until the One Thing that matters gets completed.
2. Promote your business like there is no tomorrow. I don’t care if you only got one like on your Instagram page, or maybe nobody is commenting under your FB post and nobody is sharing it, believe me, when I tell you, keep promoting your work.
3. No comment, no like, no shares, but guess what? They’re watching in silence; they all still see it - and wasn’t’ that the point all along?
If you started your business again, what things would you do differently?
There are a couple of things I would have done differently, but I want to focus on one thing.
I would stop caring about people’s opinions of me and my business. This was by far the biggest thing that held me back from doing what I needed to do for my business to grow. In the past, I was too worried about what other people think of my writing.
Their opinion mattered so much to me that I would spend days writing blog posts that I never published. And If I finally hit that publish button, I would not share it on social media because I am afraid someone would see it and make fun of it. (this was all in my head of course not necessarily true) But it killed my creativity.
All that went away when I published my first book. The theme of the book was highlighting the top mistakes entrepreneurs make. This was a very suitable topic for me since I knew after publishing it that someone could potentially point out the mistakes/typos I have in it. So, this little reverse Psychology worked in my favor.
What valuable advice would you give new entrepreneurs starting out?
I have two simple pieces of advice. Two Things I wished I did.
Just start. You don’t need to know what you’re doing (here is a secret, most of us don’t) you simply need to start doing it. You will learn and adjust as you go. In the beginning stages, new entrepreneurs and authors tend to spend way too much time in learning mode.
As a beginner, you must be in creation mode. Create, publish then see people’s reactions and then adjust and repeat. In my opinion, entrepreneurship is just a process of trial and error. The more you try the better you get.
What 3 books do you feel were instrumental in your development as an entrepreneur?
I am not much of a reader. I listen to audiobooks. It is easier for me. I can learn more in a short amount of time on the go. All I need is my phone and my headphone and I can listen to a whole book in less than 3 hours. Now, translate that into me holding and reading a physical book, it would take weeks if not months to finish it.
And oh, most of these books I didn’t even have to buy. There is a ton of them listed free on YouTube. You can listen to the audiobooks free on YouTube. Tell nobody I said this.
Authored or Collaborated in the following books
On my very first attempt at writing books, I wrote one based on the interviews I had done at that time.
Business Lessons: 150+ Startup Mistakes and Entrepreneurship Lessons Shared by 55 Successful Founders (https://amzn.to/2IKUsdi). This one taught me the process of self-publishing on Amazon KDP. I made a lot of mistakes with this one, but what I learned was priceless.
I thought I can just write anything and make money. So, I wrote 2 other books in less than 2 months. (Big Mistakes) I thought I could game the system. I thought the more books I publish the more money I can make, so I wrote:
EXCUSES: Top 50 Excuses and False Statements Stopping You from Launching Your Business Idea (https://amzn.to/2Lwd5Tn).
And wrote another
STARTUPS Q&A: What Would You Say Are the Top 3 Skills Needed to be a Successful Entrepreneur – and Why? (https://amzn.to/3ncjGzZ)
Still today, my first book is the most successful one. People still buy it from time to time. The other two combines have less than five sales. The last two books are what happened when you focus on quantity over quality. Another lesson learned.
And oh, my kids and I recently published our first Children’s book called:
Ashton and the Little Yellow School Bus (https://amzn.to/2KdVf6L). The Story of my three-and-half-year-old son and how much he loves his toy school bus. Believe it or not, this one here is my best one yet. I am very proud of this one.