Erik Hanberg

During our 3rd session of class, we had a guest speaker come in and speak to us on his experiences of becoming an entrepreneur. The guest speaker was Erik Hanberg and he was previously involved with non-profit work before becoming an entrepreneur. He used his past experience of working with non-profits to self publish a "how-to" book on non-profits and also wrote a few mystery novels. Instead of attempting to find a publisher that would be interested in publishing his book, Erik released his books on the Kindle website to be purchased as an e-book. He found limited success in the beginning, but told us of how the income that is brought in from his books are passive income. This means that for every book that is sold online, he receives income without really doing anymore work to support the book. Once his book was uploaded, it is there for purchase forever and the potential for him to continue to collect money from his books is never ending.

Erik also teamed up with his wife, who is a graphic designer to start a company called Side by Side. The company is hired by authors to design covers for books. Erik spoke to us about how the company was doing well until 2008, when the recession hit and Side by Side lost its biggest customer, which equated to about 44% of their total revenue. Personally, I probably would have quit and gone back to my day job when this happened, but not Erik, he stuck to what he believed in and according to his graphs, it looks like he and his wife are at about the same level of income before the recession.

I thought Erik's presentation was interesting, but it did not apply to me. I understood the underlying message that in order to become a successful entrepreneur, you have to be willing to take risks. Erik was willing to quit his day job in order to write his books and work with digital design with his wife. But this doesn't apply to me really. I don't possess any real skills such as writing a novel or doing freelance digital work. Erik also mentioned a friend that started their business by taking photos of kittens for people and that later became a business for them. I also don't enjoy photography. I don't feel that I have any exceptional skills that I can sell on the internet or go out on my own to do freelance work. I think that Erik was in a very special situation where things played to his favor and as of now, everything seems to be working. I think in order to be a successful entrepreneur, you have know yourself, which includes your strengths and weaknesses. You also have to be at the right place and the right time and be involved with the right people. When the stars align for you, just maybe, you'll become a successful entrepreneur.