Herby Fabius – Co-founder of Triplefy.com

[quote style=”boxed”]I recommend everyone to focus on just one task until completed. Jumping back and forth will probably get you nowhere.[/quote]

Herby Fabius is the co-founder of Triplefy.com, an online platform that allows small businesses to sell and manage Deals and Gift cards. He also runs an entrepreneurship blog BillionSucess.com where he interviews startup founders and share business advice with a community of newbie entrepreneurs. Currently, he is working on GreenTieProject.org – an online organization dedicated to helping Connecticut entrepreneurs launch and grow businesses.

After he graduated from the College of Westchester, he wanted to pursue his dream of startup entrepreneurship. While attending the many Startup Weekend events in his home state (Connecticut) he met his now partner Mike Morris, a software programmer turned entrepreneur and founder of Recdesk.com. The two partnered up to launch Triplefy, They currently have customers in 5 countries – including US, Canada, and Australia.

What are you working on right now?

Right now we’re working on adding new features to Triplefy. We want to include a marketing training area for our customers. Right now, a lot of our users are very new business owners, so they don’t have a large fan base or email list to promote their offers. We want to provide them a training area form inside the platform to show them the way. We want to make sure that they know how to use Deals & Gift Cards to increase sales and their grow profit.

Another feature we’re working on is a “library of voucher templates” for them to choose from. Right now they’re able to add their own voucher template, but we want to give them a library to choose from. That way, they don’t have to create their own vouchers if they don’t want to.

Where did the idea for Triplefy come from?

My partner Mike Morris came up with the Idea for Triplefy. He believes that small businesses are the heart of the economy, so he wanted to build something that can help local businesses and economies grow. With a lot of work and dedication Triplefy was born, I later joined him to launch the first beta version.

We tested it for about 6 months, and all the while had paying customers. Having that little extra income in Beta stages is always a plus. Having paying Beta testers allowed us to better understand what potential customers were looking for and what was important to them. This platform was our solution for small businesses who wanted to offer their own deals & gift cards without making any prior commitments, or even given up half of their revenues. We had the full launch in January 2013 and since then; we’ve been working hard to grow the company.

How do you make money?

We currently use a pay per performance model. In other words, we only make money when our customers make money. We simply charge a certain dollar amount on each transaction. This model works great for us and our customers- it’s simply a win-win situation.

We probably would have made more money if we used a subscription model, but we really wanted to provide a service that will help small business grow without them breaking bank. And so, a pay per performance model works great for everyone.

What does your typical day look like?

A regular working day for me starts with checking my emails and respond to all questions and inquiries from customers or potential customers. Second part of the day is Social media marketing. I would check Twitter, Facebook & Pinterest look for leads and engage new potential customers. I use tools like Hootsuite and Buffer app to schedule all social updates.

The day will probably end in writing blog posts. Usually something that can help our customers and also to help us to grow web traffic. These are just the basics. I deal with everything else in between as they come.

How do you bring ideas to life?

I am a note freak; I am constantly taking notes, I write everything down. Even though it’s very hard to stay focus, I try to do one thing at time. In the early days I would bounce back and forth from projects to projects, but at the end of the day I usually ended up wasting time.

Today, I find that if I stay focused on a single project each day from start to completion, I am spending the day being more productive. So I recommend everyone to focus on just one task until completed. Jumping back and forth will probably get you nowhere.

What’s one trend that really excites you?

The social trends really excite me. I just love seeing all the social media sites and apps that are just popping up everywhere. Beside the major social sites Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Google + I just can’t wait to see what else they come up- excited to see the next Billion Dollar social platform.

What was the worst job you ever had and what did you learn from it?

Oh man! I’ve had so many bad jobs, but the worst that come to mind is working at a shampoo factory (Clairol) I started this job right out of High School because I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life at the time. I took a year off before heading to College, (BIG mistake). I worked there for about 6 months, worked from 3pm to 2am pushing pallets and boxes of shampoo – yeah! the good old days.

I would never want my employees to feel the way I felt working there. I learned first hand what it meant to be an unhappy employee

If you were to start again, what would you do differently?

If I were to start over, I would definitely change major from a Business degree to Computer Science. I also would’ve started my business much earlier, probably while still in High School (Best time to Start). I wasted way too much time trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life and career. I know I am still young but it would have been so much easier to pursue my entrepreneurial dreams at a younger age.

As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?

I listened to podcast, mostly entrepreneurship interviews. There are all these free resources out there literally teaching us the INs and OUTs of how to start a business, but yet, not many people are taking advantage of them. Listening to podcast is one of the best ways I learn from other successful entrepreneurs.

Reading is great too, but if you’re like me and don’t like to read as much, I recommend listening to podcast and learn on the go.

What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?

But the biggest one we’ve had with Triplefy was not focusing on a niche market. We were targeting all type of businesses. Our target market was everyone who owns a small business, and that was just too large of a market to focus on.I’ve had many failures and I am still failing as we speak

We needed to niche down in order to grow faster. We realized that 75% of our users were from the beauty industry, Salons, Spas, and Tanning places, so we decided to focus our marketing effort towards that market. And by doing so we got better results and more leads. The platform still works for all type of businesses, but we’re currently refocusing our marketing toward the beauty industry.

What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?

This is probably my favorite question, because I am always thinking of new products ideas. Ok here it is: I though of this in High School, I called it the “MicroFridge” it is a quick freeze portable device. It works like a microwave but as a freezer. Perfect use for outdoors and road trips. You can quickly turn any warm beverages into a cold one, (within seconds). It’s more like an invention but if someone could create it, I think it would be huge.

If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be and how would you go about it?

That would be to make everyone more helpful to one another. I say this because I believe that we can all learn to be successful entrepreneurs. We live in a world where it’s mostly about who you know, not what you know, so if everyone would take the time to lend a hand, pay it forward, help a newbie get started, then can all grow together.

Helping someone to accomplish something actually feels better than your own personal accomplishments. So I would like it for everyone to make an effort to help as much as they can – no matter what cause you’re supporting.

Tell us something about you that very few people know?

I am in love with Emilia Clark’s character (Daenerys Targaryen Calisi) from the “Game of Thrones”. I just finished watching season 4 and already can’t wait for the next season.

What are your three favorite online tools or resources and what do you love about them?

Twitter – It is by far the best way for me to connect with other entrepreneurs. It’s fast, it’s easy and plus I hate going through PR folks to get to the people I really want to talk to. Twitter gives me the ability to contact anyone at any giving time, even when if they don’t know me.

Buffer App –I just love Buffer it’s the best way I know to schedule social media posts.

Linkedin – I love Linkedin because it’s probably the only social network where people take you seriously. I can connect with other entrepreneurs without it being weird. On Linkedin everyone means business, and I like that.

What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?

The Strangest Secret by Earl Nighingale audio book. There’s also a hard copy if you prefer reading. This is where I got the best possible definition of the word “SUCCESS”. Everyone defines success their own way, but this book share the only definition that I agree with.

Three people we should follow on Twitter and why?

@JohnleeDumas – Daily Entrepreneur interviews podcast. It’s great to learn from other entrepreneurs.
@SelfemploydKing – Michael Kawula entrepreneur/coach who shares self employed tips and franchising advice.
@Addictd2Success – As entrepreneurs we all need to stay motivated, so this is all about business motivation.

When was the last time you laughed out loud? What caused it?

That probably was about 2 months ago. My son Hayden is going to kindergarten this year, so I had a brochure of his new school. The brochure was in my hand and I showed it to him and told him that this was going to be his new school, and he started crying. I couldn’t figure out why he was crying, he cried every time I showed him the brochure.

The next day I asked him why he cried, he said “daddy I don’t want to go to the school with this boy with all his teeth fell out” pointing to the brochure cover that shows a kid smiling with no front teeth. That was just hilarious to me. The whole time I kept thinking – he has no idea what’s coming; he was only a few months away for a visit from the tooth fairies. Poor Hayden.

Who is your hero?

I believe mostly everyone on IdeaMensch said their parents to this question. I am no different. My parents are my heroes. They went through so much raising me. They play a huge part in my motivation for success. I want to put myself in a position to return the favor. I want to help them just as they have helped me.

What do you want to be remembered for the most?

I would like to be an inspiration to young entrepreneurs. I would like to be remembered as someone who helped others to become successful. My ultimate goal would be to inspire every successful entrepreneur to become mentors and help others get started.

I believe we should all be mentors. No matter how little knowledge you may think you have, there is someone out there who know less than you do. Go teach someone something; it’s the best gift you can give.

What’s you top 3 all time favorite movies?

Bad Boys: (The first one) this is probably my all time favorite. Believe it or not this was the first movie I ever saw in a movie theater.

Inception: A dream within a dream is just way too cool. I just love it.

The man of Steel (Superman): Just watched the new Superman and it’s quickly becoming one of my all time favorites.

Connect:

Herby Fabius’ Email: [email protected]
Herby Fabius on Twitter: @HerbyFabius
Herby Fabius on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/herbyfabius/