Student entrepreneur began early; now ready to launch second business
BY BARBARA FITZGERALD
It was a scene right out of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. A 15-year-old Joel Erb arrives in New York from his home in Chesterfield County in a limousine (owned and driven by a friend of the family) for scheduled appointments at Armani, Calvin Klein and Hugo Boss, to discuss his designs for their corporate Web sites.
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Joel Erb has been running Inet since he was 15 years old. Now he's ready to get a Richmond degree and launch a second company. |
"It was clearly difficult for some people at those companies to hold their composure when they saw how young I was," laughs Erb, a senior at Richmond who will graduate on May 14. "That whole day I was hearing comments like, 'How old are you anyway?', 'Has he even reached puberty yet?', and 'Is this Career Day, or what?'"
In a way, it was Career Day for Erb, who began on that trip to New York making connections that have served him well over the past decade and led him into a prosperous business that currently supports six employees and produces revenue "in the high six figures." On May 12, he will receive the regional Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania, presented by the Small Business Administration.
Erb is founder, president and chief executive of a Web-design and marketing firm called Inet Network Inc., which operated for several years out of his dorm room at the University but now occupies prime commercial real estate in the city's popular Shockoe Bottom area. Immediately after graduation, Erb will launch a second company, Muroe Creative, at the same site, to offer corporate branding and graphics.
Both companies offer Erb opportunities to indulge a couple of his primary interests: computers and art. "I was actually originally on an art track," Erb recalls. "I loved painting and creating, but I also enjoyed taking things apart; so I sort of matched the two things up to go into Web design. Back when I started in middle school, there was only a smattering of Web sites. My first design work was for my middle school's Web site. Parents of my schoolmates saw that work and wanted something similar for their own businesses, so before I knew it, I was doing sites for carpet and HVAC companies. That work led to creating mockups that gained me access to the New York fashion world."
Finding phone numbers online for "the stars of fashion," Erb made cold calls with a written speech before him, lining up appointments with people who had no idea of his age. First he referred them to the mock site he had already created for them, and then said, "I'll be in New York in two weeks and would love to meet with you and talk about a Web site."
Of the several who said yes, he actually ended up doing work for Hugo Boss. With that start, and with the presentation sites he had already built for the others, things took off. "I've been lucky to have clients who know a lot of people," he says. "Almost 100 percent of my work is word of mouth. I probably get six referrals from each job I do."
Despite the fact that his company was booming all the way back to high school days, Erb has found the marketing program at Richmond extremely helpful to him and his business. "Dr. Nancy Ridgeway, my advisor, has been wonderful. And I also greatly admire Harold Babb, who has so much real-life business experience to call on in his classes. I've learned a lot, perhaps the most important lessons being the value of contingency plans and diversification."
Life has taught him that lesson, too. On Sept. 10, 2001, Erb was in the Twin Towers in New York City, talking to an investment firm about getting its Web site business. The next day, back in Richmond, he saw the towers fall.
"Most of my business was in New York. Companies there started cutting budgets after 9/11, and marketing was the first thing to go. I lost a huge chunk of business and had to let all my employees go, except for two. Then I started getting panic attacks, and no one knew what was wrong. But I was an 18-year-old with the stress level of a 40-year-old businessman."
Erb went back to painting for relaxation and gradually rebuilt his business. "If there's another attack or anything like that, I'm better prepared. I will have business in other sectors. Right now, for instance, I'm doing Web sites and marketing for real estate developers." Erb works from 50-65 hours a week at his company. "Tuesdays and Thursdays are all school, as are my nights and weekends. I'm really looking forward to graduation, so I can concentrate on the level of work we now have and the startup of the new company. I'm ready for it."
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