Hi, I’m Eric Rowen and I’d like to share a bit of my story with you.
I grew up in Brantford Ontario Canada in a working class family. My father was an entrepreneur/mechanic and part owner of a garage/gas-station. We were not a rich family by any means and conversely we were not poor either. My family was somewhat frugal and instilled the work hard, be honest and good things will happen philosophy.
Enriched Pockets – Crushing Soul
After high school I attended college then later university. During my early career I had various jobs working with municipal governments. In terms of pay – the money was good. Really good. I was able to save and buy common big ticket items like cars a house and go on some vacations. In 2001 I got married and in 2004 we had a beautiful daughter.
Yes it all sounds pretty picture perfect.
However…
After years of working in a larger corporate environment there was always something bothering me. It seemed the longer I was there the more money I made BUT the less job satisfaction I had. Every day seemed harder and harder to get out of bed and go to work. Let me assure you – for those in corporate environments, government organizations are just as bad when it comes to toxic work environments. I was making good money at the cost of my health and happiness and job satisfaction.
A quest for fullfilling work
In my quest to find more meaning in my work, I started taking evening courses in web design. I loved it! Each course was more interesting than the last!. I devoured each course as I was able to taken them. Even though I hated my day job at least my happiness after 4:30pm was on a continued upswing. After a few years I happily completed the course. At this point I now needed to figure out what I was going to do with these new skills. I hated my day-time job so much I had to make a decision on what to do next. Get another job doing similar work? Quit outright! or try to get a job in the web design field. My wife was a strong proponent of quitting immediately.
Funny – timing
During this time my wifes option of just quitting outright was on the top of my list, even though it would mean no unemployment benefits support. It was at this time (fortuitously) that the organization was undergoing an organizational review. One day I was asked to attend a meeting with ‘the bosses’ and was told that my position was deemed redundant. Wow, I can’t say I would have 100% quit outright at that time but at least now I received a severance package and was free to follow whatever path I choose.
Now what?
I thought long and hard about what to do next. Why not combine my education in marketing gained at university, my on-the-job marketing experience and my newly acquired web skills and help other people. Yep that was it. That was the path to the next chapter of my life. I immediately began work on my business. Register business?..check, create website..check. Order business card..check. I started attending networking events and soon had my first client.
This is where you come in
My first client was estatic about what I did for his business. Ever since then my mission is to help as many entrepreneurs/organizations reach their web goals as possible.
I am always researching and testing what works and what doesn’t work in this whacky web design world – it’s a passion! What do you think? Do you think we would be a good fit to work together?
REACH OUT
You probably have lots of questions – why not reach out now? – either give me a call or fill in my contact form to have that first discussion on how I could help you with your web project.
Sincerely,
Eric Rowen
"...Eric was able to think of solutions for problems we had not even identified."
"I had the pleasure of working with Eric on a significant undertaking for our organization. He takes the time to listen and ask the right questions, leading us to a final product that truly reflects who we are and what we offer to the community.
Eric was able to think of solutions for problems we have not even identified. This proactive approach to website design leaves us feeling extremely pleased with our end product.
Without hesitation I would recommend Silver 6 Media to anyone looking to create or update their web presence."