Why Successful Entrepreneurs Invest in Employees

Employees are the lifeblood of any successful company or organization regardless of size. So whether you are running a multibillion-dollar company or are a tech start-up, your performance comes down to the people employed by your company and whether they are fully aligned with your company’s ethos and vision for the future.

Alan Safahi is a successful entrepreneur and start-up founder based in San Francisco. And with over 30 years’ experience in business development in the tech industry, he believes that investing in employees is crucially important at all steps of your company’s development.

This investment begins at the hiring stage.

Hiring new employees

Hiring the right candidates is an important step that needs to be carried out very carefully. However many new startups fail to gather the right people because they stick too rigidly to a tick box criteria such as academic and social background and are in a rush to get started.

By contrast, a successful company, such as Google, has a more open policy that will favor talented candidates who demonstrate they have the right qualities rather than the right background. If a candidate already displays a willingness to develop and learn, this growth mindset can be developed to benefit your company.

Scouting and hiring the right employees takes time but is a crucial factor in the development of your company.

To ensure that your recruitment program is on the right track, calling in the services of start-up expert and entrepreneur Alan Safahi will help establish a sound foundation for your company’s growth and development.

Investing in staff training is crucial

Investing time and money in training is paramount. Too many start-ups run into problems because they fail to provide adequate onboarding for new candidates. But you can’t expect new employees to perform like fully integrated team members unless you invest time and training in their development.

By contrast, a successful company will invest time and training in an onboarding and mentoring process so that new employees can quickly become fully integrated members of your team and are fully aligned with your company’s culture. This may require more time than you would like, but it will pay off in the long run.

Staff training and career development should be offered to employees throughout their careers so that as your company grows your employees can grow and develop equally.

Investing in employees is as important for start-up companies as it is for multinationals

If you are a startup company with a vision for the future, it is crucial to invest in obtaining the best and most talented employees for your team from the get-go.

Your company’s reputation is formed by the service you provide and in a highly competitive market, even small issues can make the difference between success and failure.

For example, if you get too many online reviews or negative social media posts complaining about your company’s performance it reflects badly on your whole company. This reputation can be hard to shake off yet can be caused by just one badly trained individual in your customer service department.

Alan Safahi is the founder of Safahi Global Advisors; an online reputation management company that will help you maintain a good reputation online and will prevent a bad review from ruining the credibility of your company.

In the early days of any company, teething troubles can lead to mistakes but a negative impression online can ruin your future chances of success. All this could have been so easily avoided with more investment in your employees.

Investing in your employees improves performance and reduces costs

When you invest in your employees it not only improves company morale it reduces costs.

Offering benefits such as health care cover, gym membership, subsidized meals or free breakfasts are a few ways of helping your employees feel valued. Offering added incentives such as performance-driven bonuses and awards and investing in ongoing staff training helps employees see that they have a long-term future with your company.

Staff turnover is a major expense. According to statistics, it can cost as much as six months salary to fully train a new staff member so even if investing in your employees seems initially expensive it is the only way to guarantee the success and the future growth of your company.

Originally Posted: https://www.allperfectstories.com/successful-entrepreneurs-invest-employees/

7 Tips for an Investment Pitch That Gets Funded

If you have an excellent startup idea and require financing, you must prepare properly to obtain your first investor. Once you have the financial support of an investor, getting others will be much easier.

In this article, San Francisco Entrepreneur Alan Safahi, The principal at Safahi Global Advisor shares with you a little of his experience as a 6X startup founder and entrepreneur, detailing 7 tips for an investment launch that will be better positioned to get financed.

1. Select the right audience

One of the key aspects is to know very well the audience to whom you must address. The type of investors you should target will be determined by the phase your business is in, and by the amount of money you want to raise.

Make sure you know your audience and design a presentation accordingly. Use your own language for them and detail each aspect of interest about your venture.

2. Tell a success story

You must have total confidence about the success of your business, and transmit it to your potential investors. Tell your audience what a the reasons why your venture will be a success, and how you will achieve that.

Focus your story on the future, on the profits your company will bring, and how the investment the round will drive the valuation of your business.

3. Pass on your passion

The passion you feel for your new project is the same that you should make the group of potential investors feel.

Let them know in detail all the potential that your company has, how it will change the world, how you will do things in an original way, and what is your secret recipe.

Explain to them how their investment will allow you to revolutionize the market, and how it will help you take your company to the top of success.

4. Keep it simple and understandable

According to Safahi’s experience as an advisor, a good technique to transmit information is to do it in the simplest way possible.

Regardless of the level of mastery or knowledge of your investors, you should present the information about your startup in the simplest possible way. Design your content in such a way that any primary school child can understand it.

Avoid using extremely technical language. Design your presentation to explain the essence of your company in a matter of seconds. This is the most effective way to do it.

5. Describe the sales you have obtained

If your startup is already making a profit from sales, you should mention this point to investors.

One of the techniques that, like Alan Safahi, has used in the business world, is to present sales on a timeline. That is, indicate the amount of dollars you obtained from sales in a certain period of time. This gives investors a clear view of what you have accomplished.

Another important aspect is that you are prepared to explain how you can continue to sell and increase your profits. This is extremely important to potential investors.

6. Design a plan with well-defined deadlines

You must design a schedule indicating a well-defined and not very long term, to raise the money you require.

This period can be of great advantage to you in several aspects. On the one hand, having a deadline can encourage investors to seal a deal with you. It can also help you facilitate the contract process by reaching an agreement with multiple investors.

Remember to clarify to potential investors that you have a maximum term to reach an agreement.

7. Create and explain an exit and profit strategy for investors

Even if you are not thinking of leaving your business, investors have another point of view. It is very important for them to know what will happen in the event that their business relationship with your company ends.

You must explain precisely and concretely how they will recover their investment. How they will get their reward multiplied or compounded. Let them know that your goal is to achieve your success and theirs.

These tips have always been very effective in everything related to the startups that Alan Safahi and his partners at Safahi Global Advisors have advised in the past which should work just as well for any startup.

Originally Posted: https://vocal.media/journal/7-tips-for-an-investment-pitch-that-gets-funded

How Invest With A Small Budget

A very widespread myth about investing is that you need a massive sum of money just to get started, when in reality the process of building a solid portfolio/investment account can, and often does, begin with just a few thousand — or even a few hundred — dollars.

In this guide below we offer specific advice, from both our research partners and from industry tech titans like Alan Safahi, all with the aim of helping you get started and dive into the world of investing.

Starting Strategies

Regardless of whether you plan to invest a small or hefty amount, in safe bets or high-risk trades, these tips will help you get your plans off to a great start.

Automate Your Savings

If you’re able to reliably and consistently set aside funds every month into your investment accounts, you will reap large rewards over time. If you’re unable to do this, due to a lack of organization or willpower etc, but still want to reap these benefits, then set up automated systems that manage this for you.

There are apps on the app store that make it relatively straight-forward and painless to automatically set aside money for investments. Acors, Chime, Qapital, are some apps that all round up transactions from your debit/credit card and sends the difference towards your investments.

Other options are to check with your bank about its own apps and other ways you can automatically transfer funds from your spendings accounts towards your investments accounts and/or portfolio.

Pay down your debts

Before you start investing, evaluate what it costs you to hold onto debts that you already have, and begin to calculate how easily you can pay them off. High-interest credit cards have rates of 20% or more, after all, and some student loans have interest rates of over 10% . Those rates outweigh the average annual earnings of 7% or so that over time the U.S. stock market has returned over time.

If you have a lot of high-interest debt, it’s smarter to pay off at least a portion of it before you begin to invest. While you can’t predict the exact return on most of your investments, you can be certain that retiring debt with a 20% interest rate one year early is as good as earning a 20% return on your money.

Make sure you contribute the maximum amount of money to your 401(k) as well.

Consider Your Retirement

A key objective of saving and investing, even at an early age, should be to help ensure that after you stop working, you have enough money to support yourself. Your main objective when you prepare to plan for retirement should be to take full advantage of the government and employer benefits that they offer to facilitate retirement protection. Don’t overlook it if your business offers a 401(k) retirement plan. Alan Safahi, a Fintech CEO and industry titan, recommends that nearly everyone tap into their retirement plan benefits, and start paying into it as soon as possible. “Living in Orinda, located east of San Francisco, California, I’ve noticed a lot of people here take advantage of the multitude of retirement benefits offered by their employers, and that’s a welcome and optimistic sight to behold.” Alan said in a brief comment to us.

How to Invest $500

While it may seem small, $500 can go a lot farther than you’d expect. For a safe choice, put it into a CD from a bank or other lenders, or use it to purchase short-term Treasury bills. These can be purchased through online brokers as well. For both of these options growth isn’t high, but the risks are almost zero. Great way to start your nest egg.

For those seeking more growth potential in exchange for a little more risk, check out a dividend reinvestment plan (DRIP). You buy shares of stock, and your dividends are automatically used to purchase additional shares or even fractional shares. This is a great choice for smaller investors because the shares are purchased at a discount and without paying a sales commission to a broker. Buying just one share of a company’s stock will get you started. Alan Safahi recommends this as well, as a safe way to grow your investment over time, with the benefit of compounding.

Summary

The investment basics are simple: Maximize your growth and minimize your risk. Minimize taxes, fees, commissions. Make intelligent choices with your limited resources.

The hardest part of investing is when you’re getting started, but the sooner you do so, the more you can potentially make. Simple as that.

Social Media Practices Boost Brand

Nearly half of the world is on social media, according to the Digital 2020 July Global Snapshot. There’s simply no question that today, to build a personal brand, there’s nothing else that compares to the power of social media. The potential audience, exposure, and ease of use it offers makes it one of the best methods for anyone to boost and grow their personal brand. Everyone who is pursuing a way this should use it, and the reasons why are listed below.

According to Alan Safahi, a major Fintech CEO who has started and led many successful companies throughout his career, social media allows brands to develop a deeper connection with their audience, on a more sincere and personalized level. Thus creating valuable customer loyalty, which generates leads and providing the advertising/marketing exposure that money can’t readily buy.

A person can use the momentum that social media creates to turn what was once a small, niche brand, and grow it to a common name that nearly every household knows. A famous example of this would be Elon Musk using his twitter account to grow support for his companies, interact directly with his customer base, post updates, job listings, and respond to questions/comments. Three reasons why social media has become this formidable advertising behemoth it is today, and why nearly anyone can use this to grow their personal brand are listed below.

Social Media Makes Your Brand More Authentic

In today’s digital world, where everyone and everything is constantly demanding your attention, it’s become increasingly more difficult for a small brand to gain notoriety and attention. One of the most important factors for a brand is if an audience believes in it, and trusts it. This only occurs if you’re an authentic and genuine brand, or if they at least believe that to be true. “Authenticity and quality of our products/services is one of the key metrics that I direct my employees to be aware of at all times, due to their importance in sales and customer loyalty.” states Alan Safahi, who currently resides in Orinda, CA.

The close proximity of this bustling town to San Francisco, a major tech hub, allows him to see nearly every day the power of social media in action. Safahi has spoken at many events, and has direct connections with many of today’s industrial titans, and he is adamant that if a company or a person doesn’t take advantage of the power of social media, they will be at a severe disadvantage.

Additionally, he adds that you should make sure that you don’t make any outlandish claims, or false statements, as this will only cause you to create mistrust and decrease your customer loyalty.

Social media connects Your Brand to a Lifestyle

Consumer trends closely mimic social media, and if a business or a personal brand succeeds in connecting their brand to a way of life, or a lifestyle, they will achieve great market penetration, along with a host of other benefits. They will build a deep economic “moat”, and their customers will be extremely loyal to the brand, often even referring your product or service to their friends and family. Social media allows people to post, share, and learn about lifestyles on a scale unmatched by any other medium in today’s world. An example of this would be trends such as the Keto diet, the meditate for thirty days challenge, and the ever changing fashion styles of consumers, spurred by influencers through social media. Data shows that consumers “commit to the lifestyle trends, and will do anything in their power to reasonably achieve it.” as also echoed by Alan Safahi.

Further adding, “With the rapid rise of social media and the advent of capable devices in almost every consumer’s hands to access the aforementioned market, individuals and brands are essentially required to cultivate a strong online presence.” Alan Safahi has leveraged this online sector to his advantage multiple times, and it has offered him and his companies numerous benefits, his extreme success being a testament to this.

Social Media Allows You to Grow a Global Presence

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of social media is its broad reach; All over the world users log onto their various social networks and consume content every day. A large marketing team and the budget required to sustain one are simply not needed, instead one needs to be tech savvy and have a thorough understanding of consumer sentiments. It levels the playing field, so to speak. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re from, it only matters what value you can offer to the consumers.

As a result of this, it offers everyone a chance to strike it rich and make it big. Alan Safahi explains that the use of social media has given numerous people he knows the opportunity to reach a vast swatch of people, from all walks of life, and connect them to their brand, service, or product. In conclusion, if you’re not already actively expanding your presence on social media, you’re falling behind, as your competitors most certainly are.

Originally Posted: https://vocal.media/journal/best-social-media-practices-to-boost-your-personal-brand

Turn Marketing Goals into Wins for Business

 As we know in today’s world, it’s common for people to decide to start their own business, as the costs associated with such a venture have been declining for decades. However, it’s much less common for these newly founded businesses to actually be successful. a business; So , to increase the chances of success, we have to develop strategies that help your business achieve its maximum potential in terms of sales, growth, and revenue. One such strategy that is very common in today’s world is Advertising. Essentially, marketing a product or service to a broad range of people, sometimes extensively, so that they’re more inclined to purchase from you. There are many other strategies, and below we discuss these.

Five Ways:

1. Advertising

Advertise more, because as usual “Generally, the more you spend on advertising, the better your results will end up being. It’s the best way to be seen by many and offers a way to ingrain in some of these people’s minds a desire to purchase a product or service your company offers. As great entrepreneur and founder of ZED Network Alan Safahi said, advertising is the fastest and most efficient way to promote your business.”

2. Marketing plans:

Marketing plans should be strong and up to date, in order to ensure a wide range of new tactics to sell more products to a greater amount of people, are in motion. . It’s This process of identifying customer needs and determining how best to meet those needs, is very important. searching, analysing, creating, and always delivering the best to the customer is crucial in doing this effectively. The main aim of marketing is to create, build, and maintain a relationship with the customers and deliver the best customer experience to them.

3. Be Conscious:

Once you have started your business and have developed your marketing department to a sufficient degree, you should then be alert of your company’s security against potential hackers or other bad actors.. One should pursue protecting your assets as soon as possible. As we know now, fraud is common. So, secure all of your information, accounts, and priorities etc.

And always be familiar with your competitors’ do’s and don’ts; Their ideas, pricing, ratings, and information. It is not about stealing your competitor’s information but knowing their strong and weak points. you to make more informed decisions, and it’s much easier to move forward.

4. Team Work:

Businesses thrive when they have a diverse team of people who can contribute individual ideas. Even the first characteristic perceived by great entrepreneur Alan Safahi is. Teams can often be better and better equipped than an individual in the task of bringing things to fruition. Teamwork includes efficiency, delegation, ideas, support, effective communication, etc. Teams are indicative of power and unity, making business more powerful overall.

5. Strong leadership:

Strong leaders must always connect employees together whenever possible, and develop teams that lead in the right way forward. Good leadership creates employee engagement and passion, which leads to higher levels of customer loyalty, service, innovation resulting eventually in profits. A non-partial leader is known to be a leading contributor of business satisfaction. Leading positively is equally important, as it affects the positivity in the team and strengthens businesses for success.

In summary, businesses marketing strategies need a strong mind-set, dedication, knowledge, customer satisfaction, time management, and Unity, in order to succeed in business.

Originally Posted: https://www.allperfectstories.com/turn-marketing-goals-business/

5 Best Apps For Managing Your Projects 2021

Are you looking for ways to improve your business performance in 2021? Look no further! With a guide compiled based on numerous metrics and studies, and with input of Alan Safahi, a fintech CEO, the 5 best Apps for project management are ranked below You can use these apps to assist in hitting your goals for the year and managing your team more effectively. Keep scrolling!

#5 ClickUp:

If you’re a power user or business owner with a preference for end-to-end solutions, this is for you. The ClickUp App meets nearly all project management needs and it includes lots of amazing features you can use for any task. No, this isn’t one of the many complex apps you’ll find on the store these days; it is easy to navigate and has a clean UI.

#4 Kantree:

Kantree is the way to go if you’re tired of the regular, clunky spreadsheets or the existing email system of your team’s communication. It’s a new app that solves all project management problems adequately and provides users with one of the best platforms for effective collaboration.

At the core of the Kantree app, you’ll find a ‘cards’ unit that represents a lot of things. It contains many attributes; from description to assignees to attachments, and others, which all help businesses manage projects effectively.

#3 MeisterTask:

Yes, having plenty of features on an app is great; but sometimes, it’s just not necessary. Imagine having to deal with loads of irrelevant features day in day out — you might end up more frustrated and confused than you would’ve been otherwise, not using the app..

MeisterTask is the app to use if you are looking to manage your projects easily without stress. It has just the essentials and nothing more. No cluttering, no feature-stuffing, nothing at all. All you’ll find on the app is a dashboard, tasks, and then projects. Yet, it does a great job at solving all of the common project management problems quite well.

#2 Quire:

Quire is an app catered to companies or businesses that usually have difficulties dealing with large goals. In order for nearly any meaningful action undertaken by those assigned to complete projects to succeed, there must be a deliberate breaking down of projects into smaller tasks; and this is exactly what the Quire app does.

With this app, you can bypass the commonplace hurdles and hassles of handling large goals, allowing you to manage your projects . You can also take notes of your thoughts about the project in the app, and plan for them in advance, so that you can deal with them without difficulty.

As you would expect, the Quire app has an easy-to-use interface, and users can easily switch views to suit their taste.

#1 Pian.io:

Alan Safahi believes pian.io should take the top spot; Pian.io manages and delegates tasks better than many other apps out there. You’re sure to get the very best project management experience with this app, asit provides all that is necessary for teams to work effectively, and more. The platform even includes a tracking system for inputs like status, spent time, assignee, priority, percent done, categories, and a lot more. It’s very easy to use and quite intuitive.

Another key feature that sets the Pian.io app apart from the others is its ‘file management’ feature. With it, businesses can easily share files with their employees.

Originally Posted: https://safahi.com/best-apps-for-managing-projects-2021-a7929d2c366a

Are You Business Owner or an Entrepreneur?

The world today is, generally, more ripe with opportunities than in the past.. The advent of technology has led to the formation of more industries, companies, and the like than ever before.. As a result, many individuals who never thought they could do business have found themselves in the world of business, perhaps making a great deal of income as well. In addition, the increasing rate of unemployment due to COVID-19 has motivated many people into starting their own businesses.

Many people have happened to stumble upon opportunities and made great businesses out of them, but only a small percentage have the proper orientation and mindset that result in a successful business.

What then differentiates a business owner from an entrepreneur?

1. Motivation:

What serves as the motivation for starting a business goes a long way in deciding whether the owner is just that- a business owner or not. It is not uncommon to find that people start Businesses because a single opportunity opened up and they were available while there are others who first notice a need no one else sees and therefore seize the opportunity to create goods and/or services that meet such needs. The one with the visionary mind that notices what other people don’t, or even when they do, goes a step further to create a solution.

Entrepreneurs tend to listen more to their customers, which is the way things should be, according to an expert, Alan Safahi, a fintech CEO.

2. Passion:

Both the business owner and the entrepreneur have passion. This passion is just placed differently. The major concern of a business owner is usually to make profit for the company, and eventually its shareholders. This mindset goes a long way in determining the way they handle the business, relate with customers, handle feedback and so on. On the other hand, an entrepreneur is first interested in the industry. They go into business because they love that sector of the economy. For instance, an individual discovers they love fashion and enjoy anything that goes along that path. For that reason, they start a business in that line to explore their love for fashion, and share it with others.

It is important to follow your passion while starting a company, Alan Safahi opines. Of course, entrepreneurs would want to make a profit in their business but it wouldn’t be the only reason they start the business.

Business expert Alan Safahi also says that while you may make a lot of money from business, it should not be the goals.

3. Mode of business building:

Many business owners would rather build the business around themselves, concentrating on working in the business and becoming an indispensable part of the business. The entrepreneur is entirely different. They work on the business as much as they work in it and build it in a way that it can run without them. An entrepreneur creates an exit option in the business, so that if they want to leave to pursue other ideas or ventures, they can leave and the business will still be standing.

Originally Posted: https://alansafahi.com/are-you-a-business-owner-or-an-entrepreneur/