February 7, 2012 | 1:53 am

The Truth About Giving

Posted by Samira Asemanfar

Giving is part of our lives. We give our work, our hearts, intellect, advice, money, gifts, time… the list goes on. Learning why we give, can give us insight into ourselves and help us grow. Be careful not to miss forms of giving that you may not be attuned to, such as giving the right to someone to speak a certain way or giving your employee a day off when you know you need them. Many times you may find that you are giving out of fear, a desire to control or manipulate, or out of desperation.

Ask yourself before you give:
1. Why am I giving?
2. And am I giving or giving back?

A good rule to implement in most cases is to not give unless you are giving back. There is a reason why charitable organizations market that term “give back this holiday season.” It is because you shouldn’t be giving if you don’t have any for yourself first. Whatever it may be - time, love, money, charity, intellect. Like they instruct during emergency procedures, you must take care of your own needs before you can save another.

Be cognizant of how this may apply in your work environment. As a business-owner you should ensure your company is taken care of before the needs of your staff or customers. Without the company you wouldn’t be able to provide a job to your staff or a service to your customer.

January 24, 2012 | 11:58 am

Entrepreneur Profile

Posted by Samira Asemanfar

Omid Shokoufandeh (L) and Michael Meschures (R)

When I was thinking of first starting up my own business, all I did was read bios and profiles of entrepreneurs. I wanted to hear what they had to say. So now the tables have turned and I want to share the words of two guys who started a company together called Spaphile. Founded in 2010, Spaphile.com is an online marketing platform that exclusively features discounted services from spas, salons, and other health and beauty treatment centers. They provide users with information about health and beauty as well as deluxe perks such as events and giveaways.

Founders
Michael Meschures & Omid Shokoufandeh, both age 24

What led you to start your own company?
Michael: After working at companies in Public Relations and Business Management, I wanted to set out and do my own thing.  I met with a friend who started his own business and told me about his run.  I realized the risk involved, but was more enthralled about the possibilities and opportunities.  As a result, I took a chance.
Omid: Personally, I wanted to be an entrepreneur and start something successful that brings value to people.  It also doesn’t hurt to be your own boss!

Tell me about a challenge you faced that you had not anticipated?
Michael: Starting your own business takes time.  You cannot expect to make tons of money in the first couple years.  It takes a lot of inner drive and patience in order to brand your company the way you envision it.
Omid: I face challenges everyday that I don’t anticipate!  That’s probably the most interesting and most challenging part of running your own business - the everyday unknowns. You really have to be versatile and be capable of dealing with every aspect of the company, but at the end of the day you’re better for it and you grow with your company.

To date, what is your biggest success?
Michael: Our company had to pull together a red carpet celebrity event in less than 10 days.  We made every minute of each day count leading up to the event and as a result, we were able to execute a really successful event for our client.
Omid: Our biggest success to date is throwing a red carpet event for a merchant as a grand opening attraction.  We coordinated gift bags, drink and food sponsors, and confirmed celebrity attendees all with only one weeks notice!

Would you ever work for anyone else?
Omid: Everyday I work for someone and those are our customers! 
Michael: After starting my own business, it is difficult to consider going back to work for someone else.  However, with that said, I don’t think it is out of the question.

How do you feel your company stands out against other deal sites?
Omid: I think we bring a whole new experience that other deal sites don’t offer. We engage our users online and offline and we do that by throwing free events and giving out free services.  We target the Health and Beauty sector and our aim is to be the authority regarding that whole industry.
Michael: Our company is a niche (health, beauty and fitness) and as a result, it caters to a target demographic that merchants want to see in their spa, salon and fitness shops.  Spaphile prides itself more on the quality of the customer rather than the quantity.

What is the most valuable lesson you’ve learned since you started being in business?
Omid: Always maintain good relationships, you never know when someone might be able to help you.
Michael: You will have a million and one things to do one day and two things to do the next.  I think the most valuable lesson I learned thus far is managing my time while prioritizing which tasks need to be done.

If another aspiring entrepreneur were to ask you for one piece of advice, what would you tell them?
Michael: Have a goal in mind and stick to it.  Along the way, you may be forced to modify your goal but never lose sight of why you’re doing what you’re doing. 
Omid: Be passionate about what you want to do and don’t let outside voices influence you negatively!

Fun facts:
Omid and Michael have been friends from childhood and coach now coach soccer.
Michael volunteers as a board member for Sinai Temple’s young professionals group, ATID.

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January 23, 2012 | 4:07 pm

Organic Value vs. Forced Value

Posted by Samira Asemanfar

Lately, I’ve been learning about the difference between organic value and forced value. The difference is huge, but lies in the question: why? I met with a friend and very successful entrepreneur: Aaron Hageman, president of DDI, Inc. We shared our business challenges and opportunities, talked, analyzed and learned quite a bit in a 3 hour meeting last week.

As a business owner it is one thing to know what you do and how you do it [and to be good at it], but you also need to know why you do it. When you know why you do something your company’s value is organically communicated to your customers. When you don’t know why, you constantly have to force it, explaining to customers the what and the how.

Similarly, when you tell an employee what to do and they don’t know why they are doing it, they most likely will not perform up to par. If they know why, they will find a way to get the result.

The lesson: ask yourself ‘why’ before you start the ‘what’ and ‘how.’ If you know the why, your staff and customers will know too.

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January 11, 2012 | 1:13 am

Quantifying Intangibles

Posted by Samira Asemanfar

Intangibles are hard to measure. Period.

As a business owner, it is an ongoing challenge to measure subjective components such as customer service or a positive work ethic. Things like sales are easy - they go up and they come down. Black and white. Duties like cleaning, answering phones, responding to emails, showing up on time, obeying dress code policies, following step by step directions… all easy. Either you did it or you did not do it. Black and white.

Intangible, subjective components of any business are difficult to measure. And if you are anything like me, when you can’t measure something and get a clear cut result, you just don’t want to deal with it at all. Author Douglas Hubbard gives a great example in his book about government agencies that often completely overlook areas of their operations because they have no measuring tool. As a result, aspects of their operation greatly suffer. [“How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business” Awesome book!]

I’m not here to tell you that there is a magic way of putting a quantifiable value on something like customer service. There isn’t. But just because you don’t have the right measuring stick, does not mean you should simply ignore or overlook an area of your business until you find a magic measuring stick. Good practice would be to engage in small and simple acts of observing, monitoring and/or questioning. This will, more often than not, lead to incremental improvements in any unquantifiable business aspect. There is just no simple way to score something with so many different variables. Don’t be so hard on yourself.

Similarly, I find that people tend to often times ignore or put off aspects of themselves or their personal lives that they can’t really organize in a tangible manner. For example, there is no way of putting a time, value, or number on things like grieving a loss, analyzing your feelings in a relationship, caring for yourself, forgiveness, compassion…. I can go on and on. Just because you don’t have a measuring stick for yourself and your emotional health and well being, doesn’t mean it should get overlooked. Give yourself simple and small doses of attention and see what kind of shifts you can create for yourself in your personal life.

If you have small and simple ways to measure the intangibles in your business or personal life, share them with me! I would love to learn.

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January 2, 2012 | 11:00 pm

Redefining Rich. Defining Your Intentions in 2012.

Posted by Samira Asemanfar

Rich by Webster’s definition means ‘having abundant possessions and especially material wealth.’ Socially we use it to indicate that one has a great amount of money. But when you think about it what does money bring… it brings more choices. The option to choose from a larger pool. It takes away many limitations. When people say, “I want to be rich.” I wonder if they mean they want to have more specific options or if they just arbitrarily want a certain amount of money. It’s a good question to ask and here is why.

When you go after a goal that is very clear it is easier to attain. The test would be to pretend that a stranger was asking you to perform what you are asking from yourself. In imagining the stranger asking you to complete the task, do you say, “sure!” or do you stop and think “what exactly does this person want for me and why?”

Example: a stranger asks you to put a box in their trunk. This is very clear. As a person walking by you may actually help them. But a stranger if a stranger asks you, “can you please organize my boxes?” You will most likely be confused. You may even laugh and say, “yeah right!” He may mean put one box in the trunk, but he was not clear.

Be clear with yourself about your intention… use the stranger test.

In redefining rich, if you want more choices, ask yourself which choices you deeply desire that are not an option for you at the moment and make those your intentions. If you want more more money for financial security, ask yourself what financial security means to you and what it looks like. If you simply walk around all year saying I want to be richer [and in most cases in LA, skinnier]... you may still be saying that in 2013.

When setting intentions for this new year, really define what it is you are asking for. May 2012 bring you joy and may you bring yourself your best strategy yet!

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December 23, 2011 | 4:09 pm

How Much Darkness Does One Candle Take Away?

Posted by Samira Asemanfar

Randall Fried

A good friend of mine Randall Fried, owner of R House catering company, is always filled with wisdom. It could be his years of experience in the Kosher food business, teaching at Sinai Temple, leading March of the Living or it could just be his depth of knowledge and passion for history. During this Hanukkah season I quote him in saying…

How much darkness does one candle take away? Then add another? And another? We learn as children that the most important candle on the menorah is the Shamash, “the helper” candle.  You and I, like the shamash, have the power to help those around us; to share our light to disperse someone else’s darkness. Hanukah is known as the festival of lights and a time of miracles.  The real miracles happen today when we choose to help others.  We all have our darkness; our daily stresses, be it socially, personally and or financially.  These days it is so easy to be self absorbed in our own troubles, yet when we take the time to help others it is amazing how much light we add to the world around us. 

This Hanukah, take the time to gaze upon your Hanukiah and remember how much light one candle gives, not only the light of the shamash but the light it gives to each additional candle.  May we be like the light of the shamash, shinning bright and sharing our light with others.  Hag Sameach!

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December 21, 2011 | 3:35 pm

A Time of Rededication

Posted by Samira Asemanfar

Some of the most successful entrepreneurs account for their success in creating their own crises. Why? Because it allows for everyone in their company to come out of their auto-pilot mentalities and come up with new creative direction and rededicate themselves to their work’s mission. Whilst most of the staff doesn’t know that the crisis is planned, exaggerated and intentional, the man at the top has a vision and knows that in order to get everyone on board, they have to sense they are losing something if they don’t.

According to researchers and great business minds, employees and humans in general are more likely to react to sense of loss than a potential gain [sad, but true]. People are afraid of losing what they have or want. For this reason, sometimes intentional chaos at work can result in great growth.

Luckily, in our personal lives we have holidays to remind us to rededicate ourselves in new ways. Now that it is Chanukah, a time that honors rededication, think about how you can rededicate yourself to your life’s mission. If you want to employ the entrepreneurial tactic - imagine losing everything you have, how would you regain more back and what would you change?

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December 18, 2011 | 11:55 pm

The Beauty and The Woes of Taking on a New OS (Operating System)

Posted by Samira Asemanfar

As the end of 2011 approaches, so does lots of change. With work at Bellacures, we are implementing the use of a new system which will change so many of what our staff is used to in our daily operations. In my personal life, I am also taking on a new operating system, a new way of interacting with the people in my life.

The last time we changed our OS at Bellacures, there was a bit of chaos. It is a challenge to think of all possible occurrences and how the new OS will function with each occurrence. So sometimes, when you forget something, your misstep becomes a customer service disaster.

Recently, I have become aware of some changes I need to make within myself to interact better with the close people in my life. These changes are just as scary as implementing a new OS in a chain of salons that are not closing during implementation but rather need to implement their new system seemingly flawless to customers during business hours with no testing period. In a way, the business is vulnerable for a period of time as it settles into the new OS. Similarly, I will become more vulnerable as I develop my connection with my close friends and family. With 2012 around the corner, I hope that all the changes being made will bring Bellacures closer to its customers and me closer to my loved ones.

Since I have changed operating systems once before, I do have some tips on how to make the process of making any changes in your business a bit more smooth:

1. Prepare as much as you can by outlining all possible occurrences and how your new system will interact with each occurrence
2. Develop a “how to” list for your staff to reference as they will have tons of questions
3. Leave room for error. How? Be flexible. The more rigid you are in your implementation, the less room you will leave for tweaks that need to be made from possible errors
4. Expect to learn from the process, even though you will be the one implementing the new system

These tips can apply to anything you implement in life as well. The beauty of changing any kind of OS, growth. The woe, chaos and vulnerability. Embrace both with grace.

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