Dan Afrasiabi - Executive Profile
Dan Afrasiabi served as the President of Symphony Services Cost Management Group, overseeing all of the company’s operations in Dallas, TX, Nashville, TN, and Bangalore, India. Dan Afrasiabi role at Symphony CMG resulted from Symphony’s acquisition of Stonehouse Technologies, inc. (STI). Dan Afrasiabi served as Stonehouse’s president, and co-owned the company with NStor Technologies, formerly a San Diego-based publicly traded company.
Prior to STI, Dan Afrasiabi last served as the president of Tickets.com (formerly NASDAQ traded under the symbol TIXX) Ticketing Services Group (TSG). TSG provided some of the nation’s largest sports and entertainment organizations, including various Major League Baseball clubs with outsourcing solutions for the sale and distribution of their tickets. Tickets.com was acquired by MLB Advanced Media, LP subsidiary in 2005.
Dan Afrasiabi also has significant experience in private equity investments, mergers and acquisitions, and the capital markets. Mr. Afrasiabi was formerly a vice president at Ventura Global, Ltd., a private equity management firm. Dan Afrasiabi received a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a focus on Entrepreneurial Studies, as well as an M.B.A. and J.D. graduate degrees, all from the University of Southern California.
Sept. 3, 2009 - Mr. Dan M Afrasiabi set to speak with CFB Benefit Specialist group Tuesday September 2nd regarding membership benefits. After launching Century Financial Benefits, the team will learn from Dan Afrasiabi himself how to make the benefit suite work for the customer base. In addition Mr Dan M Afrasiabi will pass out awards based on individual and group performance to the CFB Benefits Specialists team. Dan Afrasisbi has lead CFB to greatness in a short time and prides him self on personal involvement with each and every day to day operation.
Dan Afrasiabi brings over 15 years of business and entrepreneurial expertise to CFB. Mr. Afrasiabi's leadership skills and management style allows his management team personal growth and the opportunity to learn business development first hand from Dan M Afrasiabi. Mr Dan M Afrasiabi formerly of Tickets.com has been recognized by many as a leader with the desire for success and the ability to create it.
About Century Financial Benefits – Century FB is a Membership-based Provider of Financial Services Programs for the Underserved Market.
Mark Vasco: At what age did you start your first business and what was it?
Mr. Dan M Afrasiabi: I started my first real business after I graduated from college in 1988. The business was called PC Products, and was involved in supplying the printed circuit board industry with supplies, components and material.
Mark Vasco: How did you get the idea for your first business?
Mr. Dan M Afrasiabi: I had different jobs all through college, but I never thought of any of those jobs as a long-term career. As I was graduating from college, all of my friends began interviewing with large companies that were coming on campus to interview graduates. I just had absolutely no desire to go out and get a job with a big company, so I didn’t do a single interview. The next thing I knew it was May, and I was a couple of weeks away from graduating from college, with absolutely no idea what I was going to do next. I was getting a degree in business from the Entrepreneur Program at USC. One of the things that they really encouraged us to do in the Entrepreneur Program was to start a business, while we could still afford to take big risks. It makes a lot harder to start a business, once you have a car payment, house payment, family, etc. I met a couple of guys that were involved in selling material and supplies to the printed circuit board industry. We thought that given their relationships and my training and desire to start a new business, we could create a company distributing products to the printed circuit board industry. I basically gave it very little thought, because we could start the business with almost no money. I asked my parents if I can move back home with them for a short period of time, so that I could start this business without having to worry about paying tons of bills every month. The next thing I knew we were up and running and I was in business, making sales calls to printed circuit board manufacturers, even though I knew absolutely nothing about it.
Mark Vasco: If you could go back and correct one mistake you made in your first business what would it be?
Mr. Dan M Afrasiabi: I would make sure that my partners had the ability to survive a few months, without taking a real paycheck. Unfortunately with that business, I don’t think that my partners really understood that starting a business is different than getting a job. Within a couple of months of starting that business, my partners decided that they could not survive without a steady paycheck; unfortunately, our business wasn’t yet at a point where it could pay everyone a regular paycheck. I was lucky, because I had moved back in with my parents, so I could afford to live on a couple of hundred dollars a month. My partners, on the other hand, had families to support and just could not afford to do that. Because of that, they left the business within three months of our launch, and I was left running a new business that I knew basically nothing about!
Mark Vasco: How many businesses have you started and operated in your life?
Mr. Dan M Afrasiabi: I’ve been involved with three complete start-ups, and two turn-around situations, where I took over smaller companies that were having big difficulties and turned them around.
Mark Vasco: How many of those businesses would you consider a failure?
Mr. Dan M Afrasiabi: Fortunately, I have never had a total failure in a sense that the business completely failed.
Mark Vasco: What advice would you give to a young person looking for their first business?
Mr. Dan M Afrasiabi: Make sure that you really understand how you are going to generate revenues and how long it’s going to take you to get cash in the bank. I remember one of my professors in the USC Entrepreneur Program always used to say: “There is a reason why all financial statements start with Sales or Revenues” Of course he was stating the obvious, but many times people overlook the obvious. More businesses have failed because people have over-estimated their ability to generate cash revenues in a timely manner than any other reason.
It’s simple - unless you generate revenues, you’re going to run out of cash to run the business at some point! The real obvious advice that one of my other professors always gave was - For every dollar of additional sales that you generate, maybe 15 cents will end up in your pocket (assuming you have a 15% net profit margin)“. But for every dollar that you save, a dollar will end up in your pocket! Again, really obvious advice, but it’s amazing how many times people go out and spend a whole bunch of money, before they have generated a single dollar of revenues. When I first started my latest business, I absolutely refused to buy anything except what I could find on Craigs List or Ebay. This included furniture, office equipment, office supplies, etc. We created all of our original marketing material, software programs, and alike ourselves, and absolutely refused to pay anyone for anything that we could do in-house. Simply put - Nothing makes a business fail faster than bringing in less cash than you expected and spending more than you should.
Mark Vasco: How do you know when it’s time to start a business?
Mr. Dan M Afrasiabi: The perfect time to start a business is when are already involved in an industry, and you see some kind of an unmet need from within that industry. If you can start a business with the knowledge of how you are going to get your new customers, you’ll be miles ahead of others.
Mark Vasco: What is your idea of a successful business?
Mr. Dan M Afrasiabi: Well, for me the definition of a successful business is one that is always changing and growing, thereby keeping everyone involved excited. Seeing your people get excited to take on new responsibilities and to experience personal growth, is one of the greatest feelings of achievement. I also believe that a successful business is one in which everyone agrees on a plan and strategic decision, buys into that plan, and then plays his or her part in executing the plan. Nothing gives people a greater feeling of success in business, than being involved in planning and executing a strategic plan that results in growth…both personal growth and business growth.
Mark Vasco: In one word define the quality needed most to run your own business.
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