Arash Fayz

Arash Fayz is the Co-Founder and Executive Director at LA Tutors 123, a premier test preparation, academic consultation, and private tutoring company. His company is featured on CBS, HuffPost, Barron’s, and Los Angeles Times. Arash is an author for wikiHow.com, and his articles gained over 700,000 views on wikiHow.com in 2020.

Where did the idea for LA Tutors 123 come from?

My​ ​passion for education and a love for helping students started at an early age. I tutored my classmates for free in high school and college and finally decided to start a tutoring and test prep company after graduating from UCLA.

What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?

As a small business owner, I wear a lot of hats. A typical day includes connecting with the team members first thing in the morning, client calls and responding to emails, marketing meetings, press interviews, and dozens of other things that advance the progress of the business. I make the days productive by “Planning tomorrow – tonight.” When I arrange at least a couple of tasks or goals for the next day before going to bed, I’m more likely to wake up and start on the day’s projects at hand.

How do you bring ideas to life?

I first research the idea and gather supporting data before investing time, money, and energy. Then, if I’m confident the idea is worth putting into full production, I map out a plan of action (we use Monday.com). Lastly, it’s time to launch and monitor the results.

What’s one trend that excites you?

Technology and automation are exciting to me. I use technology in every aspect of personal and business life, which definitely helps with my productivity.

What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?

Teamwork. As a small business owner, the one habit of being more productive is to delegate tasks to other team members, trust them in doing a great job, and not micromanage every employee.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Trust your gut, and don’t be afraid to take a risk. A risk at 22 has far less impact than risk at 40. Risks don’t have to be financial but can be an untraditional path you take.

Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.

Driving will be a skill of the past in 20-30 years. Having self-driving cars will destroy entire industries, but will increase productivity as a whole.

As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?

Trust yourself. Being a successful entrepreneur means that you learn to listen to your intuition and rely on your judgment when making decisions. Your ability to believe in yourself will show your confidence. People are more likely to follow and trust confident leaders.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?

We are hiring the highest qualified and experienced tutors. As a premier tutoring company, we only hire about 1% of the applicants based on their personality, tutoring experience, and mastery in the subjects they tutor.

What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?

Virtual reality events. Partner up with event spaces and sell access to attend events from the comfort of your own home using a VR headset. People are getting used to staying at home, but still want to experience live events – this is one way of accomplishing that!

What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?

I donated to a nonprofit organization to help underprivileged kids. Life is busy, and it can sometimes be easy to forget to show your gratitude for all that we’ve been given. This reminds us of all that we have, and the act of donating to charity is a way to express our feelings of gratitude.

What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?

Salesforce.com. We started using Salesforce as our CRM a few years ago. It provides the leading tools that help us manage our leads, customers, and daily tasks. We have different lists (customers, vendors, tutors, leads, etc.), which helps us keep all communication organized.

What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?

The E Myth Revisited by Michael E Gerber. This book clearly explains the most critical steps in how to create a successful small business.

What is your favorite quote?

“Knowledge is power, but enthusiasm pulls the switch.” – Ivern Ball

Key Learnings:

• The one habit of being more productive is to delegate tasks to other team members, trust them in doing a great job, and not micromanage every employee.
• Trust your gut, and don’t be afraid to take a risk.
• Being a successful entrepreneur means that you learn to listen to your intuition and rely on your judgment when making decisions.