He graduated from the College of Industrial Engineering, spent his childhood in the Emirates, and worked in customer service, sales, and marketing until he became a leading business consultant.
Who is Khaled El Sayed? Why did he receive honors from the state? What is his opinion about the new job market and how to prepare for it with a vast client base? And what does he offer as unconventional ways to make more money? And what advises you to start a successful career in the world of business and marketing from scratch?
Our interview today will be an essential reference for you, as you will draw information from a reliable and deeply experienced professional with deep-rooted experience in business consulting, startups, marketing, and others.
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Who is Khaled El-Sayed?
Personally, I spent most of my childhood in the UAE because my father worked there.
Professionally, this upbringing greatly impacted my career path. I spent a significant period of my professional life working in many Gulf countries, which helped me get to know many Arab and foreign cultures.
This, in turn, inspired me to learn about the different ways of thinking and the various methodologies in facing and solving problems.
I had a lot of experience in many areas, including customer service, sales, and marketing, until I gained the Regional Product Marketing Manager position in my previous company. This helped me greatly as I dealt with different departments in one company. I also worked in multinational companies in Egypt and abroad and gained a lot of practical experience in organized and professional ways.
I have been working as a freelance business consultant since my return to Egypt, and my current job has helped me a lot in getting to know new and big industries that I did not know anything about before.
As for my achievements, I was honored by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in a competition specially prepared to present new ideas outside the box to solve Egypt's various problems in 2014. This was in honor of my proposal to transform one of Egypt's governorates into an international hub for business tourism. This proposal was accepted and approved by the expert committee and was chosen to win the prize.
As for my hobbies, reading comes on top. I own a vast library that includes many books in various fields, ranging from business administration and psychology to history and other areas. It is my companion on the road I move from one country to another. I also enjoy motorcycling, skydiving, and air games.
What are your tips for those who want to start a career in business and marketing from scratch?
Where to start and how to achieve excellence in the labor market crowded with competencies?
Defining the goal is a top priority for entrepreneurs, and that goal must be clear and relevant to the culture of the individual to succeed.
Here comes Swvl as an example. Swvl was not the first of its kind to provide mass transit technology, preceded by Uber and Careem applications, but Swvl's goal at the time stemmed from the culture of Egyptian society; middle-class people could not afford to buy a car or commute by taxi daily to and from work, but at the same time would like to escape from the hassle of commuting by public transportation.
And herein lies the secret of Swvl's success: the search for real solutions to that problem that was a problem for them as well.
My Advice to you here is to define your goal and believe what you work and think in so that your client believes in it by subordination, and this is your first way to excellence. Don't make financial gain your primary goal. Pursue your goals wholeheartedly, and the money will come later.
"Every path will have challenges, some of which you can cross, and others you must allow, that he is the one who infects you like the tree that you prefer, fixed in the wind and the corn of wheat that you lean with, and accordingly your flexibility in decision-making and changing your plans and strategies is your only weapon.".. Advice you mentioned in one of your posts on LinkedIn?
Could you please share some of your tips for people and startups as an expert in business management strategies; What are the most prominent challenges they may face when starting, how can they be overcome, and how can continuity and excellence be maintained?
According to that experience, I have noticed that startups focus more on the service or product they offer; There is always total quality management and the use of modern technology tools to ensure that services are delivered at the highest level. However, there is also always a common mistake that I notice: the misunderstanding of the concept of "marketing" by these companies.
Most people imagine marketing as digital advertising on social media platforms or search engines. However, advertising is nothing but a growth tool used in the last stage of marketing.
Marketing is a great science! And here I will explain to you.
You sure know that there's always a target audience for you when making digital ads, but have you ever thought if these are the right audiences for you? Can this audience easily convert to customers?
You must analyze customers to determine who needs your services or product. If you succeed in this analysis, you will be surprised by new categories of potential customers you did not imagine might be interested in your service or product. You may even be surprised by numbers of potential customers that exceed the numbers of your existing customers.
And don't forget either! Analyze your competitors to discover him; How does he work? Who is he targeting? And never assume that there are no competitors for you. The presence of a competitor is inevitable, whether he is directly selling your product or service itself or indirectly selling a service or product related to what you offer, and the customer always prefers to deal with it.
In sum, understanding how competition works and the correct identification of customers as well as understanding pricing strategies and different offering strategies are the foundations of the success of startups, as this represents a tiny part of the science of marketing, and this is what most entrepreneurs who own startups overlook, which results in a low percentage of sales compared to the strength of the product and market need at the same time.
"You must understand that this economic situation requires you to try to find new opportunities and ways to earn from them instead of traditional methods. God forbid you to have an alternative if the world is against you at any time."
In your opinion, what are the new, non-traditional earning methods that may help job seekers or those already employed to increase their monthly income and acquire new skills needed in the future?
These crises are a warning bell about the decline in production rates and, accordingly, the contraction of the labor market.
We all have years of experience either working or training in companies.
Many companies need this expertise but do not have the financial ability to hire full-time employees and pay them monthly salaries.
So what is the solution?
The solution is to recognize new labor market trends as the classic labor market pattern has changed. This is evident in the spread of freelancing sites in the past two years due to what the world has gone through from the Corona crisis.
The working mechanism of these sites is to link companies looking for professionals to complete their work with specialists in different fields by posting projects on the site in the form of a "Gig" or a specific job at a particular time.
Here, the term "Gig Economy," as freelancers use it, appeared and spread.
In it, great opportunities appear that we did not know existed before 2020, and all job seekers must utilize them not only to earn additional income but to build the digital footprint that will gain them a customer base that supports them over time to become entrepreneurs in their fields.
The future is intensely moving towards freelancing, and we should not wait for the end to start moving but rather prepare for the new job market today.
"If you want new solutions outside the box for your business, you must know that these solutions need open minds that can absorb change and need investment and risks to succeed."
How can companies create a work environment conducive to change and always come up with solutions?
For any organization to implement innovative outside-the-box ideas, management must have a spirit of risk and be fully prepared to invest and support those ideas.
But what happens is that when most managements talk about "creativity" and thinking in and out of the box, the goal is new solutions that are accessible, risk-free, robust, and quick to pay off, which happens extremely rarely.
Here I always cite the following example:
If you constantly complain about the small size of your room and the distress, it causes you. Someone came to rearrange it for you to create a new enough space for you, and you did not like the unique situation, then you returned everything as it was, and you will return to suffer from the small size of the room and the distress it causes you.
To create a work environment conducive to change and creativity, you must first adopt the mindset of accepting new ideas, even those that may seem naive or incomprehensible to you.
The most prominent example of this is "Kodak," the company leading the photography market. When a new revolutionary idea was presented with the possibility of converting ordinary photography to digital photography by the company's research and development department, the company completely ignored the naivety of the offering, as the "Kodak" management believed at the time, as it was The company is making huge profits from traditional photography, so what makes it think about digital photography?
But the expected happened, and the company lagged in development because it was not open to accepting new creative ideas and insisted on adopting traditional photo printing methods instead of following the new digital approach. The company closed its doors after an unparalleled success only for not creating an environment that stimulates creativity and incubates change.
"If you intend to work as a startup in the metaverse, go to Dubai."
What is the simple definition of "Metaverse"? How will it affect our economic world? Can young people or startups benefit from it? How?
Imagine an entire world is building now! How advanced will it be in terms of investment and economic opportunities?!
This idea has been raised a lot in science fiction films, and I advise those who want to learn more about this world to watch the movie (Ready Player One).
For a deeper understanding, imagine if your country's team is playing in the next World Cup in Qatar. You want to attend the matches live to enjoy and cheer the team physically, and you have a brother who lives in Australia and a friend who lives in South Africa, and you will not be able to travel to Qatar for various reasons.
Metaverse will solve the problem for you; how?
It will bring you into a stadium simulator to watch matches together and even enjoy some side chats during the game.
Despite its many advantages, there are also negative aspects to the world of the metaverse, and here appears the role of young people and startups to start a new stage of creativity in Web 3.0 to establish more companies to serve their communities in all fields.
Ideas do not end in that world, and the imagination's limit is the sky. I hope that our youth will start studying modern technologies and find tools that help our countries and societies so that we do not have to accept products and services from other Western or Eastern countries and turn into consumers who are not creators.
"Invest in your skills" was your answer to a follower's question about "how to invest what he owns from 3000 thousand EGP," and you explained some skills that can be utilized to earn more money.
And what skills do you think will be the most in-demand and highest-paid in the future? And here, I would like to learn from your experiences and how one can discover his skills first and invest in them later.
Honestly, I was shocked to discover that many people associate investing with money only, which is a big mistake; Money is an essential part of the funding, but not all of it - there are many other aspects.
And here, I answered the need to invest in skills. Investment is the exploitation of one of the available resources to grow income. So, there is no problem with not having the financial resource.
Looking for what you like? What are your hobbies? And turn those skills and hobbies into a source of income by investing them correctly.
I have seen, for example, accounts on Instagram whose owners sell the skill of "handwriting" to provide their services to everyone who wants to have a distinctive signature, and there are those who sell their drawings in digital form such as (NFT), and others are talented in sports and obtaining a healthy physique and constantly training those who are interested. They do these things online and achieve exceptional results as if they were going to the gym daily.
In short, the idea is to find what you love to work and then start investing in that hobby by training yourself to excel. Here, you also have to know the secrets of digital presence to market your services efficiently and over time, create your website to serve your customers more professionally, and here you can start on an entrepreneurial journey.
In one of your exciting stories, you mentioned the story of the "white elephant." You said that the term white elephant refers to an enormous investment that does not yield interest and is a financial burden on its owner.
If we apply this concept to persons not investments, what are the things people would be very interested in when investing in their skills that would not benefit them and might even affect them negatively?
In other words, you attract more followers over time and are exposed to questions outside the focus of your investment.
And here, you must be fully aware that taboos should not be talked about, such as religious, political, or sports opinions, as those personal opinions stemming from your culture or religion do not serve your primary goals, the standard of your professional success.
So, it is better to keep it for your personal life.
And here I will talk about myself! I discuss economic issues and aim to educate followers about the latest developments and global economic conditions, educate them about changes, and direct them to take precautions in their work.
However, I often receive questions about linking a particular country's economic situation to its policies and how to benefit from it. I tactfully reduce risks not to hurt the questioner or the followers. I always try to be clear in my replies that I am not a politician and that I am not the best to answer these questions and focus on the economic situation. Still, I also refer to a specialist in the question field to ask his answer, so I focus on my goal and provide an answer to the question together by redirecting to the specialists.
Other times, I am asked to help some companies that sell products that contradict my religious culture, and here I calmly apologize due to my lack of understanding in the field.
There is no point in engaging in conflicts that take me away from my primary goal - distraction by personal whims is the greatest white elephant to affect any investor.
"When you are smart in your field and make a special product or service, you are not alone in your small circle; you must grow and know what is happening in the world around you to know how to sell your product at the right price and invest your money."
How can growth quickly be achieved, especially among digital communities? What is your secret recipe for appropriate pricing for services or products?
First: Studying each digital platform separately and getting acquainted with its algorithms to understand how I can present a platform with high-quality, tailored content that facilitates spreading and investing my skills accordingly.
Second: Understand the customer because the customer is the one who will support my content and help achieve what I aspire to.
As for the pricing of services or products, it is not easy!
Here, I will give an example to illustrate the idea: If you went to buy an item imagining that its price ranges between 250 to 300 EGP, you put a value on the thing according to your need.
And if you go to a store and find out that this item is sold for 650 EGP, which is more than double what you specified, there is no doubt that you will recalculate or look for an alternative because the price offered is not suitable.
But if we assume that when you go to a store, you find that the item is sold for only 35 EGP, mostly you will not buy it either, because the offered price is meager compared to the Value you specified; You will be concerned about the quality of the item or its capabilities.
In other words,
pricing is the attempt by the owner of the commodity to understand the expected
Value of the item by the customer.
If the expected price meets the price of the thing's owner, the sale is successful. If it varies
completely, the deal fails.
So, how do I know what the customer has identified as the Value of my product or service?
There are a lot of pricing strategies out there, and I prefer Value-based pricing. The most distinguished company in following this strategy is Nike, and this helped it to outperform its competitors such as Adidas and Under Armour.
The secret to the idea's success is that Nike has succeeded in building a community of customers who are loyal to its brand.
How does Nike implement a value-based pricing strategy?
The brand sets an initial price for the new sneaker based on costs, then sends the shoe to its own community, or the so-called Testers Group, and then evaluates the shoe in all respects; Is the new product comfortable for walking and jogging? Are the materials used in its manufacture suitable? What about the style and colors of the shoes? This group sets an expected price for the shoe when it is on the market.
The next stage is advertising the product through social media platforms, promoting through sports influencers, and following up on followers' reactions, which gives the brand the opportunity to determine the expected price from the customer. Before the company, the product is priced at that price.
And the last stage is to issue a special edition with different features also taken from followers' opinions and comments on social media platforms, such as manufacturing a version, for example, in gold or writing the brand's letters prominently, and this version also has a special price to maximize profitability.
Implementing this strategy may require more effort, but it guarantees excellent sales from day one, as the product's price meets the Value the customer has determined while maintaining the quality that the customer expects.
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