1.  SME and corporate consulting (i.e. commercial BDS provider): SAFAL is respected in the market for the quality and the relevance of its management and operational consulting work. With background in having previously run multi-million dollar companies, SAFAL’s management expertise is sought by small, medium and growing businesses that want strategic and operational improvement assistance.

 Strategy is direction. For SAFAL, it means closely working with the client company’s top management to make it clear where and why the company should go in the next three to five years. Once the strategic direction is set, operational improvement then means execution, that is, getting things done with engagement, productivity and results. Operational improvement is thus about how  the company’s talents, opportunities and financial resources should be re-aligned, developed, challenged and tested for the success of the company’s strategy. In the last six years, Jawalakhel Group of Industries (JGI), Nepal Electronic Payment System (NePS), Quest Pharmaceuticals, United States Education Foundation (USEF), Daraz, TheeGo, IME Group, Outside Tech, and others have hired SAFAL, often for more than one year, for results-driven management support concerning their strategic and operational improvement needs.

2.  Start-up mentoring and investments: SAFAL brings its management expertise to business investment activities when it works with start-ups and small businesses. It skills up start-ups to develop their systems to attract private capital/investments for growth. For this, SAFAL offers what it calls GSM+N, which stands for Governance support (i.e. the formation and the regular running of the Board), System-related support (i.e. operational improvement in managing finance, staff, product development, taxes, sales, etc.), Mentoring support to think through and make critical decisions that start-ups face, and access to SAFAL’s wide national and international Networks. This is all hands-on, high-end boutique-level training and advising work.

One example: in 2018, SAFAL raised funds from private investors for two garment entrepreneurs who wanted to bring out export-quality motorcycle-riding safety wear and accessories. By 2021, they had employed 15 full-time people and had their products selling well in the domestic market. The entrepreneurs credit SAFAL’s GSM+N support for making them better at starting and scaling up their businesses and helping them survive the two years of pandemic-related market slowdown.

3.  Economic development activities: Given SAFAL’s dual background in development and the private sector, it has become a relevant company for economic development programs that donors fund. For such activities, SAFAL usually works in partnership with other organizations. To that end, SAFAL has trained 1,200 at-risk women and youth, and placed them in industrial jobs in the Bagmati Province. Likewise, it has set up a Foundation to make conservation-focused SMEs and entrepreneurs in the Karnali Province capable of raising investments from local banks and microcredit institutions. It skilled up 60 agro-companies (i.e. farmers’ groups, agro-vets, co- operatives, and agro-processors) in the Lumbini and Sudurpasachim Provinces to raise their income. Similarly, in 2022-23, for over a year, it worked closely with 26 tech-focused Nepali

women entrepreneurs, and 125 additional South Asian women entrepreneurs, and coached/mentored them over 16 weeks to make them ready for their first investment from investors from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Singapore. At present, SAFAL is working with agri co-ops in the Madhesh Province to strengthen vegetable value chains, and raise productivity and employment levels.

4.  Fiscal Partnership with NGOs and CSOs: SAFAL is trusted by donors and funders who prefer to make SAFAL the fiscal partner when it comes to funding NGOs and CSOs. A fiscal partnership works like this: A donor selects NGOs and CSOs with whom it wants to work. It then hires SAFAL to make the payment to the NGOs, and to keep the detailed accounting and tax records for the NGOs. This way, the NGOs get to work on programs and deliveries, without having to worry about how to manage/record/report on the accounting aspect for donor funds. At present, SAFAL is a fiscal partner to New York-based NGO Sites of Conscience, which funds NGOs run by civil war victims in Nepal.

5.  SAFAL’s Podcast series on small business and start-up management on YouTube: Funded by SAFAL’s own CSR initiative, SAFAL has partnered with South Asia’s first community radio station — Radio Sagarmatha — to air 16 episodes of half-hour radio programs (which will also be available as downloadable podcasts). There are diverse guests/episodes. The point of all this is not glorifying individuals and their achievements, but sharing practical tools, tips, and thinking methods that may help small Nepali businesses do better. The language used is Nepali. All the 19 episodes are now available as audio-only YouTube videos. The link to the playlist is here: https://bit.ly/3Pk6ubX