Vishal Bhardwaj – Do Not Let Emotions Run Your Business for You
BIO: Vishal Bhardwaj is a serial entrepreneur and founder of Predictions For Success, Engineer By Mistake, and Passionate Management Services.STORY: Vishal gained immediate success when he started his company and had about 100,000 followers. He thought this indicated that people loved what he was doing, so he decided to sell a corporate gift for Diwali 15 days before the festival. He didn’t do any market research, so when he went to sell the product, no one would buy it as they had ordered their gifts months in advance.LEARNING: Do proper research before you jump into anything. Don’t let emotions run your business for you. Timing is as important as pricing. “You may have a lot of good audiences, but those may not be the people who will purchase the products you introduce.”Vishal Bhardwaj Guest profileVishal Bhardwaj is a serial entrepreneur and founder of Predictions For Success, Engineer By Mistake, and Passionate Management Services. He loves to inspire students and aspiring entrepreneurs and has been at TED Talks, TCS, Money Control, Bakstage, and others.For any personal guidance on career and relationships, Vishal is reachable on WhatsApp.Worst investment everVishal started Predictions for Success in 2014 and got around 100,000 followers. This immediate success motivated him to leverage everything, and he thought that whatever he touched would turn into gold because people loved what he was doing. Vishal and his team thought selling something would be a good idea.Diwali was just 15 days away, and Vishal suggested to his partner that they sell corporate gifts for the famous Indian festival. They started shopping for things even though they had no idea what the people would want. They thought having something in the range of $10 would be easy to crack. While at the market, Vishal suggested that rather than purchasing everything at a wholesale rate, they should buy something a little pricey but as a sample. So, if it didn’t get sold, they would only have a little inventory sitting idle. His partner was against the suggestion. He thought they should buy cheap and in bulk. Vishal insisted that they forget about profits and try to learn something.They invested 100,000 rupees (about US$1,200) and purchased products in bulk. They did a professional photoshoot, and everything was exciting until it came time to sell the products. They talked to the companies to see if they were interested in purchasing the products, but the prices they quoted were less than even what the company had bought the products for. They couldn’t sell even a single product and had to give them out as gifts to their customers for the next three years. Vishal still has a couple of them lying around in his backyard.Lessons learnedDo proper research before you jump into anything.Emotions can overwhelm you, but do not let them run your business for you.Having an audience and having a customer who will purchase are two very different stages.The timing of your launch is as important as the pricing of your product.Andrew’s takeawaysYour audience isn’t necessarily there to buy. It could be there for the experience.Start slow, think carefully, test the market, and test the response before you act.Actionable adviceWhen you hear any idea, even a unicorn idea, wait seven days before acting on it. If you...