Make them an offer they can’t refuse

I come from extremely humble background. My father was Sepoy in the army, but he retired early. On retirement, he worked as a security guard in a bank. I had to work if I needed some money or help with the household finances.

I am glad, for that sparked the entrepreneur in me. One of my first “businesses” was buying wholesale goods and selling them for retail. But, it is difficult for a scrawny pre-teen boy to go about setting up a business with minimal to no capital investment.

I had an idea. I bought large bags of tutti frutti (each weighing 25 kgs) and brought them home. I went about making small packets of them and stapling around 10 of them to photographs of famous actors and actresses. This was in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s – a time when such photographs were extremely attractive and anything hanging from their edges was a commodity to be owned instantly.

The competition was fierce, and it was next to impossible to get any wholesaler to switch vendors and agree to buy my packet – attached photographs. After a lot of brain – racking, I came up with a solution. I asked the wholesaler to pay me only for the packets he sold, and return the unsold ones. This meant, he would not have to pay a single paisa upfront, and have nothing to lose, for he would not waste anything.

One wholesaler, named Viresh, agreed and thus started by entrepreneurial journey!

If you have a client or an investor who refuses to give you business, always make him an offer he can’t refuse!