Vinit Jobanputra is the President of Sanghavi Solitaire Inc. They are a wholesale diamond company that specializes mainly in GIA certified diamonds from .30cts to 5cts in all shapes and clarities. The company has a competitive edge in the wholesale diamond and jewelry market as they manufacture their own diamonds and supply leading retailers and wholesalers from the United States and other various parts of the world.
Who is your hero?
My dad.
What’s the single best piece of business advice that helped shape who you are as an entrepreneur today, and why?
The single best piece of business advice that has shaped me as an entrepreneur is to trust your instincts; always go with your gut feeling. As a young entrepreneur in a traditional business, my partners were discouraging me from buying goods that weren’t popular in the market and were encouraging me to stick to the norm. I was told that there would be no way I could move the merchandise and my partners even told me to return the merchandise to my vendors at a loss. But within three months I had sold all of the merchandise at a 10 percent profit ratio, and had proven my partners wrong.
From that day until now, I have always swum against the current and have found different ways of marketing and promoting my merchandise to make the unsellable into the sellable. Every product has its own customer as long as the price is right!
What’s the biggest mistake you ever made in your business, and what did you learn from it that others can learn from too?
The biggest mistake I made in my business was falling in love with my own merchandise. There have been many occasions where I bought high-value diamonds and within a day or two had an offer for a fair profit. But my greedy side convinced me that the diamonds were worth more and that I should wait until I got a better offer. Within a month, diamond prices dropped and I ended up selling the same diamonds at a loss.
From this mistake, I learned that it pays to not be too greedy. I learned to leave some room for others to make money as well, so that they will return to me and the cycle will keep spinning. It’s important not to focus on individual pieces and to take a step back at times to look at the overall picture, because in the end it’s good pictures that make a perfect portrait.
What do you do during the first hour of your business day and why?
The first thing I do when I enter the office is pray to God for where I am today and to ask for the courage to keep moving forward. After that, I take a look at all the merchandise that I have on memo open with stores around the nation and I start calling whoever has had the merchandise for more than 7 days since those were the terms agreed for memo when I gave them the diamonds. I keep this routine so that I am on top of following up with my clients and so that they know to work on my merchandise in a prompt manner as well. If I feel that the merchandise will not sell there, I recall it. I keep the goods shuffling by sending it to another store that might be able to move the merchandise to its respective clients.
What’s your best financial or cash-flow related tip for entrepreneurs just getting started?
The best financial or cash flow advice that I have for entrepreneurs just getting started is to always keep a reserve cash flow for emergency situations. Hidden costs or unexpected deals are a part of every business and it is important to have money on the table to use during these moments. Financial instability can cause unnecessary stress, which in turn will promote negative energy and an unproductive business environment. It is also important to have 100 percent confidence while giving credit to your customers. If there is a slight doubt in your mind, it is not worth it to extend credit as it is better to climb slowly then to fall hard.
Quick: What’s ONE thing you recommend ALL aspiring or current entrepreneurs do right now to take their biz to the next level?
Travel — see the world and meet new people! You never know who you will meet, where you will meet them, or what benefit you might have for each other! The world is small and all of our times are limited.
What’s your definition of success? How will you know when you’ve finally “succeeded” in your business?
My definition of success is being the benchmark in the respective field that you are currently in. When people talk about a particular industry, your company should be on their minds and they should aspire to be like your company. Their goals should be to reach where you are. For example, when we talk about the smartphone industry, Apple is one of the first names to pop up in people’s minds. When people refer to the diamond industry, or even just diamonds, and they think of Sanghavi Solitaire Inc. in a positive light, that will be the day I know that I have finally succeeded.
