Not every founder sets out to build a company because they have a dream of being their own boss. For some, it’s just putting the skills they have to work.

That’s Rocky Kandola, the founder of Hair Maiden India, which sells hair extensions, wigs, and other accessories.

Kandola said he’s not particularly passionate about the industry he found himself in, but he’s a natural-born networker and salesman, so when he saw an opportunity, he ran with it.

“I was in Alabama State Prison for selling drugs and trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life when I got out. When I got out of prison a couple of years later, I fell back into the same lifestyle. My dad offered me a chance to leave the country, and I took it,” Kandola said. “I went to India, and about a month later, I made a Facebook post about hair extensions because I’m a salesman. I know how to sell a product. All my friends started hitting me up asking about it and it just grew from there.”

That was over a decade ago, and since then, Kandola’s company has grown. It wasn’t easy, though, especially at that time.

Kandola said the hair products industry, and the beauty industry in general, is very woman-dominated, and he had to work hard to break in.

“Every single person I saw that could possibly buy my product, I talked to them. I would do meetings, show them my product, tell them about how I started the business, and how I was getting it going, and how I sourced my product from India,” Kandola said. “Then I just delivered on every promise I made to everyone I met. I started doing trade shows in the beauty industry.

“It was a process because I’m a guy who was never in the industry, so I had to navigate it all and show I’m honest and straightforward and that I can deliver.”

While it certainly helps to have a passion for your product, Kandola said it’s not a prerequisite. He said that as long as a business owner knows how to market their product and are honest about what they can and can’t deliver, they’ll find success.

Even with over 10 years in the business, Kandola said hair “doesn’t matter to him,” but through his company, he found something that did speak to his passion.

“I enjoyed bringing the knowledge I’d gained from running this company to other business owners and helping them. That’s more my speed. Hair just happens to be the best way for me to help other people,” Kandola said. “I’ve done some classes, things like that. I stay within the boundaries of hair, I don’t try to step outside my experience, I don’t want to lead anyone the wrong way.”

His biggest piece of advice: don’t wait to make the leap. In other words, there will never be a perfect time to start your business, you just have to do it.

He said it is worthwhile to prepare, but after a point, the energy you’re investing is wasted. Kandola said he’s seen people spend years building their businesses with nothing to show for it.

“The biggest thing I see is people spending years researching and testing and talking. Part of me wants to admire that dedication, but the other part of me thinks, ‘Why not just get going?’ Get into the market, learn about the product, what it feels like to sell it, and what your clients like from the actual transaction, rather than just studying,” Kandola said. “They’re taking classes, investing time and energy but still have no sales or product, they’re running out of money, they start looking for a job and then run out of time for their business.”

To sum it up, Kandola said, you can’t be afraid to fail.

A successful entrepreneur shouldn’t focus on profit first and foremost, at least not in the early days of their company.

“That’s not a good mindset. You can’t be so worried about profit that you don’t have the ability to run a company with integrity and put the client first,” Kandola said. “The mistake you make, literally all it means is you don’t make a profit today. Refund your client, and move on to the next one. Sometimes people see the money, and they don’t want to take that step.”

In a similar vein, Kandola said, entrepreneurs have to learn to get comfortable being uncomfortable. That is, if you’re not someone to whom networking or sales come easily, you just have to bite the bullet and learn to do it.

Books and classes can help, but there’s no substitute for hands-on experience.

“I don’t know how you do it any other way. You have to be out there shaking hands, talking, learning. Unless you get a celebrity to be the face of your company and you have great digital marketing and leverage digital tools and automation to some crazy degree…,” Kandola said. “I used to do acting classes; that got me out of my shell. Some industries require you to put yourself out there like that, and if you’re not willing to do that, you need to think about why you want to be in that line of work.”

As a budding entrepreneur, the best place to start is by cataloging your strengths and weaknesses – what do you bring to the table, and what abilities do you need to develop?

Author: M. Bradley