We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ayush Vats. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ayush below.
Ayush, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
My name is Ayush Vats and I am a Realtor with Willis Allen and a small business owner. In addition to working with some amazing people in real estate, I also have a salon in historic Mission Hills alongside my wife, Alexandra. In 2020 we had the opportunity to purchase, revitalize and rebrand the salon and currently have a full team of hair, nail and eyelash technicians working with us.
The mission behind any business venture I start — current or future — is creating value for as many people as possible and leaving behind a legacy of improving and uplifting the lives of others. As the Dalai Lama would put it we wish to “be the change we want to see in the world”.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I was born and spent my childhood in New Delhi, India although I was always fascinated by America and its culture – driving me to move to the US for college. I met my wife while we both studied at Hanover College (a small liberal arts school in Indiana) and we moved to Denver, CO shortly after graduation. It was in Denver, where my very dear friend and former classmate, Errol, introduced me to Real Estate as a profession. He was instrumental in helping me take my very first steps into a career shift and becoming a Realtor after many years in the digital advertising world.
I moved to California about 9 years ago and instantly knew that I had finally found my spiritual home. I love everything about San Diego – from the amazing weather, to the incredible food and diverse people. And, of course, some of the best real estate on the planet. I currently live in La Mesa with my wife, Alexandra, and our two dogs Tux and Ziggy.
Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?
In Real Estate, they always warn you that the business is ‘feast or famine’. While I haven’t really experienced such wild swings in fortune, I do always recommend new agents to build up a buffer in their financial lives and stay self funded for 6-12 months. The greatest benefit that this planning ensures is avoiding you ever being in a tough spot and always remaining in a position where you can truly recommend what is best for your client- including walking away from a deal.
My salon business, despite being born in the midst of the pandemic, has also never suffered any financial crisis, but having said all that, the question is still pertinent for many business owners, particularly small business owners with limited liquidity in a period of economic uncertainty.
Historically, I’ve always valued situations where there is an excess of fear driving decision making of the majority. These are some of the best times to grow. Your competition is taking a timeout spending on marketing or other long-term growth drivers? Then it is your opportunity to gain marketing share.
That being said, you have to move with strategy or else it’s not worth the expense. What truly sets you apart from the competition? Make sure you aren’t just resting on the intangible or characteristics that aren’t uniquely ownable (i.e. “we’re friendly”).
Identify what it is that brings incremental value to your business that is not visible in your competition. And then double down on ensuring your target consumer understands exactly what that value is.
And remember just because times are lean doesn’t mean people won’t spend. In fact, depending on your business (in our case, a salon) you may see clients actually holding onto that service as a luxury among all the other cuts they are making. Which means it is even more imperative that you truly provide them a top-level experience to make the expense seem “worth it”.
Lean times are an opportunity to focus on your existing clientele and reach new ones when the din of the competition is quiet.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
A lesson drilled into me from childhood is that debt = bad. However, I’ve come to learn this belief is limiting, poorly phrased, and very generalized.
Before getting into why this belief is limiting, we need to understand debt at it’s core and why it get the bad rap. By nature, debt usually means we pay back more than we borrow. Who wouldn’t think that’s a bad setup?
However, this is predicated on the assumption that whatever incurred the debt will maintain or potentially lose value. So we don’t want to put ourselves in a position to spend more than the item or service is worth. It’s like burning a candle at both ends and then putting it in your pocket!
But what if you used debt to obtain something that goes up in value? Imagine if it went up at a higher rate than the debt service cost? And what if on top of all that, it generated income for you, while going up in value at a rate higher than the debt service cost? Now it’s not sounding so bad!
So you can see that debt, in fact, is largely reflective of how it’s used. A poor use of debt is to buy new clothing to impress your best friend. However, if that clothing is a suit that gets you a new job that increased your annual pay by 10% bought on debt that costs 5% annually to finance, is a good debt!
Likewise, debt used to finance a car is not nearly as well used as that same debt used to finance a car that can ferry passengers and make income for you, provided that the debt is financed at a cost lower than your increased income.
One of the joys of working in real estate is helping others navigate how to use debt in a good way — namely to gain assets that increase quality of life or even produce income. A house or property purchase can be one of the largest investment decisions of a person’s life and being a guide and coach through the process is a role I don’t take lightly.
Contact Info:
- Website: BuyAndSellinSD.com
- Instagram: @realdealayush
- Youtube: youtube.com/@RealDealAyush
Image Credits
Calder Pearce, Golden Lens Media