The Barber’s Rolls Royce: Ramesh Babu, advises humility and hard work

During his TED talk, Ramesh Babu used the moniker “The millionaire barber” and told his story to the captivated audience. The truth is that since high school he has been relying on this occupation for supporting his family, and it is also a family tradition he inherited from his father, even today he charges only one hundred rupees and yet dedicates himself to it with full aplomb.  He is well known in India, where he has featured in television shows, radio and newspapers due to his inspiring story.

He didn’t become a millionaire by cutting hair, though.  In 1994, and with his meager savings, he went and bought a Maruti Van. Ten years later he had a full fledge car rental business with seven regularcars. By 2014 it had gone up to 200 cars, including 75 luxury car brands such as Rolls Royce, BMW, Mercedes Benz, and Audi. But Ramesh has never forgotten where he started.

After his father passed away, his uncle came to run the family saloon, however he would give the family barely enough to eat, so Ramesh had to take little jobs here and there to help ease his mother’s load, who at the time was taking jobs cleaning as a maid to make ends meet. He took over the business once his uncle suddenly decided to stop paying them any money. Since that point on he learned the business and became a barber on his own right, attending to school during the afternoons and working during the mornings and evenings until 1 a. m.

An advice from the lady where his mother worked gave him the idea for the rental business. He had bought the Van but didn’t know what to do with it, so decided to rent it as the lady had recommended.

Taking some extra risks, in 2004 he decided to get into luxury cars seeing that the small car industry was ruthless at the time, and luxury cars where a rare commodity still. The investment paid off quite well, he was the first in Bangalore to rent such cars and things began to turn for him at this point.

A similar situation came by in 2014, a decade later, when he decided to take another risk and buy a Rolls Royce. The same second thoughts made their appearance but he took the risk again and saw his investment pay off once more when the car became a sensation among important clients.

However, Ramesh is dealing with some difficulties at the moment, seeing his business expansion stopped due to the increasing tax payments. Lately, he had to take many loans and borrow from people to make the payments, but he remains confident that his business will pick up again enough to solve the tax problems and stabilize his expansion rate as before.