When Malik Panjwani was eight years old, he wanted to become a pilot.
The life of a jet setter who could go anywhere in the world was understandably appealing.
Malik and his family emigrated from Pakistan to the United States when he was a teenager. During his junior year of high school, he set his sights on a new career: becoming a CPA. .
This field of work offered stability, security, and growth.
Fast forward a couple decades, and Malik is living the best of both worlds as a US supplier of world-class urban jewelry and watches. He has the freedom to travel and explore as well as the security and consistency he desired.
And, he’s celebrating the 20th year of his wholesale jewelry business.
His story is not unlike many first-generation Americans who see opportunities at every turn. By saying yes to these opportunities, leaning into his support system, and trusting his intuition, Malik became a thriving US supplier providing retailers with high-quality, designer-inspired wholesale jewelry and timepieces to sell at affordable prices.
I interviewed Malik about his entrepreneurship journey and learned two things right off the bat. One, Malik is not one for bragging and will attribute most of his success to his family by his side, and his faith in ‘do good and good will done unto you’. Second, your personal integrity affects your business’s integrity. More on that later.
Malik started using Spocket for his business in May of 2019 and had over 2200 sales to Spocket dropshippers during the first few months of onboarding.
How does a supplier join a dropshipping platform and start to exponentially grow his sales in such a short period of time?
Whether you’re a dropshipping retailer or a supplier, Malik’s story is sure to inspire, empower, and guide you to success.
How did you get started in the wholesale jewelry supplying business?
Well, at the time I was enrolled in school to become a chartered accountant in Chicago. My uncle, an entrepreneur in the retail jewelry business in Texas, had offered me a position as a business development officer to help expand his brick and mortar footprint. I thoroughly enjoyed the deal making process while working with major developers, landlords and leasing agents of shopping malls.
I helped grow the organization to over thirty retail stores across the USA. Simultaneously, I learnt the trade, owned and operated my own retail jewelry stores and established a franchise retail jewelry model earning royalties from 26 jewelry stores across the United States. We sold gold karat jewelry, diamond jewelry and branded watches which is where I learnt the intricacies of the up & coming urban hip hop culture.
Growing up in the jewelry business, I always had an eye for men’s accessories and watches in particular. I was always on the creative side from the very beginning.
I have always been a self-starter and enjoy constructing unconventional solutions to conventional problems.
Being a watch enthusiast, I decided to start a wholesale jewelry business in watches and eventually began designing them myself.
Do you design a lot of the wholesale jewelry yourself?
My team and I design almost all of the products we sell. We seek inspiration from the things we see in the world today. We take those inspirations tweak the designs and cater them to our clients’ needs.
We import about 95% of the products we sell, almost all designed by us as a team.
I’ll share something important with you. Oftentimes, at the beginning, I would be up at night working with my partners overseas designing my watches. Sometimes they would get frustrated with me because I’d spend an enormous amount of time on a watch choosing the hour markers, hands, style of crown and type of dial for that watch - the wholesale selling price of the watch would only come out to, let’s say, $10 wholesale. But the enjoyment, the thrill, and the satisfaction was compounded once I received the end product. My team and I feel this sense of pride even today during our product development stage.
Small details like that are what I care about because I’ve never looked at my business simply as a tool to simply make money - I see it as a medium to construct social relationships, instill happiness in our product users and be a credible resource which retailers can depend on. I’ve always appreciated it as a piece of art while creating enjoyment for others.
How important has being surrounded by the right people been?
Immensely important.
Having someone as a guide you can trust, particularly in the early years, is crucial to your growth and to your level of confidence.
I think one of the biggest things I’ve learned as an entrepreneur is that seasoned guidance and timely advice are worth far more than any capital infusion.
I’ve been fortunate to be surrounded by people whom I have learnt from over the years. Once you form good intentions and a plan to work hard at it, things automatically fall into place seamlessly and swiftly. I firmly believe in the equation; Correct Intention + Quality Energy = Quality Outcome
No matter how trivial or uneventful the circumstance or object, give each and everything its due respect and life will reciprocate by offering happiness, abundance and prosperity.
What traits or skills have helped you become successful as an entrepreneur?
One of the key traits I attribute my success to is laser focus. I have been enticed with numerous opportunities throughout my 20 year wholesale jewelry career to divest, but the more energy and focus I have dedicated to my vision, the more content and satisfied I have felt along with my team. Thankfully we have remained firm on our mission which is to make luxury timepieces and jewelry affordable for the masses and we have successfully diversified within our domain offering an extensive collection of Men’s Jewelry today than we did a decade agoWe can’t afford to stay stagnant. So, I would say it’s the focus with ongoing evolution within that focus that has allowed us to get to where we are today.
No doubt, we’ve had our ups and downs, but going through those peaks and valleys has taught us valuable lessons along the way. We have seen trends come and go, preferences change, landscapes evolve but the one thing that has remained true and unchanged is the relationships we’ve forged over those years.
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