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By:

Divyaa Advaani 

2 November 2024 at 8:58:38 am

Your First Impression Is Delegated

A prospective partner called your office last week. You do not know his name. You were not told he called. The phone rang four times before it was answered, he was asked to repeat himself, and he was promised a callback that arrived two days later as a message with no greeting. He formed an opinion of you in under three minutes. You were not in the room, and you will never know that opinion existed. Most founders believe their personal brand begins when they walk into a meeting. It does not....

Your First Impression Is Delegated

A prospective partner called your office last week. You do not know his name. You were not told he called. The phone rang four times before it was answered, he was asked to repeat himself, and he was promised a callback that arrived two days later as a message with no greeting. He formed an opinion of you in under three minutes. You were not in the room, and you will never know that opinion existed. Most founders believe their personal brand begins when they walk into a meeting. It does not. It begins at the first point of contact, and in any business of real size, that point is almost never the founder. It is the assistant who manages your calendar. The sales executive who sends the first proposal. The person who handles your WhatsApp, the receptionist, the coordinator who confirms the meeting. These people speak for you every day, in your name, using your reputation, and most of them have never been told what that reputation is supposed to feel like. Many are loyal, hardworking and capable. That is not the issue. The issue is that nobody ever showed them what a first impression of this founder should feel like. Here is what a prospective client experiences. They do not separate you from your team. They cannot. To them, the speed of a reply is how seriously you take them. The tone of the first email is the tone of your leadership. A proposal with a spelling error, a late response, a careless "will check and let you know" becomes evidence about the person at the top. If this is how the organisation presents itself while trying to win my business, they reason, this is how it will treat me once I have signed. And they never tell you. They simply go quiet. The deal that stalls after a promising first call. The partner who becomes "busy". The client who chooses a competitor and offers a reason that has nothing to do with the real one. Across a year, that is every enquiry that stalled, every proposal left unanswered, every introduction that never became a meeting. This is a personal brand problem, not a staffing one. A founder can spend years refining how they present in a room and still lose the room before they enter it, because the impression was formed by someone else, in a conversation the founder was never part of and never heard about. The founders who avoid this are not the ones with the most polished staff. They are the ones who have made their brand legible to the people around them. Their team knows how the founder speaks, what the business stands for, what warmth looks like in a reply, how a delay should be explained and how a client should feel in the first thirty seconds. The team is not following a script. They are carrying a standard, because someone took the time to define it. When did you last experience your own business the way a stranger does? Not a test call arranged with your team's knowledge. A real one. Send a first enquiry from a number nobody recognises. Notice how long it takes to be answered, what the tone is, and whether you would want to do business with whoever replied. Then ask yourself honestly whether that person sounds like you, and whether you would be proud to be represented that way. If the answer is uncomfortable, it is worth acting on now. Every week of that experience is a week someone forms a verdict about you without your knowledge. Your personal brand is not only what you say. It is everything said on your behalf. If you have a suspicion about how your business is being experienced before you ever walk in, that suspicion deserves a direct, focused brand consultation, not a casual chat. Book yours here: https://www.calendly.com/divyaaadvaani/founder-brand-audit — Divyaa Advaani, Personal Branding Strategist (The author is a personal branding expert. She has clients from 14+ countries. Views personal.)

The Difference Between Being Rich and Looking Rich

Writer: Sayli Gadakh
Sayli Gadakh
May 20
2 min read

The real question is whether income builds assets or merely funds appearances.

Bharath was 29 years old, working at a reputed multinational company in Pune with an annual package of Rs 24 lakh. Among friends and relatives, he was considered highly successful. He drove a luxury car purchased on EMI, upgraded his phone every year, travelled frequently, and regularly posted pictures of expensive cafés and vacations on social media.


From the outside, Bharath looked rich. During a financial consultation, however, a different picture emerged. A substantial portion of his monthly income went toward car EMIs, personal loans, credit card bills, rent, dining, and lifestyle spending. Despite earning well for several years, his investments were minimal. He had no emergency fund, inadequate insurance coverage, and almost no retirement planning.


In accounting terms, Bharath’s income statement looked impressive, but his balance sheet was weak.


Illusion of Wealth

Around the same time, another client, Sameer, visited for tax planning. Sameer earned significantly less than Bharath — around Rs 11 lakh annually. He did not own a luxury car and avoided unnecessary debt. Instead, he consistently invested part of his income into mutual funds, maintained emergency reserves, and purchased adequate health and term insurance early.


Five years later, the financial gap between the two had grown wider than their income gap. Bharath continued earning more, but much of his income went toward maintaining a lifestyle. Sameer, despite a modest salary, had built financial security, a stable investment portfolio, and a growing net worth.


This difference reflects an important reality that Chartered Accountants frequently observe — income creates lifestyle, but assets create wealth.


Many individuals today mistake spending capacity for financial strength. In reality, wealth is not determined by what a person displays publicly but by what they own after liabilities are deducted. A luxury vehicle financed through long-term debt may improve social perception, but financially it remains a depreciating asset with recurring obligations.


The rise of instant credit and EMI-based consumption has further blurred the distinction between affordability and accessibility. Just because a person qualifies for a loan does not mean the purchase strengthens their financial position.


True Financial Health

From a Chartered Accountant’s perspective, true financial health is measured not by outward displays of wealth but by fundamentals such as a steadily growing net worth, disciplined investing, controlled liabilities, adequate liquidity and insurance coverage, and long-term capital creation. These indicators may not always be socially visible, but they determine long-term financial stability.


Bharath’s story is no longer unusual. Across urban India, many young professionals are earning more than previous generations, yet carrying greater financial pressure because lifestyle expansion has overtaken asset creation.


Cost of Appearances

The real difference between being rich and looking rich ultimately comes down to one question: Is income being used to build assets or merely to fund appearances?


(The writer is a Chartered Accountant based in Thane. Views personal.)

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