Meet Dr Bhavesh Chandubhai Bhatia, an inspiring entrepreneur who has transformed his life through entrepreneurship despite being visually impaired. With his talent and determination to achieve something in life, he succeeded in establishing his own thriving business named Sunrise Candles, which has achieved a turnover of Rs 350 crore.
Early Life
Dr Bhavesh Chandubhai Bhatia, hailing from Mahabaleshwar Maharashtra, India, was born with retinal macular degeneration. Coming from a middle-class family, he always had a passion for entrepreneurship and a desire for an enjoyable living throughout.
Before delving into the entrepreneur world, he worked as a telephone operator at a hotel in Mahabaleshwar. Unfortunately, he lost his job when he was diagnosed with a disease called retinal muscular degeneration, which led to complete blindness at the age of 23.
This was a challenging time for him, as he lost his mother due to chronic blood cancer. His mother was his pillar of support and motivation. Despite numerous challenges and obstacles, he didn’t give up. He decided to pursue his passion for entrepreneurship.
He joined the National Association for the Blind and learned candle-making skills. After gaining knowledge in candle making for 4 months, he started his candle-making business with just a plain candle mold and 5 kg of wax. Each day, he would stand outside of the Holy Cross Church to sell his candles.
With his earnings, he purchased the raw materials needed for the next day’s production. Over time, his hard work paid off. One day, he met Neeta, who came to buy candles from Bhavin. After observing the humble personality of Bhavesh, she fell in love with him and later became his wife.
Establishment of Sunrise Candles
As his candle-making expanded, Bhavesh decided to move from cart to scooter and then to van. Later, in 1994, he founded Sunrise Candles, which has currently generated a revenue of Rs 350 crore. The company is a team of over 9000 visually impaired people and produces over 12000 types of candles, including plain, designer candles, gel, scented, and floating. Not just this they also sell its products to 1000 multinational corporations worldwide.
Support Team
During Bhavesh’s struggling days, Niraj Chandan also played a crucial role in his successful journey. Niraj took photographs of candles and created a sunrise candles website. Through this platform, he would have posted photographs and run advertisements on Google, which helped Bhavesh gain recognition among individuals.
Today, the brand has a vast customer base that includes top companies like Reliance, Big Bazaar, Resilient Cosmetics, Rotary Club Naroda Industries, and numerous hotel groups. Currently, Sunrise Candle has expanded to 14 states and is known for employing visually impaired people in their workforce.
Awards and Achievements
Bhavesh has a skill development center popularly known as Wax Museum Made by Blind, located in Mahabaleshwar. The center focuses on training disabled people to make candles.
In addition to this, in 2012, he also founded a non-profit organization, Oshonic Vision, for blind people. The aim is to help more and more visually impaired people overcome challenges related to vision problems.
For his excellent work, he has received numerous awards, which include the President’s National Award in 2014 for best blind self-employment; in 2016, he received the President National Award for best employer of Divyangjan, and in 2019, he won the President National Award for Role Model of Divyangjan. Apart from this, he also won around 114 Paralympic NAB and IBSA medals for participating in Paralympic games in sports events.
For his hard work, dedication, and innovative approach, Bhavesh got recognition from numerous popular people like the chairman of Mahindra Group and other industry leaders.
The Bhavesh journey was full of challenges. He faces being bullied by everyone due to his blindness and enduring the loss of his mother. However, he refused to let these obstacles deter him from pursuing his dreams. Instead, through his hard work and determination, he achieved great success and became a multi-millionaire. He is not just a successful entrepreneur but also a great sportsman, poet, and tracker. He has written over 5000 shayaris.
