Apprentice winner makes £300,000 in just one week after losing £25,000 in freak disaster

For some entrepreneurs, The Apprentice is less about business and more an attempt to turn their dreams of fame and fortune into reality. 

However, for other, more ambitious candidates, it’s a last roll of the dice to prove their business instincts and secure a life-changing opportunity they may never get again.

And of all the brilliant series 20 candidates, the winner Karishma Vijay definitely fell into the latter camp. 

Karishma, 28, was the only contestant in this series to win twice as project manager, and her no-nonsense attitude, savvy social media skills, and ambition made her a fan favourite from the start.

In the finale, she secured Lord Sugar’s £250,000 investment after dazzling the tycoon with an impressive pitch for her cosmetic company Kishkin.

This week, it was reported that she’s already secured £250,000 in sales, although when Metro gave her a call, she rather modestly admitted it’s now nearly £300,000 worth of sales. 

Yet Karishma told us that she only signed up to The Apprentice after losing £25,000 worth of stock in an unforeseen disaster, which saw her lose everything. 

‘I ordered a shipment using the money that came in from our first sales,’ she explained. ‘We were basically buying a bunch of oil, and we said, “Let’s put it on a ship and get it out here.” It will take maybe two or three months to get here by sea. 

‘I found out that it hadn’t even left Hong Kong. There’d been a typhoon, and the ship had gone down, and my stock’s at the bottom of the ocean now. All my hard work is at the bottom of the sea.’

To make matters worse, despite paying for insurance, Karishma’s Chinese brokers, who were handling the deal, ghosted her, leaving her out of pocket and desperate. 

‘So when I came on to The Apprentice, it was because I had nothing left to lose, really, she explained. ‘I’d lost all this money, I’d lost all this product, and I’d lost hope in humanity slightly, because no one wanted to help me.’

For Karishma, then The Apprentice was a make-or-break moment to prove she was cut out for the business world. 

‘At the time, it felt very dramatic to be saying this is really my last chance at getting this right,’ she continued. 

‘I’m not one to ask anyone for help with money. I wouldn’t have gone to my partner or my dad because my whole thing has been about doing this myself and getting my family out of a financial situation’

‘I thought, I really have to find someone, an investor, you know, and prove myself. And there is no opportunity, like The Apprentice, to really do that and show the whole country what you’re made of.

‘Everyone is behind you. Everyone can see what you’ve worked towards and what you’ve built up and who you are at your core as a business person.’

It was this make-or-break mentality that likely made Karishma such a force to be reckoned with during series 20. Well, that and her surprise secret weapon. 

You see, Karishma hadn’t watched The Apprentice before applying, which she thinks gave her an edge over other candidates who tried to metagame the process. 

‘I was either Project Manager or Sub Team Leader for like 70% of the process,’ she said.

‘I was never one to shy away, even though some of the candidates had done calculations on the percentages of the likelihood of being fired if you put yourself or the sub team leader or pm for task one.

‘There were studies that people had done to protect their interests and protect themselves during the process. I just kind of like walked in, not even having watched it, thinking “I’m gonna give it my best shot”.’

Karishma claims a lot of the contestants were keen to coast through the process and avoid getting fired, but she wasn’t thinking like that. Instead, she was determined to prove herself to everyone at every opportunity. 

‘I think that’s why Baroness Brady took such a liking towards me,’ she continued. ‘I would not hide or shy away, because I could see how in every task, I’d been an asset.’

For all her success, however, Karishma remains focused on helping her family, starting with getting them a ‘stable home’.

‘We don’t have a foundation,’ she said. ‘We live in a rented place with a landlord, and it’s like a shoe box.  We’re paying extortionate prices because it’s London, and it’s just so sad.

‘I’ve told myself, I’m not gonna buy myself a bed until I have a home, so for the last three years, I’ve been sleeping on a mattress on the floor every single night. 

‘Why? Because I will get the house, I will get the bed, and I will get the car in the driveway. I will do it all. I will keep grinding and keep working until I have it all.’

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.