Amit Johar would like to bring the mindset and the efficiency of the business world to Wareham's town government.

"I feel like Wareham is drifting," 34-year-old Johar said in a March 19 meeting near his Plymouth workplace. "It's a ship without a rudder."

Phrases like "business plan" and "vision" come up repeatedly in a conversation with Johar, who believes that it was lack of good planning that brought Wareham to its current difficult budget situation -- a situation he would like to avoid.

"Having a vision and having a business plan is absolutely fundamental to where we need to go as a community," Johar said.

Johar would like to bring a sense of direction to the Wareham community, but some residents are questioning whether he has the right to do so, as rumors have been circulating that he lives in Plymouth, not Wareham.

Johar asserts that he has lived in Wareham off and on ever since his parents opened up their package store, Mayflower Liquors, around 2006 and 2007. The store is located at 3150 Cranberry Highway.

Three to four months ago, somebody broke into Mayflower Liquors and Johar's father was assaulted during the incident, Johar said. After the break-in, Johar became concerned about his father's safety and started staying at the store overnight more often, Johar said.

Johar, who is married to wife Divya, graduated from Milford High School and went to Massachusetts Bay Community College where he majored in accounting. After two years at Mass. Bay, Johar moved on to Bridgewater State University where he majored in finance.

After graduating from Bridgewater State, Johar started his own mobile phone business called "K Communications," eventually establishing five or six outlets in various malls, including the Solomon Pond Mall in Marlborough.

Johar ran the business for three-and-a-half years, but got out once he saw that Sprint and Nextel were merging.

"As a good entrepreneur you can always tell when things aren't going to go good for you," he said.

Johar then took a business development and sales job with Language Scientific, formerly known as RIC International, even though it was lower paying than other job offers he was getting, he said. He took the job because there was access to the Chief Operating Officer of the company, and he said he knew that he could get guidance in professional development and leadership training.

Attracting businesses is one part of Johar's strategy for economic development for the town. He often mentions Plymouth, where he says 25 businesses opened in the month of January, compared to Wareham, where only one business opened.

Johar also wants to examine budget cuts and making town government more efficient.

"Everything is going to be on the table in terms of budget cuts," said Johar. "There's efficiencies out there that are probably not realized. I'm quite confident ... there's got to be money somewhere" in the budget.

Johar said he believes in cuts because he is "absolutely" opposed to new taxes.

"There's a time when you can charge additional taxes and there's a time when you shouldn’t be," Johar said. "In the 90s, taxes went up, and people weren't complaining … but every taxpayer doesn't have that kind of disposable income anymore."

Still, Johar mentioned that "you can only cut the budget so much," and said that economic development is the only long-term solution to the town's budget problems.

"If somebody doesn't want cuts," Johar said, "they need to help the town bring small businesses to the area."

Johar supports the continued sewering of Wareham, as he believes, while acknowledging that he wished sewering was completed "20-30 years ago when the government would pay 90% of it," that once sewers are used by most Wareham residents, costs will go down and the system will be able to pay for itself.

Johar also supports the proposed Westfield development as it will provide both tax revenue to the town and senior housing, he said. The project, which will provide affordable senior housing on the 77-acre Westfield property, was overwhelmingly approved by Town Meeting in October 2010.

If elected, Johar said he would like to bring stronger leadership to the Town of Wareham.

"We as policy makers are not able to deliver," Johar said, going back to the ship analogy. "We're blowing left and right, and not going forward."