Wealth and fame can come to anyone. Britain’s top industrialists includes a 19-year-old who juggles between property dealing, school, and home. Apart from raking millions, he completes all his school projects, assignments; and manages to score top grade in all subjects. Here’s the founder of Doorsteps Akshay Ruparelia who is fondly addressed Alan Sugar.
This story conveys that there is no perfect time to take a leap, to change your present, and create a tomorrow of your dreams. Although it is perfectly okay to not be ambitious and live a simple life, the power of innovation, knowledge, and money takes one to a position from where they can change several lives.
This Indian-origin boy is now Britain’s youngest millionaire. During lunch break in school, other kids ran towards the playground but this teen quietly returned to his mobile phone to negotiate meaty property deals.
Born to deaf parents
Born to deaf parents, Akshay boy is nothing less than a genius. His father, Kaushik (57) is a care-worker in a Royal Mail Sorting office, and mother Renuka (51) is a teaching assistant for deaf children at Camden Council. Their son has bought a car for his parents so that they can travel comfortably wherever they want to go.
Akshay stays at home to care of his parents. He has been caring for them since he was little, and says that it was that responsibility that actually helped him build the kind of mentality he needs to run a successful business.
His friends and classmates call him ‘Alan Sugar’, one of Britain’s bourgeois and star of a show called ‘The Apprentice’. He has to maintain a balance between business and school.
The trick
Within a short span of 16 months, Akshay’s company has become the 18 largest real estate agency in Britain. His company has only 12 employees but is valued at £12 million (nearly Rs 102 crore which is more than a billion). He claims Doorsteps has sold homes worth £100 million. Earlier, he drew £500 as salary, which now stands at £1,300. He has also got £5 lakh from the investors for his company’s expansion.
Akshay’s agency negotiates property dealing for a far lesser amount as compared to his competitors in the area. The company charges £99 for the deal of assets, whereas other agencies charge £800 to £1,000 for the same. From this economical way, he now has 1,050 homes for sale on his website, selling around 30 homes a week. According to Daily Mirror, the most expensive house was sold for £1.4 million.
First step
The website began with a loan of £7,000 that Akshay took from his relatives. Initially, he had to take help of a call center to attend his customers as he could respond to them only after school. He had to pay £40 to his sister’s boyfriend to drive him to Doorsteps’ first customer’s house.
The customer, who stayed in Sussex, had put his house on sale for £4,85,000 and another property for £1,85,000. Akshay had to go there to click pictures of the property but did not have a driving license. However, he sold the combined property within three weeks for £6,70,000 (Rs 5.67 crore).
Akshay takes help of self-employed mothers who show the properties to his clients across the UK. He believes that mothers are honest and tell the truth to the customers which is important for any real estate business.
He says, “I do not need suit-clad people with expensive cars for the job.”
He got an offer from the Oxford University to study mathematics and economics, but he has put that on hold. His business is doing well and he wants to invest most of his time in it.
To be successful, one needs to be determined and have a strong mindset. Akshay is earning respect from all over the world because of his perspective and ability to see the world through his own eyes. Even after facing various challenges, he has made his mark at a very small age. If all the youngsters recognize their talents at the right moment and work for it, there is no question of not being successful.
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