Have You Met UK’s Teen Millionaire, Akshay Ruparelia Yet?

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If you haven’t met him, we have the honour of bringing to you one of UK’s youngest millionaires, Akshay Ruparelia. The 19-year-old Indian millionaire’s story is worth telling . Nkechi Ibeneme presents the compelling story of this teen wonder

Childhood
orn to a middle class Indian parents who are both deaf, the first language Akshay grew up with was the sign language. His unique upbringing put young Akshay in a position that he had to take responsibility early in life for the everyday running of his family’s finances and other businesses. One would be right to add that it made him grow up faster than his peers. Such that while his peers were busy enjoying play times and Social Media catch ups, Akshay was busy with his phone and spare time negotiating businesses.

Inspiration
Aside the unique birth situation of Akshay, the teen told Daily Mirror in an interview that he got hit with inspiration when he read the biography of Ryanair Chief Executive, Michael O’Leary, while studying for his A Levels Financial Studies exams. According to him; “Mr O’Leary began by selling flights for just £4.99. His point was that if you can offer customers something at a price they can’t believe and you deliver what you say you will, you hook people in and your business will work”. “So I took that same logic and applied it to estate agency. Research showed some online estate agencies were still charging homeowners between £800 and £1,000. I knew I could do it for a fraction of that.

Why estate agency?
In his words; “As a child, age 10 precisely, in our first house move as a family, I discovered the jobs of Estate Agents and the absolutely insane commission they charge and thought that could be done better”.

Setting up the agency
At 17, after he read the biography of Mr O’Leary and getting fired up, Akshay borrowed £7, 000  from relatives to design a website for his online estate agency; www.doorsteps.co.uk, while also studying for his A levels at Queen Elizabeth High School in Barnet, London.
Speaking of his breakthrough deal, Akshay has this to say: “I got the website up and running and after a couple of weeks a man in Sussex asked me to sell his home and a separate chunk of land he owned beside it.

“I had to pay my sister’s boyfriend £40 to drive me to East Sussex to take photographs of the house. I hadn’t passed my driving test and didn’t have a car.
“It was a five bed place with a swimming pool. I put the house on at £485,000 and the land for £185,000 on top, I’d sold it within three weeks.
“I was standing in the school playground and got an e-mail on my mobile from the vendor to say he’d accepted the combined £670,000 offer and that I was a ‘legend’.
“That was a sensational moment, I was thrilled”.

Discipline
However, the teen genius could not celebrate this breakthrough because he had to go home and revise for his A Levels exams. Instead, he got a Domino’s pizza in as a treat. Through a dint of hard work and discipline, Akshay Ruparelia, juggled homework, negotiating property deals and caring for his deaf parents but still managed to get three A*s and two A grades in mathematics, economics, politics, history and financial studies.

His work style
While his mates at school rushed out to play soccer during lunch breaks, Akshay went to a corner of the hall to take calls and negotiate businesses online. And while other teens chatted endlessly on different social media platforms and watched television all day after school, he went home to care for his parents, and was on his cell phone transacting business.
Being a school student who couldn’t attend to his calls the entire day, Akshay, hired a call centre to take calls from clients on his behalf during school hours, and would return the calls and negotiate deals soon after classes.

Net worth
Akshay’s agency, www.doorsteps.co.uk, is valued at £12 million and rated as the 18th biggest estate agency in the UK, reported to have sold properties worth 100 million pounds; just 16 months after his website went live. Doorsteps agency currently employs 12 people; mostly mothers who work from home. On his reason for engaging mainly mothers, Akshay told the Daily Mirror: “Quite rightly people trust mums. Every mum who works for me will be honest and tell the truth. It is important. For the majority of people selling their home is the biggest financial transaction of their lives”.

Lifestyle
At just 19, Akshay exhibits the financial wisdom superior to that of some adults; a trait that could be attributed to his peculiar childhood or his Financial Studies at school. But, despite turning in so much, he still manages to keep his head down. He is frugal with money and has placed himself on a monthly salary.  Initially, he paid himself £500 but now that business is booming, has increased that to £1, 000, every month.
It’s amazing but, Akshay doesn’t even own a car yet! The first thing an average teen was likely to invest on .He says the insurance is too exorbitant and though he has passed his driving tests; hopes to buy a car once the insurance goes down.

Care for parents
Due to the speech and hearing impairments of his parents, Akshay started caring for them early in his life.  His dad Kaushik, 57, is a care worker and does shifts in a Royal Mail sorting office and his mum Renuka, 51, is a teaching assistant for deaf children and a support worker for deaf children with Camden Council. With his business now doing great, Akshay is able to support his parents and has even bought them a new car – despite not owning one himself.

Advice to peers
And for his peers, Akshay handed down the following pieces of advice:
• Take every experience you have and use it to your own advantage.

• Enjoy what you do and do not spend the whole day watching television.

• If your mum gives you a bit of advice, take it. Mums know more than you’ll ever realise. That’s why I’m employing an army of them across the country to work for www.doorsteps.co.uk

• Read books, lots of books. The biography of Ryanair Chief Executive, Michael O’Leary I read has changed my life.

•  If your gut instinct about setting up a business feels right, just go with it. You’ll never make a million if you don’t take risks.

•  Don’t waste time watching shows like Love Island on TV, work hard, make money and maybe you’ll be able to buy your own island and invite whoever you want to join you on it.
And for those who may think that the self made teen millionaire is all about book and business deals, he has this final advice:
• Don’t work all the time, we all need to relax a bit to recharge our brains. I do that by playing tennis.

Future plans
Akshay has been offered admission by Oxford University to study economics and mathematics but he put it on hold to grow his business which has already started attracting investors and now has over £500, 000 in equity. He plans to raise £5 million with a share issue and to make doorsteps the best rated in service and Britain’s number one property agent.
Good luck kid!
•Source: Daily Mirror

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