Founder of two successful online businesses, Rakesh Samar has revolutionised the building materials supply business by providing transparency through his e-commerce platforms. Despite facing many challenges in his early years, he successfully built a business from scratch and received recognition as ‘Best Industry in the IT Sector’ in North India for his innovative contributions to the IT sector.

A first-generation entrepreneur, Rakesh Samar introduces himself as the founder of  ‘ApnaGhar BizCorp Pvt. Ltd.’ which deals in building material supplies. He also owns an e-commerce solutions company named ‘Samar E.Com Solutions Pvt Ltd.’ which focuses on building e-commerce solutions for businesses.

Established four years ago, the objective of  ‘ApnaGhar BizCorp Pvt. Ltd.’ is to sell good-quality building supplies to its end users transparently. According to him, this industry lacks the transparency required, and hence they are trying to fill this market gap with the help of ‘apnagharbanao.com’, an e-commerce platform launched by them for this purpose.

On this platform they sell various construction materials like steel rods, cement, angles, structural beams and columns, AAC blocks, and other new technology building materials that reach the end consumer easily. He says that there are many construction related chemicals and paints that people are not commonly aware of. Hence, they aim to spread awareness about the same through their e-commerce website   'apnagharbanao.com'.

Another of his recently established companies, ‘Samar E.Com Solutions Pvt Ltd.’, focuses on building e-commerce solutions for businesses. Having been inspired to sell building materials online, he shares that in today's times, neither anyone is selling building materials online, nor is there any awareness about the same in the market.

Rakesh Samar shares that they have coded a software called ‘MYSOL’ which is an acronym for ‘Make Your Shop Online’ With the help of this software, any person can take their products online through their personally integrated domain. In one week, they can start their website and start selling goods online.

He quotes the examples of Ola, Uber, and Zomato. Rakesh believes that they have made the impossible possible, and hence he wishes to do the same in the building material supply industry. He aspires to revolutionise this industry by shipping these goods to the doorstep of the end consumer. He underlines that there are some shipping problems faced in this industry, and they wish to solve them.  In other products, the shipment can be done easily by post and courier services, but it is not the same in building material supplies.

Quoting an example of a challenge in this industry, Rakesh explains if somebody needs 50 sacks of cement in Assam or one tonne of iron, it would not be feasible to send the product from Udaipur. Hence, the business solution by Mysol, i.e., 'apnagharbanao.in', comes into play. They are still working on this marketplace software.

Now, if someone places an order of building material supply from a particular PIN code, they will be able to find these products online. The customer will also be able to compare the rates from all the nearby vendors and thus get the product delivered at their convenience. He shares that almost all the work is done, and they will be launching this website around August 1, 2024, approximately.

Talking about his professional accomplishments, Rakesh shares that he was recognised as the ‘Best Industry in the IT Sector’ in the entire North India. He received this award for his new venture, where he is bringing building material supplies online at 'apnagharbanao.in'.

Rakesh Samar did his schooling in Nagpur, as his father worked in the Railways. He completed his engineering degree from BIT Ranchi, and then he received a placement at NTPC Ramagundam, where he worked on a super thermal power plant project. Unfortunately, his father died in a road accident, and the whole family was in shock due to this tragic situation. He was supported by his elder brother, who was in America, and an elder sister, all unmarried. They did not have a proper house to live in or any food to survive on then.

He was only 21 during that time when he decided to quit his NTPC job and move to Udaipur, which was his hometown, alongwith his family. He motivated his mother to take up the job in the Railways in place of his father. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Rakesh made a major contribution to getting his siblings married and taking care of the household at the age of just 22.

He joined a job at ONGC, and was posted in Hazira, Surat. As his mother was alone, he decided to quit his job and prioritise his family over his job. He started applying for jobs in Udaipur, but he was getting only half the salary that ONGC was paying him. Thus, Rakesh decided to buy a plot in RICO Industrial Area, Udaipur and start a soapstone business. Since he or his family had no experience in business, he was very naive initially in this field.

Rakesh shares that, at the mere age of 22, he started his own business from scratch. He had no major funds, and hence he applied to Rajasthan Financial Corporation (RFC) to raise funds. He started the business with grave difficulties as he had only Rs 20,000 in his pocket and the rest came in debt.

With a lot of hard work, he inaugurated his factory on May 25, 1989. In the first five years, he struggled a lot with his business and also decided to do a part-time MBA course in the meantime to learn business concepts. He also got married during those years, and thus his responsibilities grew manifold. After many years of hard work, he settled into where he is today. Thus, he learned business with time and regards himself as an inspiration to come into this field.

Talking about role models and inspirations, Samar shares that in the past four years, he has come into contact with two people, Dr. Ajay Shesh and Dr. Rishi Acharya, who have changed the way he does business and his mindset towards it. He talks about their organisation, Life Champions Ecosystem (LCE), where every Thursday they hold a talk show for two hours where they talk and discuss what should be done in a business and what should not be done. He attends those sessions regularly and has learned a lot about the mistakes made by him in the past 25 years. He believes that had he gotten this guidance before, he would have made good achievements long ago.

Samar learned that nowadays entrepreneurs are becoming slaves to their own businesses, and hence he understood the importance of delegation of work. He underlines that if you can hire someone to do a certain task more efficiently than you yourself do, then we must train them in that. On the other hand, the entrepreneur must sort out other ways to take the business forward. These tactics will help a businessperson take out time to update their knowledge, think about the growth of the company, and grow their vision accordingly.

‘Everything starts small but has a long-awaited path in the future.’ Taking inspiration from this line, Rakesh Samar believes that “Ek din mein nahi hoga, lekin ek din zaroor hoga.” He says that everybody must keep counting their courage and motivation for the goals they want to achieve in life.

Rakesh Samar at the age of 58, finds delight and satisfaction in having reached where he is today. When he looks back, there are definitely thoughts in his mind that if he had had a good mentor, he would have made fewer mistakes and had more success today. But still, he is very happy with what he has achieved today.

He always made it a point to have lunch with his children once they were back from school every day. He believes that when children are at a tender age, they always want to share what happened at their school. Hence, he made it a point to be all listening ears from the very beginning himself. He always listened to his daughters, and today he shares a great bond with them. He feels very happy to share that both his daughters have been achievers in sports, academics, and co-curricular activities. One of his daughters is in Australia, and both are top economists. He made it a point to get them the best possible education from prominent schools and colleges like Lady Shri Ram College and IGIDR, and both are working in MNCs today. Raising such talented daughters is a great yet personal achievement for him.

Samar also shares about his wife, who worked at National Insurance Company Limited for eight years but later left her job to focus primarily on the upbringing of her kids. When the kids left for further studies, Rakesh motivated his wife to join him in business. Today she markets the utensils of the ‘Sail Salem Steel’ company. Motivating his wife to come into business is also a great achievement for him.

Additionally, in terms of his professional achievements, Rakesh says that he received an award as ‘Best Industry in the IT Sector’ in North India for his new venture. He received this award in New Delhi for his idea of ​​bringing building materials online through apnagharbanao.in.

Advising budding entrepreneurs, Rakesh says that times have changed a lot now. Gone are the days when traditional business ideas were able to survive in this competitive market, as everything works as it does in the era of the internet now. According to him, the scope of everything has increased in every field. Hence, he recommends choosing a unique field with the use of the internet and AI and working as much as possible.

He concludes his MeriKahani with a song very close to his heart:

क्षण भंगुर काया, तू कहाँ से लाया, गुरुवर समझाया पर समझ न आया,  ये सांस निगोड़ी चलती रुक थोड़ी, चल-चल रुकजावे क्या खोया पाया, क्या लेके आयो जग में, क्या लेके जायेगा, ओ बंधु।