I was bullied & dropped out of school – then made my first £1m before I was 18

A GLASGOW-born entrepreneur who was bullied and dropped out of school made her first £1million before she turned 18.

Liv Conlon was a star pupil, getting an impressive four As and a B in her Highers.

But she decided against further education and instead focused on making her own way in the world.

There was nothing her school mentors could do to persuade her she should go to university as she had a plan she was determined to see through.

Now, the 26-year-old is the owner of two companies which have turned over seven figures.

Liv launched her property staging business ThePropertyStagers when she was just 16.

And in her latest venture, the mum-of-one helps women launch their own staging business.

StagerBoss is now Liv’s second seven-figure business, with its best month exceeding £400,000.

She told Glasgow Live: “Not many people can say they’ve started two successful businesses from scratch, built a £1million brand in their teens, travelled the world delivering keynote speeches, won 13 national and international business and entrepreneur awards, delivered a TEDx talk, had dinner with the Prime Minister, and became a two-times best-selling author with an endorsement from Netflix.

“And even fewer people can say they’ve done all that – and so much more – before they were 26.

“But most people see the highlights – me having a luxurious lifestyle, and going to incredible places – and they want to have that life too, but what they don’t see are the 4am starts or the sacrifices I’ve had to choose to make every step of the way. It’s taken a lot of dedication to get here.”

Liv had already dabbled in business, importing goods from China and selling them in the UK by the age of 13.

She made £5,000 and bought her first MacBook Pro.

But she started in earnest at 16, when her mum Ali, 58, was trying to sell a home she bought at auction and struggled to shift it.

An estate agent told her to drop the asking price, but Liv suggested staging.

Once the place had been decorated, the property then sold within three days above the asking price.

Liv added: “We knew about staging as a concept and decided to engage a staging service.

“However we couldn’t find anyone who offered this service at an affordable price – so I decided to do it myself.

“In three days it sold above the valuation, selling the furniture to boot with a nice healthy profit, and so ThePropertyStagers was born.

“Teachers said I was ruining my life by not applying to university and choosing to start my own business, despite achieving five As. Mum was supportive, but some friends and family believed it was just a phase.

The businesswoman, who was bullied at a school in South Lanarkshire for her good grades, added: “It was a pretty scary thing to do. I really could have gone on to do anything I wanted at university, so when I put to the school that I wanted to leave before my final year, they called me into the careers office and sat me down and said ‘are you crazy, why are you leaving school when you have the opportunity to do anything you want?’.”

Liv’s firm ThePropertyStagers has now won 13 awards nationally and internationally, and it stages 400 homes across the UK every year.

She now coaches other women to get into the industry and follow her clever business model, which can see budding company owners start up with no capital.

Stagerboss is already a huge success, and mum Ali plays a key role as a head coach – mentoring women and sharing lessons alongside Liv.

Liv now lives in Marbella, Spain, with son Cash, her mum, and dog Kevin.