I left school at 16 with 4 As – school was madhouse but now I run a £1million empire

Getting good grades and going to university used to be a traditional path that everyone wanted to take.

And while many still make that journey, there are now more opportunities than ever to progress from school to business owner.

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This week children across Scotland received their exam results and are now thinking about their future.

While college or university may be the right choice for some, owner Liv Conlan says it is possible to find success without further education.

Glasgow-born Liv started a property staging business at the age of 16, and within a year had turned over £1 million.

She now lives just outside Marbella, Spain, and advises young people who are thinking about the future.

Starting a business as a teenager can seem like quite a challenge.

But for Liv Conlan, this was all she ever wanted to do, much to the dismay of her teachers.

The tenacious Glasgow entrepreneur was a star pupil, achieving four As and a B in her final exams.

But her school counselors couldn’t convince her to go to college. She had a plan and was determined to follow through.

Liv, 25, said: “I didn’t want to pursue further education or take exams.

“My mother supported me and said, ‘Just do what you want, do something you love, and you will be successful.’

“School, on the other hand, wasn’t too happy about it. They said I was ruining my life by starting a business instead of going to university and using my exam results. A lot of them tried to push me to study maths or science, even though I was very creative.”

Liv had already forayed into the business world, importing goods from China and selling them in the UK when she was 13. She earned £5,000 and bought her first MacBook Pro.

But she didn’t really get started until she was 16, when her mother tried to sell a house and had trouble getting rid of it.

Mother-of-one Liv said: “My mother had invested in a property. She had done it up and wanted to sell it, but it sat on the market for three months with no offers.

“It was empty, so I decided to stage it. That basically just means decorating and styling.

“It went back on the market and was sold within three days. So I realized that this could really work and there was no one else offering that service.

“When I got out of school, I literally started going to networking events and talking to people about what I could do. And then one client led to another, which led to another, which led to today.”

It was a clever business model and proved hugely successful, with Liv making money and winning prizes within a few years.

The businesswoman, who was bullied at school in South Lanarkshire for her good grades, said: “We made it to seven figures when I was 19. It was just a bit surreal. When a lot of people were only in their first year at university, I was collecting awards – I was named The UK Young Entrepreneur of the Year.”

Liv’s company ThePropertyStagers has now won 13 national and international awards and puts 400 homes in the UK on the map every year.

She now coaches other women to enter the sector and follow her smart business model, which allows aspiring entrepreneurs to get started without capital.

And she had some advice for young people who are just out of school and may not want to go to university through the traditional route.

Liv, mother of 14-month-old son Cash, said: “If you do something you’re passionate about and you’re good at it, the money will come. And the money can come quickly if you have a skill in something that’s unique.

“Now with social media you can go right into people’s DMs and messages and make sales – it’s not like the old days in business where you had to have all that stuff. You can literally start making money tomorrow.

“School is very much geared towards academic people. And I think it really loses a lot of people with so many creative skills.

“There is so much money to be made, so much success to be had in social media, content, music, development, editing. There are honestly so many roles like this available now if you want a job.”