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As if running a seven-figure business and raising her one-year-old son alone at 25 wasn’t enough, Liv Conlon decided to start a second business. Within a year, the company would generate a turnover of £1 million.
Liv, 25, from Glasgow but living in Marbella, Spain, is the brains behind the multi-award-winning ThePropertyStagerswhich offers 300 properties for sale in the UK each year.
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She left school at 16 after being severely bullied while setting up the business, which her teachers thought would fail, but it didn’t.
Now Liv has launched StagerBoss – teaching women how to set up their own staging business, which is already well on its way to generating a seven-figure turnover, having achieved a turnover of £144,000 in one month this year.
Interiors expert and mother of son Cash, Liv, said: “There aren’t many people who can say they’ve started two successful businesses from scratch, built a £1million brand as a teenager, travelled the world giving keynote speeches, won 12 national and international business and entrepreneurship awards, given a TEDx talk, dined with the Prime Minister and become a two-time bestselling author with a Netflix endorsement.
“And even fewer can say they did all that – and much more – before they were 25.”
At sixteen, Liv was a student who always got good grades but was constantly bullied by her classmates.
She was also called “crazy” by her teachers when she told them she planned to leave school before her senior year to start an interior design business without funding.
The mother of one always knew she wanted to start her own business. At 13, she earned £5,000 by importing goods from China and selling them online.
Together with her mother Ali (57), the couple discovered a gap in the housing market after Ali struggled to sell a house she bought at auction.
An agent told her to lower the asking price, but Liv suggested staging her home.
After Liv furnished the house with furniture and accessories, the property sold within three days for a price above asking price.
And the idea for ThePropertyStagers was born.
Liv said: “We knew staging was a concept and decided to engage a staging service.
”But we couldn’t find anyone who offered this service at an affordable price, so I decided to do it myself.
“Within three days it sold above appraisal value, and the furniture sold for a nice profit too, and thus ThePropertyStagers was born!
“Teachers told me I was ruining my life by not enrolling in college and choosing to start my own business despite getting five As.
”My mother was supportive, but some friends and family thought it was just a phase.
“It was quite scary to do.
“I could have done anything I wanted at university, so when I told the school I wanted to drop out before my final year, they called me into the careers department and sat me down. They said, ‘Are you crazy? Why drop out when you have the chance to do whatever you want?’.”
How to start your own business?
Dragon’s Den star Theo Paphitis revealed his tips for budding entrepreneurs:
- One of the biggest barriers that aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners face is a lack of self-confidence. You have to believe in your idea — and more than that, be the one to bore your friends to death with it.
- Never be afraid to make decisions. Once you have an idea, the confidence to make decisions is crucial to starting and maintaining a business.
- If you don’t take calculated risks, you’re standing still. If a decision turns out to be wrong, identify it quickly and act on it if you can. If you can’t, find someone else who can.
- It’s okay not to get it right the first time. My experience of making bad decisions has helped build my confidence and made me who I am today.
- Never underestimate the power of social media and remember that the internet is an equal opportunity for small businesses.
- Don’t forget to dream. A machine can’t do that!
ThePropertyStagers quickly became the most recommended letting agency in the UK, winning an impressive 13 national and international awards within six months.
In its first year, the company generated £30,000 and in its second year, £1 million. Liv, who was then crowned British Young Entrepreneur of the Year, was just 19 years old.
ThePropertyStagers now has a team of 10 people.
With her money, Liv has invested in a house in Spain and a second home in Glasgow, as well as luxury holidays in five-star hotels.
Teaching other women
Last year, Liv, who now lives in Marbella with Cash, her mother Ali and their dog Kevin, came up with the idea of teaching other women how to set up their own property staging business and shared with them the strategy that worked for them.
It launched in 2024 and raised £144,000 in a month in January.
Liv said, “My story has encouraged and empowered many women to want to build the same success. From this, my newest business, StagerBoss, was born. We coach women to start their own staging business.
“A lot of people asked how I grew my business and I was too busy to help them individually, so I created a course explaining it.
“People wonder why I would coach people in building a business that can be competitive, but I believe there is more than enough work for everyone.
”Especially for women with young children, staging accommodations can easily be built around childcare facilities.
“My hard work has allowed me to move to my dream location, Marbella, live in my dream home and be home with my son every day. While running my business (and being based in my hometown of Glasgow), I travel to a new location or hotel on my bucket list every month.”
Because Liv is a single parent on top of her second business, she has to organize her time in a very structured way.
She works on a strict schedule, which means waking up at 4am and going to the gym, and she also schedules time with her son Cash so they can have time together that isn’t interrupted by phone calls or deadlines.
Liv also takes into account sessions of ‘deep work’. These are sessions of at least two hours without distractions (no notifications or interruptions from others).
She also schedules time to “eat the frogs,” doing the work she least feels like doing.
She said: “Sometimes I think my life looks glamorous, but people only see the bright side: speaking on stages, being interviewed, staying in cool places.
”But it has taken many years of work behind the scenes to get to this point.
And so I’ve sacrificed a lot to build the life I have now, from waking up at 4am every day to saying no to most social events with friends
Liv Conlon
“I realize my schedule may be considered quite extreme and it’s not for everyone, but it works for me.
“Another reason I work this schedule is so I can be a fully present mom.
”When I’m at Cash, I’m never on my phone or laptop. I enjoy every moment.
”On the weekend I don’t even think about work, we have two full days of fun.
“Ultimately, everything I do is about creating a limitless life for ourselves and changing other people’s lives along the way. I’m really excited to be a role model for him – that whatever he wants to achieve, he can do it.”
Making sacrifices to be where she is now
But ultimately, Liv’s hard work and dedication over the past decade has paid off, even though she has chosen to give up the typical lifestyle of her peers.
Liv said, “I’ve always loved the quote, ‘Work like no one else does, so you can live like no one else does.’”
”And so I’ve sacrificed a lot to build the life I have today. From waking up at 4am every day to saying no to most social events with friends.
“I can confirm that it worked. The feeling that you are not only making your family proud but also yourself is a feeling that you cannot describe.
“Some of the experiences I’ve had are truly once in a lifetime, like having dinner with the Prime Minister and seeing my first (and second) book published on Amazon.
“You only get one life, and I can already say that I lived it to the fullest.”
