'When you're young, the world’s your oyster': how Liv Conlon started a £1m business aged 16

How one teenage entrepreneur went from selling nail foils on eBay to dominating property staging – all without investment.

For all the joys of being on the edge of 17, money isn’t a strong point for most teenagers.

With exams and social pressures, and limited teaching about money in school, most can just about manage a paper round

The teenage Olivia "Liv" Conlon, on the other hand, was walking into rooms of landlords to drum up business.

“It was challenging” recalls Conlon, who's based in Glasgow. “I was 16, I had long blond curly hair and the property industry is male-dominated and there was a massive age gap between me and most people in the room.”

Yet standing out had a big advantage “It was really being different, I think: I was noticed for that. I just had to be out of my comfort zone and just do it and speak to them.”

Just four years on, Conlon runs The Property Stagers, a business with a £900,000 turnover, two warehouses, 10 staff and an increasing reputation in the world of ‘property staging’: essentially, providing temporary furnishings and furniture for rental properties during viewings.

Conlon talked to loveMONEY about the challenges of being a young entrepreneur and why she thinks teenagers have a particular advantage.

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No bank of mum and dad

With teenage success stories, there’s always a temptation to attribute it to the ‘bank of mum and dad’.

That’s not the case for Conlon. Her first client paid her in advance to decorate the property, so she took the money and bought some flat pack furniture, which she assembled and moved, solving the tricky chicken-and-egg situation facing many entrepreneurs.

“I didn’t get myself into debt at all”, Conlon explains “I wouldn’t buy furniture without getting paid for it, so there weren’t any start-up funds needed, I just needed clients.”

What Conlon did have was a family where entrepreneurialism was prized.

Conlon’s mum, Ali, who is now employed at Property Stagers, had started businesses in professional training and wedding planner.

“I had seen her run businesses and I thought that’s what I wanted,” says Conlon.” I was involved and help my mum in a lot of her businesses as well, and mum and dad have always told me to do what I want and what I’m passionate about and then the money will come.”

Then, aged 13, Conlon spotted a business opportunity in an unlikely sector: nail foils.

 “I used to go to high street shops like Claire’s and I was paying like £10 a packet and I just thought surely there’s a way to get this cheaper. I did a bit of investigation and saw a way to make money”

Using the Chinese e-commerce website Ali Baba, Conlon bought foils in bulk and sold them individually on eBay, netting a handsome profit.

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“I was offering an affordable service”

Furnishing entire houses and apartments is, of course, a far cry from reselling beauty products. Yet here Conlon spotted another opportunity.

“I didn’t invent property staging, but very few people in the UK did it at that point and nor did they do it in a reasonable time; I was offering an affordable service.”

And how was Conlon able to keep costs low? Well, as a 16-year-old, having just left school, she barely had any.

“The first couple of installations I did I didn’t really make any money. I would get paid for the installation and then buy all the furniture with that money [I’d earned]”, explains Conlon. “But then I started to make a profit the more clients I got and was able to move that same furniture onto the next property, but still be paid the same.”

After a couple of months, when Conlon was able to ‘recycle’ furniture from property to property (as you may spot in the photos), she began to make a profit and never returned to school.

Reaping the rewards

Conlon might have been prepared for the work involved in setting up a business, but was less prepared for the rewards.

“Obviously being 16, £1,200 to £1,600 a month was a lot of money for me!”

She quickly got an accountant to help her manage the money, although deciding when to draw an income from the business was “still quite a challenge”.

“Of course, you need to take enough money from the business to be able to live, but of course you try to draw as little as possible,” says Conlon. “I guess within 6 to 12 months is when you start to take a little more for yourself.”

Most of the money went back into The Property Stagers, paying for business cards and a website, which more than paid off.

“We get a lot of people searching for us online; one of the biggest ways to grow the business was by posting on social media a couple of times a day, so that’s probably where the most of our clients come from.

“The property industry is fairly small so we’re a well-known brand now.”

Conlon did treat herself in one way: at 18, she bought a house and renovated it – with no help needed from the bank of mum and dad.

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Beating the £1 million mark

Today, The Property Stagers has become a much bigger business, with warehouses in Glasgow and Manchester and ten employees building furniture, shipping it and dealing with clients.

Yet Conlon, their manager, is still just 20.

Managing people 30 or 40 years older than herself was really challenging, recalls Conlon “but now that the business has got some success behind it, the people on the team really respect my position in the business and how I’ve built it.” The team includes Conlon's mum Ali and brother Jack (pictured above, top left and top right respectively).

The Property Stagers still prides itself on 24-hour installation, but the benefit of scale means it can now get discounts from suppliers.

This year Conlon aims to double the business’ turnover, currently £900,000, a goal she admits is ambitious but says is possible with expansion.

Her astounding achievements are increasingly being recognised by awards, and Conlon has found herself talking to other young entrepreneurs and has set up a Facebook group to support them; she also recommends looking at funding from the Prince’s Trust.

Where others see youth as a hurdle, Conlon sees it as an opportunity.

“In a lot of ways, it’s one of the easiest times to start a business as usually you don’t have a lot of outgoings or a family to support, so really the world’s your oyster.”

It takes hard work, she warns “12 to 18-hour days, if the business requires it. You can’t really become successful doing half days or not putting a lot of effort into it.” 

“I think you need to be quite serious and have an idea that you’re passionate about…people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you’re doing it.”

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