AKIPRESS.COM - Liv Conlon was just 13 when she started her first business - selling nail foils imported from China, BBC reports.

Seven years on and she is the owner of an interiors company with a turnover of £1m.

Surprisingly, she partly puts her success down to the kids who bullied her throughout her time in school.

"I'm very grateful to those people as it did really motivate me to go on and do something with my life," she tells BBC Radio Scotland's Stephen Jardine programme.

"I feel real gratitude towards these people because without them, maybe I wouldn't have the same drive as I do today."

Her company, The Property Stagers, has grown rapidly, from turning over £30,000 one year to £1m the next.

Liv, who employs her mum Ali and brother Jack, puts the company's success down to being really active on social media and getting its name out there.

"I'd always known that I wanted to have my own business," she says. "I wasn't sure what that was but I developed a love for interior design.

Using a Far Eastern equivalent of eBay, Liv bought the foils for 37p and sold them on eBay for £8, making herself a tidy sum of about £5,000.

"I probably just spent it on buying sweets and having fun with my friends," she says.

Liv, who is from Bothwell in South Lanarkshire, was bullied from a young age.

"It was very challenging," she says. "It was pretty much my whole primary school and secondary school so it was hard and I did move schools in my final year.

"You just have to remember that school isn't forever and if you have that inner belief in yourself you shouldn't really care what anyone else thinks.