Big Sofa Warehouse is a success thanks to Conner in the driving seat

It means he has progressed from being a boy on a bike to a man with a van and is now the owner of impressive premises with six members of staff.

The Big Sofa Warehouse only opened in December but is enjoying a thriving trade in used and new sofas as well as custom-made to suit/fit any home or commercial space.

"We have a partnership with a UK-based manufacturer so we can create bespoke sofas any shape, size or colour,” says Conner.

“I can get it made three to four weeks and the service we can provide means a customer can come into our warehouse, take a look at all our different collections, pick their material and the style as well as the size they want as we make the frames too. We can make it all bespoke.

“I’ve also made contacts with new suppliers that has helped me to source other products and other styles, like recliner sofas. We have a vast variety that we can offer customers.”

He adds: “Hillington is also a great place to be as there are a lot of other home product suppliers nearby so people can shop for tiles or new kitchens at the same time as their soft furnishings.”

It’s a long way from the paper round but even as a teenager Mr Ferguson showed an aptitude for business by ending up with one of the biggest paper rounds in Glasgow. He had over 115 customers in the Knightswood area after paying other paper boys and girls a lump sum to take over their rounds.

“That’s how I built my wee empire – that’s how it all started,” he laughs.

Even going by bike it took him two and a half hours to deliver all his Evening Times after school and the Sunday papers at the weekends along with milk and rolls.

Realising he could save time if he had an engine, he sat his compulsory basic training for a moped when he was 16 and cut the duration of his round to under an hour.

“Everyone could hear me coming on my wee moped but the paper round gave me the motivation to make money from a very young age,” says Mr Ferguson. “I used my milk, rolls and paper round to my advantage and built my business from that.”

By the time he was 19 he had enough money to buy a van and began doing house removals. His customers then asked him to take away old furniture so he started a company called the Wee Second Hand Shop from small premises based in Govan.

When the first pandemic lockdown began it could have been a disaster but he used the opportunity to build up his social media presence, working up to 70000 followers and began selling products online.

“I would say the Covid pandemic boosted my business as people ended up using the spare cash they had saved for their holidays for home improvements because they could not get away,” Mr Ferguson explains.

As business grew, the chance came up to take on the premises in Hillington so he took the plunge and hasn’t looked back. He also now has four children aged from six to just one years old .

“I’ve had my family at a very young age and that has given me the drive to build the business,” Mr Ferguson says. “I had to grow up and take responsibility very quickly.”

For others who would like to start their own business but are apprehensive, his advice is to try it and see how it goes.

However he warns that would-be entrepreneurs must be willing to take risks.

“I have taken risks to get where I am just now,” says Mr Ferguson. “When I bought my first container of sofas I think I had about £18,000 in the bank and the container of couches cost £16,000.

“I left myself with £2000 to tide me over even though the container, which was coming from overseas, was going to take three months to come. It’s a risk I took at very beginning and it paid off.

“You have to be ambitious in this day and age.”

thebigsofawarehouse.co.uk