OLIVIA’S THIRD CAREER BY HER THIRTIES

AGE has never been a barrier for 36-year-old Olivia Carr.

After having her first child at 19, she started her first business, a national educational theatre company, at 24.

She then pursued a corporate career in sales and management and about three years ago launched her second business, silk bedding and sleepwear brand Shhh Silk.

“Kids as young as possible should do whatever they can to set themselves up,” she says.

“As you get older you become riskaverse because you have a house and school fees.”

Carr now leads a team of eight employees, including her mother, who heads the customer service division.

“For a young person the hardest stage is entering a corporate role,” she says. “It’s very hierarchical and you feel as though you have to climb that ladder and it could take 10 or 20 years.

“I think it’s starting to change though, especially in the US.”