Dominic McVey’s CV may not read like an advertisement for the British education system, but that hasn’t stopped him recently being appointed a Pioneer for Entrepreneurism by the Queen. McVey was a self-made millionaire by the time he was 15. He now heads up a number of successful businesses, in a variety of different fields – and he’s only just turned 19.

The spirit of entrepreneurism was with him at an early age. As a schoolboy he used to organise under-18 discos, hiring church halls for next to nothing and then selling tickets in the playground for a fiver each. Reading The Times one day (aged 11), he came across an article about buying and selling shares online. He gave it a go, using his father’s credit card.

The real money started coming in, though, when McVey decided he wanted a pedal scooter at the age of 15. “When I called up the manufacturers in America they said that if I bought five I could have one for free,” he says. “That would probably put most people off, but I knew I could easily sell them, and then mine would effectively be paid for.” Before long, he was importing and selling 300,000 a week.

McVey’s education was taking a backseat by this stage, but he doesn’t see this as a bad thing. “The problem I had was that I’d been on the other side of the school wall and it was a lot more interesting out there for me. I didn’t want to leave school being the same as everyone else.” Being a teenager in the cut-throat business world may not have been easy but as most of his business was conducted via a mobile phone and laptop, he made a name for himself without actually having to leave his bedroom.

The focus of McVey’s business now is music. He is launching a new boy band, called Most Wanted, and is working on a new music television programme. He is also about to launch a line of condoms, called Newd, and is developing a new line of high-end pharmaceutical products.

For now, McVey is looking forward to living the rock and roll lifestyle with the band. “Yesterday I was sitting in the office of the CEO of EMI Records, while most people my age were probably sitting at home doing their homework,” he laughs.