he iconic Virgin Group founder seems to have done it all. Now he
explains to Inc. how to start a company from pennies, when to "snoop
around," and his trouble saying "no."
Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group--an empire of more
than 400 companies that includes an airline, a mobile phone company, and
a credit card company--sat down Wednesday with Inc. editor-in-chief
Eric Schurenberg. Their exclusive interview kicked off Inc.'s GrowCo
conference in New Orleans.
Branson spoke about the power of delegating, the importance of
branding, how to assess risk, and why he wants to change the entire
concept of space travel--soon.
Here are some of the interview's most poignant take-aways.
1. "A business can be started with very little money."
When Branson was 15 years old, he decided he wanted to start a
magazine to give young people a way to speak out against the Vietnam
War. He didn't have any money--not even enough change to make a phone
call. But when his mom found a necklace and turned it over to the
police, nobody claimed it. So she sold the necklace, and gave Branson a
couple hundred dollars. That money enabled him to bring on advertisers,
which led him to start printing his publication.
2. "Consider getting smaller in order to get bigger."
Rather than grow his original record business exponentially larger,
Branson instead set up 30 different record companies. Rather than have a
few top managers overseeing layers upon layers of people below them,
some lower-level employees became managers of those smaller entities. A
hearty spirit of competition developed. Branson attributes this
strategy's success to the fact each company knew directly and
immediately when it had succeeded, and when it had stumbled. Virgin
today is a huge entity with more than $20 billion in revenue--but
Branson's original strategy has been retained in that it also is a
series of smaller companies.
3. "You can be a David vs. a Goliath, if you get it right."
When Branson launched Virgin Atlantic, it had tough competitors such
as TWA, Pan Am, and Air Florida. "I mention these names," said Branson,
"because none of them exist anymore." Why'd the others fail? The others
didn't focus on the customer, Branson said.
4. "A business is simply an idea to make other people's lives better."
Branson explained this is what drives him as an entrepreneur: "If you
can make peoples lives a lot better, you've got a really good
business."
5. "Unless you dream, you're not going to achieve anything."
Branson is funding Virgin Galactic to make space travel more
accessible to average people--even if it would still cost an individual a
couple hundred thousand dollars. Because governments have traditionally
overseen space travel, only a select and elite (and very small) group
of people have been into space in the last six decades. Branson is
trying to change that. "People in this room under the age of 50,"
Branson said, "if they want to go to space will be able to go to space
in their lifetime."
6. "You can get too close with a doctor, or banker, and not realize you should actually snoop around."
When he launched Virgin Atlantic, Branson found a manager at his bank
on his doorstep one Friday evening in a complete panic, questioning how
someone in the record business could launch an airline. The banker said
he would foreclose on the whole Virgin Group that Monday. "I just
pushed the bank manager out of my house and told him he wasn't welcome,"
Branson said. He then explained that, in a state of "half-anger,
half-fear," he spent the weekend asking people he knew to chip in to
help him gather the money he needed upfront. And the next week he
changed banks--something he should have done much earlier (he even got a
better package from the new bank).
7. "Detail is very important."
Richard Branson carries a notebook at all times, so he can write down
conversations. He doesn't want to forget on, say, a Virgin Atlantic
flight, what his customers or staff tell him. He brings the notebook
along when he visits out-of-town teams and goes out with them. "When I
get drunk with staff, I won't remember, so I'll definitely write it
down," he laughed.
8. "You can create a business, choose a name, but unless people know about it you're not going to sell any products."
When Virgin Atlantic was getting started, it was so much smaller
than its competitors that Branson went to extraordinary lengths to put
the brand on the map, including stunts like attempting to get a boat
across the Atlantic in the shortest period of time. "Luckily when it
sank, the Virgin brand was sticking out of the water," he joked.
Likewise, when Branson tried to be the first to cross the Atlantic in a
hot air balloon, it was rescued by helicopters--but Virgin was all over
the newspapers.
9. "Find somebody else to run your business on a day-to-day basis."
Branson recommends you should be brave enough to find somebody else
to run all the day-to-day, and nitty-gritty details of your company, and
then step aside and work from home for a while, so you can start to
think about bigger picture--or your next business.
10. "Protect against the worst eventualities. Make sure you know what they are."
Ask yourself when you embark on a new venture if you can afford the
absolute worst-case scenario, and then just go on and do it. "You may
say, 'OK, I feel so sure about it I will mortgage the house.' I have
done that against my wife's wishes on two or three occasions," he said.
"Sometimes you'll fall flat on your face, sometimes you won't," he added.
11. "I think because I have great difficulty saying the word, 'no,' almost every day's a different adventure."
Branson's not one for taking it slow. Or turning down
opportunities--even if they mean jetting around the world and back. Inc.
caught up with Branson in New Orleans between a trip to New York--where
he announced the Virgin Atlantic service from two New York City-area
airports to Los Angeles and San Francisco--and his next stop: Peru.
http://www.inc.com/allison-fass/richard-branson-virgin-inspiration-leadership.html
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