oh my God guys Richard Branson has just stepped me through the five steps to build any business so Richard Branson is the billionaire founder of Virgin group one of the most recognizable and diverse brands in the world from telecommunications to transport Richard has done it all and taken plenty of risks along the way building more than 40 companies in over 35 countries globally so the five steps that we discussed are identifying a problem getting Revenue in advance working with the right people who believe in you the importance of building a brand and learning to take
risk guys you're not going to want to miss this one so people are always asking me how to start a business if you were starting a business again today what what steps would you take what things would you do I would uh wait until I saw something that frustrated me um and uh and then jump in and and um yeah try to correct it and and and do it better than it's being done or or um uh or do it from scratch and um and that's basically what a business is is it's just creating something
that makes it makes a positive difference to other people's lives yeah and that's how anyway that's how I've said about it at virgin i' I've never really been I never really thought of being myself as being a businessman I just look at um uh you know I hated flying on other people's Airlines so I started an airline I wanted to get a piece of music out and record companies wouldn't put it out so I started a record company so I'm just trying to um to uh yeah do something for that sort of reason is often
I think the best way of creating a business I was personally 15 years old when I first found out about you and and listened to your journey of starting these incredible businesses when I was younger I always wondered what are the first few steps do you think okay you've identified a problem which I think is brilliant I I by the way think that's the way they should reframe school it shouldn't be what will you do when you grow up but what problem do you want to solve in the world that should be reframed I think
but people listening you know they maybe don't have the resources uh to start what what do you think are the ways that you can get a business going if you're say short on resource well uh when I started my first business I didn't have any money so um so I had to sell advertising in advance um uh for the magazine that I put out so then when I started um a mail order record company I would um uh get the get the money in uh and then I'd go and buy the records and then I'd
send you know send them out to people so you know so that it's not easy but sometimes you can can actually start a business uh getting the cash up front and then and then uh and then pay the bills with that cash there five steps I think to start a business so the first I I really believe what you just said is so true like identify a problem that causes you pain and then try to solve that problem the second one is and I think this is really interesting get Revenue ahead of time so I
I used to charge 50% deposit before I even done I did the work for the client I had a service business that's how I started I did a gardening company and I charged 50% in advance and that paid for me to do the work and then the other 50% was my profit so that kind of cash flow management side do you think the third step do you see in your path um then just you find people that believe in your idea and and come and come you know who who are as excited about what you're
doing and if you got a good you know small team it could maybe just two or three of you you know then um anything's possible I mean it's you know so I think um surrounding yourself with the right people is key do you remember your first employee first person you convinced a guy called Johnny Holland gems who was a um I was a 15 he was 15 at school and uh he was wasn't as dyslexic as me and if you're going to start a magazine you need somebody who can actually write yeah well that's the
interesting thing you're dyslexic you start start a magazine people don't always connect the dots you need great people to come in and help you do these Visionary things right I think dyslexic people are brilliant in some ways but they they've obviously got some issues and and those issues was why I left school early and started you know went you started creating things rather than learning conventional schooling um which was doing nothing for me to be honest my third step was get a co-founder I I didn't feel confident enough to hire someone at the beginning so
I got someone to come in and have Equity with me and every business I've ever started had a co-founder I've enjoyed it more it's been more successful so you know personally I've really enjoyed that but I think the first employee also brings you some discipline right because then you can't just not do it now if you brought someone in right yeah I think I mean I think having partners is great um and making a real effort to get on with your partner partners and like a marriage there's going to be lots of give and take
but but um uh but and you may have to give give a bit more than you take in order in order to make the partnership work yeah I actually use a slogan um we should move away from give and take to give without take if you help someone be successful without any expectation of anything return it comes back to you like Karma right of course do you think there's a fourth step jumps in your mind that's I mean I build a brand for example not a business is something I really believe in and I think
I've got that from you yeah I mean obviously Market you know marketing um your brand is important I mean I had to uh you know how did I get a one plane Airline um to be as well known as British Airways I had to stick my neck out and you know jump on boats and balloons and things to to get it on the map nowadays you've got the internet so there are other way other ways of marketing things but um in those days we had to try to get on the front page of the newspapers
and not be a little Cornerstone in the back and and I take risk would probably be my fifth like learn to love risk it's something again I think I've learned from you but risk-taking how do you build up that risk muscle how did how do you get comfortable with risk I think it it's taking risk but protecting the downside so every move you make you must make be sure that if it goes wrong um it's not going to bring the whole pack of cards crashing down and and just occasionally you you might stick your neck
out and take a risk that will bring the whole pack of cards down because it's you know the upside is really worthwhile but but by and large protecting the downside is critical so you know with in my own life I've had to protect the downside when I do my adventuring which is my life is on the line and then protecting the downside in business to make sure that um you know nearly 60 years later we're still we're still um U ver Atlantic is still going strong and the other companies are still going strong what do
you think the biggest risk is you've ever taken in your career oh I think um yeah trying to fly around the world in a hot air balloon was maybe the biggest risk I remember that like that was yesterday no I really remember that like it how long ago was that uh that was uh in the in the uh in the 90 in the '90s yeah so I was leaving school at the time maybe that's why it's stuck in my mind so much that's such a crazy moment yeah if you went back to your uh 20-year-old
self and gave some advice anything you'd say don't change the thing and I've had I've had an absolute blast and um uh and an element of you have there has to be an element of good luck in in in building businesses and uh and a lot of really real hard work and um uh and you and you really have got to throw yourself in Day Day and Night you know um to to um uh you to to be successful um but you can yeah you can have fine time to party as well I think you
you you personify this concept I think of just enjoying your work and then you don't mind throwing yourself into I think work slightly a negative for some I've I've never I've never ever seen what I do as work I've just enjoy creating things and um and I create things with the groups of other people and if I've created something I'm proud of um that I get a real you know real kick from it I just want to say for the record you've been an inspiration to me since I was 15 years old be am to
than very much
