One of my business mentors for over a decade has been the billionaire Richard Branson of the Virgin Group.

Jamie McIntyre Learns lessons from Richard Branson

Initially I learnt valuable lessons from reading his books and modelling some of his business strategies, but then I was fortunate enough in recent years to have caught up with Richard in person on several occasions to learn even more valuable business lessons.

Here are 7 valuable lessons I’ve learnt particularly in business from Richard.

1. Do what you love and are passionate about and you’ll increase your chances of success in any endeavour.

This is a common lesson shared by the majority of successful millionaires and billionaires I’ve studied.

Yet it is commonly overlooked by so many people.

Richard gets his passion from making a difference and ideally making a profit at the same time so he can continue to make a difference.

Many people have issues with making money yet without it; it reduces ones capacity to make a positive difference.

Most people’s ideal career is to do something they love and make a lot of money doing it, thus one reason Richard Branson inspires so many as its obvious he loves being an entrepreneur and does business with a passion.

2. Build a committed team around you and allow them to grow by delegating.

One of Richards’s successes has come from attracting a quality team of passionate managers and then allowing them to run his business and not micro manage.

Spending time with Richards Virgin Team at some of Virgins parties I could tell they all loved the Virgin Culture, were passionate about their roles and felt a part of the Virgin family and thus would go the extra distance to deliver results.

Richard realised that you either are an entrepreneur or a manager not both.

To many entrepreneurs micro manages their companies to death and never allows it to grow to where it will run without them.

On the other hand people that are better managers often start their own business and fail as they’d be better off partnering up with a good entrepreneur and running the entrepreneurs company.

3. Make business Fun.

Richard advised me personally to throw a lot more parties and celebrate more achievements with my team.

He said you don’t even need to spend a lot of money however look for ways to celebrate success and reward your team as much as possible.

Not only is it a lot of fun as everyone loves a party it helps your team bond and enjoy their work more because its not all hard work and no play.

4. Branding

Probably the most valuable lesson I’ve learnt for business from Richard in a monetary sense.

Virgin broke all the rules of marketing by using the same brand across completely unrelated industries, yet the value of the brand not only carried over but increased the value of Virgin as a Brand to such an extent it is now one of the most valuable brands in the world.

5. Never delegate financial control completely.

This was a crucial lesson and difficult to do as one needs to delegate work to allow a business or companies to grow.

For myself owning 12 companies I couldn’t possibly do financial control for all companies and have a life.
So I used to delegate it completely and as a result have lost millions,from fraud to simply mismanagement by financial controllers.

But Richard said no matter how big a company becomes the owners should go into the business and sign cheques every 6 months so they know the expenses and as a result question costs to lower the companies overhead.

As a result I now keep a much closer eye on every expense throughout my companies and have saved millions as a result.

6. Life is an Adventure so take some risks.

Richard has become famous for his daredevil stunts in hot air balloons and ocean racing amongst other things.
One may not need to be a daredevil to succeed in business however one must be willing to embrace risk.

7. Make a difference.

Ultimately Richard is still motivated and passionate to work as he is focused on making a positive difference to the world and thus has boundless energy and money is a secondary driver.

Personally to keep up with Richards schedule one would need boundless energy as he packs so much into every day of his life.

These are just some of the valuable business and life lessons I’ve learnt from Richard Branson that I believe if applied will increase anyone’s chances of success in business and life

Jamie McIntyre