Very important reading. Five tips from Richard Branson, the successful founder of Virgin Airlines, about how to succeed in the business world.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Born in 1950, Branson, started his first company ( a magazine named "Student") when he was 16 years old. At his 20's he started a mail delivery company activated by audio and when he was 20 he created Virgin Records, a music store chain.
In an article at entrepreneur.com, Branson reflects about the reasons for his success and his failures. He ends up with five concepts he considers as key to develop a company in a good way.
1. Enjoy what you are doing. As your company will take most of your time, it is very important that you enjoy what you do there. Branson thinks that to create a company means to create something to be proud about, getting talented people and looking to build things that will make the difference in others' lives.
2. Build something to excel. In fact, nowadays one has to do something really different in order to have a successful brand. Some examples are Microsoft, Apple or Google that started doing something that nobody else did before and they keep innovating all the time.
3. Build something that makes your employees feel proud. Usually, companies work with a specific group of people, so it is important that they feel good and enjoy their work.
4. Be a good leader. Good leaders are people that love to pay attention to others. They don't like to impose their own point of view to others without discussing it. No one has the monopoly for good ideas and suggestions.
5. Be available and stay in contact with people. A good leader never stays behind his desk. Branson says that he has never worked from an office, but from his house, but always going out to meet people, always with a notebook on hand, ready to write questions, doubts or good ideas.
And Richard Branson reminds us that the key word in the first year of all the companies is "surviving": fighting most of the time in order to have as much money in the bank account, to pay your bills. He also says that if the young company fails to survive, you have to try it again, taking advantage that the best ideas normally come from failures.
In an increasingly competitive business world, satisfying customers with the service or product that companies sell them, is no longer enough.
Trying to satisfy your customer is always one of the main objectives for companies.However, as the entrepreneur and founder of Virgin Group, Richard Branson says, companies are often not clear on what degree of client satisfaction they aspire to achieve.Do they have low or high expectations?What do they really expect from the product or service they are buying?
Self control of a leader's ego and being flexible when it comes to enrich ideas with contributions from his or her team can be critical for a company's future.
An employer can be as bright as they are stubborn. Like any good entrepreneur, you're so in love with your idea, and so happy with your project, that this can lead to resistance from hearing about alternative ways of doing things or that your original idea could be improved.
"Entrepreneurship is not a job, or even a calling, but a thirst."
Successful entrepreneurs - those creatures that we are all now viewing as essential to save the world economy from its troubles - come from different countries, societies, cultural backgrounds and business sectors. There is no single or particular stereotype, however, these individuals have several things in common.
Five principles on which to build a business based on the experience of Richard Branson, whose successes were cemented by the best lesson, failure.
Find a strong niche that differentiates your business from similar companies, have the courage to go forward with your ideas, gain the ability to beat bigger rivals, and finding funds to help the business grow and interconnect, are the keys suggested for those who want to start up their own company, from the man they call the "entrepreneur of entrepreneurs."
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