How I Choose New Ventures

By Sir Richard Branson

We did not have a traditional master plan with sectors and new territories marked for expansion neatly mapped out. In fact, we still do not have that sort of plan or organisation, since we believe that our entrepreneurial spirit and flexibility are vital to Virgin’s success. This approach has had a profound effect on the way we develop our new businesses.

At a casual glance, one would think that we have been rather opportunistic in our choices over the years about the businesses and sectors into which we expanded. Initially, we moved into areas where I had a personal interest (such as music and media); then, as we began to understand more about Virgin’s strengths in terms of customer service, where we felt industries were ready for shaking up (airlines, health clubs, mobile phones); and more recently where my passion for exploration has taken us (space and deep ocean tourism).

Our choices were not random or merely reactive, but guided by our decision to take an entrepreneurial approach to expansion. Instead of pushing our teams to do ever more intensive analysis to pick our next venture – which can slow the whole business down – I set a priority on our remaining open to new ideas. It is one of the reasons that I always urge people to pursue their own interests outside work and to take regular vacations. Exercising your creativity in other settings isn’t just relaxing; you’ll stay informed about developments in other fields and connect with a wider circle of people than you might encounter at work. Keeping your thinking fresh and original makes good business sense!

I had always loved music, for instance. In 1972, when Mike Oldfield pitched us his album “Tubular Bells” after many record companies had turned him down, I recognized its value, as did my friends, and we decided to start up a company to help him find an audience. The album did so well that it helped establish Virgin Records and funded the launch of the company, which became the biggest independent record label in the world by the 1990s.

This brings me to my next point: You always have to be ready to capitalise on opportunities when they come along, and not be afraid to pounce. In the late 1990s, established companies offering mobile phone services in Britain were finding it tough to attract the lucrative corporate market and the growing youth one. We took advantage of the opening by launching Virgin Mobile, which, using T-Mobile’s physical plant and network, provided great service at a cheaper price and didn’t require customers to sign a contract. We saw this as an opportunity to create a service orientated toward youth – as you could see from our cheeky marketing campaign.

From this we learned the advantages of the virtual network model, where we partnered with an existing operator. Soon we rolled out similar businesses in the US, Australia, Canada and France; we have since expanded into India and are about to launch mobile phone service businesses in Latin America, with each new company building on our brand values of providing great value for money, a touch of fun and glamour, and above all, great service.

You must be fearless when venturing into new areas, once you have established what the risks are. Our launch of our space-tourism business, Virgin Galactic, and our recent explorations of the ocean depths are great examples of this. We did not set ourselves these challenges on a whim, but after years of working and exchanging ideas with experts in those fields. We are building on our technical experience in air travel and also our history of taking on difficult feats, such as our record-breaking balloon trips across the Pacific and Atlantic, which required our acquiring technical knowledge in many different areas. You must heed the lessons of the past, but also be prepared to learn as you go.

And, finally, you need to seek out new opportunities, as well as react to those you encounter. At present, population growth and development are linked to increased consumption of natural resources and rising energy needs. Entrepreneurs who take time to inform themselves about the issues will spot opportunities to build new, sustainable businesses for present and future markets. We have set up the Virgin Green Fund to lead our effort and invest in the renewable sector. This is likely to be one of the biggest areas of investment in the next 40 years; I hope that in the future Virgin is as well known for its activities in these areas as it is for music and aviation today.

There is no prescription for how best to build and expand your business or invest capital. Your choices should depend on your interests and goals, how a new company would fit with yours, on your tolerance for risk and also on luck – although you can make your luck!

©2011 Richard Branson

Sir Richard Branson is is the founder of the Virgin Group. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/richardbranson

The E-mail Dance and How to Cyber-Swing with Grace and Manners!

Written by Robyn Pearce Rock Your Life Global Sage www.gettingagrip.com

When I grew up ballroom dancing was considered a social grace worth teaching. Some of my mates’ mums were pretty classy on the dance floor, so the local youth club asked them to run some dancing lessons. Along with that elegant skill they also decided we needed a few rough edges knocked off, so a few lessons on dance floor etiquette and good manners were thrown in.

The dance may have changed, the platform might be under our fingers instead of our feet, but etiquette is also relevant in the world of cyberspace, and nowhere more so than email.

Confessions of a shopaholic

Written by Lisa Dudson Rock Your Life Global Sage www.acumen.co.nz

On the weekend I watched the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic which has been out a year or two. I suppose you would call it a chick flick. Although it is a quiet an entertaining comedy it also has a serious side. Its about a women who is addicted to shopping and is heavily in debt. Her life revolves around shopping and trying to keep the debt collectors from the door to the point where she keeps a list of all the excuses she has used to explain why she hasn’t paid so she doesn’t use the same excuse twice.

Written by Robyn Pearce Rock Your Life Global Sage www.gettingagrip.com

How often do you arrive stressed and flustered at your destination? Remember that ‘one last thing’ you squeezed in before you left, thinking you were being efficient? DON’T DO IT.

We fit broadly into one of two styles when it comes to processing time – we’re either in-time or through-time. The in-timers, bless their socks, are great at being fully present, totally in the moment (which is why this style is called in-time, not because they’re punctual!), but challenged at getting places or completing tasks on time. For them, it seems efficient to fit in ‘one more thing’ – to get somewhere early is to waste time. You’d wonder why the stress they suffer doesn’t change their behaviour – but no. They seem to suffer permanent memory loss on the topic. And most of it is caused because of that ‘one more thing’ they squeezed in!

Time Is Money

By Mike Southon Rock Your Life Global Sage www.mikesouthon.com

Those of us that are self-employed soon learn that the true currency in business is not money, but time. If we can learn to manage and manipulate this most precious resource, then the money will flow, as if by magic. The problem is that most people find learning to manage one’s own time is the most difficult part of setting up as a business.

This is likely to be an issue for a lot of people at the moment. The new year is a time when many people take the heady step of striking out on their own, often either because they are bored with their current lifestyle or they are forced to through being made redundant.

In a corporate environment, time management is enforced by a higher power, a process which always also generates plenty of good excuses for not meeting externally imposed deadlines. There are invariably genuine and easily documented evidence of having been let down by customers, suppliers and co-workers.

These pressures apply in equal measure to the self-employed, but the downside can be an immediate and fatal cash flow crisis rather than a missed quarterly profit target. So the first and most essential personal skill for the aspiring entrepreneur is always one of time management.

This could mean realising sooner rather than later that all our efforts should be directed towards generating revenue, or that extra hours need to be applied to complete a project and thus receive an agreed stage payment. The trouble is that the importance of time management is often undervalued among those considering entrepreneurship.

People tend to think they will make a good founder because they are bursting with new ideas and enthusiasm. This is an essential first step towards starting a business, which always involves the making of promises, but it is not enough.

What characterises a successful entrepreneur is their ability to actually deliver on their promises, which typically involves engaging a second person who is adept at project management. In the meantime, the creative entrepreneur is forever rushing from one place to another and invariably arriving late for appointments.

Fortunately, my own career in start-ups was predicated on punctuality, as I was always responsible for sales. Confucius might well have said that “the salesman who turns up late for a client appointment will never close a big deal”, so a wise sales manager will always arrange time management courses for new team members.

When I became self-employed, I was forced to master the basic spreadsheet, not only to monitor my own sales pipeline on a daily basis, but also to mange my own personal time in the form of a daily, online calendar, accessible on whatever device I might be using.

Personal discipline involves my making a specific diary appointment for every promise that I make, ensuring the system pings me audibly when that promise is due. Then, I make an instant value judgement as to whether that task should be done immediately or postponed to a quieter time.

This approach is exemplified by the most effective day in our working calendars, the day before we go on holiday. There is always a towering list of things to do, but we are forced to apply a ruthless filtering mechanism to each item, prioritising, delegating, and even deleting where necessary.

As we finally get on the flight to somewhere warm and sunny and look forward to a few days of uninterrupted sleep, we are happy in the glow that we achieved everything we could on that last day, but rueful that not every working day was as effective.

My advice would be to find a good book on time management and have that as your holiday reading.

That’s The Way We Do It Round Here

Written by Robyn Pearce Rock Your Life Global Sage www.gettingagrip.com

How many of your staff are very busy doing paperwork which is no longer necessary?

I ran an extended time management program with a rapidly expanding and very successful international security company. One session centered on time challenges. A junior member of staff wanted help on how to reduce the pressure of a routine data-collection and report-creation task, which has been done by the company since Adam was a cowboy.

The Trouble with Entrepreneurs

By Mike Southon Rock Your Life Global Sage www.mikesouthon.com

The London launch of Sir Richard Branson’s new book Screw Business As Usual was a very jolly affair. The man himself said all the right things and was ably supported by Jean Oelwang CEO of Virgin Unite, the not-for-profit foundation of the Virgin Group.

The audience included several notable social entrepreneurs, including John Bird, the founder of The Big Issue, whose scene-stealing cameo made my job of running the question and answer session very easy indeed.

The keeper of secrets

Dr Zahi Hawass has been synonomous with the Giza plateau and the mystifying pyramids of Egypt for close to 30 years. His own Facebook page describes him as:

World-renowned archaeologist Dr. Zahi Hawass currently serves as the Minister of State for Antiquities, and directs ongoing excavations at Giza, Saqqara, and in the Valley of the Kings.

Like him or not that gives him some of the most ultimate power where it concerns some of the most ancient and important artifacts on the planet. So is Zahi a hero, who deserves knighting by the Pharoahs, or is he a leader who is serving his own ends, keeping secrets from the world for decades.

Stop thinking about money!

Written by Lisa Dudson Rock Your Life Global Sage www.acumen.co.nz

It’s the easiest way to make it.

Dwelling, worrying, planning, fretting, pacing, exhausting – these are some of the many words that come to mind when some people think about money too much. You plan, then you plan some more, then you think about hypothetical situations, then perhaps you rehash the idea, then you think about it some more – meanwhile, you make no money.

People have a lot of ideas, in fact, everyone has ideas. Everyone has thoughts about money, and what it would take for them to live off internet income, or doing what they love while making money. They calculate how much it would take if they decided to do it… then they recalculate, and think about it some more, meanwhile doing nothing.

Customer Service

By Mike Southon Rock Your Life Global Sage www.mikesouthon.com

Apparently there are quite big things happening in Europe, but I want to leave that to the economists and take a look at one of the stories lower down the business pages.

The story that interested me is this. According to campaign group Consumer Focus, all the major energy companies (apart from Scottish Power – well done!) experienced a large rise in customer complaints year-on-year in the past twelve months. Top honours go to EDF Energy, who have achieved a magnificent 91% increase in complaints; and I suspect that wasn’t from a very low baseline, either!