When Richard met Dave McQueen
My friend Dave McQueen of Magnificent Minds had the privileged this month of taking a small lucky group of young entrepreneurs off to meet their hero Richard Branson.
Below are the insights that he shared and his final round up of top tips.
Insights
- When building a business from scratch in the early years you have to fight for survival - 9/10 businesses collapse - so do EVERYTHING that you can to survive for the first 3 years
- Some people build specialist small businesses - true entrepreneurs look to talk to a large audience, try new things and say YES to opportunities
- As business leaders the MOST important lesson is to LISTEN LISTEN LISTEN and DRAW OUT from people their talents, creativity and ideas - sounds to me like Richard is recommending that leaders are COACHING LEADERS
- Brand - get the right PRODUCT and REPUTATION - MOTIVATE people - make them feel PRIDE and BELIEVE in what you do - have FUN and do it with a SMILE on your face
Richards Top 3 Tips
- If you are starting a business make sure that you are MAKING A DIFFERENCE to peoples lives and SHAPING an industry
- Get the right PEOPLE, MOTIVATE them, PRAISE them don't CRITICISE, you want HAPPY staff
- Marketing and Brand - get on the front pages of the newspapers, get yourself known, seen and recognised, then people will start buying your products