Richard Branson Business Quotations

I never get the accountants in before I start up a business. It's done on gut feeling, especially if I can see that they are taking the mickey out of the consumer.

It took me years to work out the difference between net and gross. In meetings I just used to say, 'Tell me if it's good or bad news.

When we start a new venture, we base it on hard research and analysis. Typically, we review the industry and put ourselves in our customer's shoes to see what we could do better.

The quickest way to become a millionaire in the airline business is to start out as a billionaire.

Every business, like a painting, operates according to its own rules. There are many ways to run a successful company. What works once may never work again. What everyone tells you never to do may just work, once.

We spend most of our lives working. So why do so few people have a good time doing it?

I have fun running all the Virgin businesses, so a setback is never a bad experience, just a learning curve

The amount of time people waste dwelling on failures rather than putting that energy into another project, always amazes me

To have created one of the most respected companies in the world. Not necessarily the biggest.

I find it very difficult to think of mistakes; not that I don't make any but because I was brought up to look only at the good things in life ... As for what lost the most money, probably Virgin Cola. It is still No 1 in Bangladesh though.

Remember it's OK to be yourself.

Communication: the thing humans forgot when we invented words.

Life is a series of ups and clowns. Make it worth your wild!

Take a chance - it's the best way to test yourself, have fund and push boundaries.

You've got to take risks if you're going to succeed. I would much rather ask forgiveness than permission.

Whatever business you are in, every company can shoot for the start in their own way.

I was never, ever interested in becoming a businessman or an entrepreneur. If I was a businessman, or saw myself as a businessman, I would have never gone into the airline business.

...making profits is important because it keeps all our people in jobs and, you know, it keeps what we - what we've created going, but, you know, what we're - what I get my - what I'm proud about doing is creating companies which we're really proud of, you know, which we can really be proud of and a byproduct of that hopefully will be that they'll be profitable and be able to pay the bills.

Your company should act as a springboard for ambitious employees, not a set of shackles.

Please be polite. Nothing in life should erode the habit of saying thank you to people or praising them.

Most "necessary evils" are far more evil than necessary.

Happiness is the secret ingredient for successful businesses. If you have a happy company it will be invincible.

If you can run one business well, you can run any business well.

To be successful, you have to be out there, you have to hit the ground running, and if you have a good team around you and more than a fair share of luck, you might make something happen. But you certainly can't guarantee it just by following someone else's formula.

I never wanted to be a businessman, I just wanted to change the world

I wanted to be an editor or a journalist, I wasn't really interested in being an entrepreneur, but I soon found I had to become an entrepreneur in order to keep my magazine going.

We have a business that some people feel pollutes, and I happen to agree with them. ... And so on the basis of trying to do good and, you know, hopefully turn a profit, what we did was we pledged that we'd put all the profits from our airline business into trying to develop clean fuels.

Business opportunities are like buses, there's always another one coming.

I love stirring the pot. I love giving big companies a run for their money - especially if they're offering expensive, poor-quality products.

You can't do a good business with a bad person. Find the right people to work with and you can't go wrong.

Too many companies want their brands to reflect some idealised, perfected image of themselves. As a consequence, their brands acquire no texture, no character and no public trust.

Education doesn't just take place in stuffy classrooms and university buildings, it can happen everywhere, every day to every person.

One thing is certain in business, you and everyone around you will make mistakes.

I have no secret. There are no rules to follow in business. I just work hard and, as I always have done, believe I can do it. Most of all, though, I try to have fun.

When people are placed in positions slightly above what they expect, they are apt to excel.

The best way of learning about anything is by doing.

My definition of success? The more you are actively and practically engaged, the more successful you will feel.

We've got an engaging, edgy, vibrant, fun product, ... It may or may not work, but we're going to give it our best shot.

Our model is to develop each business separately with its own shareholder and management - this way we can concentrate on the job in hand, rather than be part of some enormous and faceless conglomerate.

Because I don't see Virgin as a company but as a way of life and I fully enjoy it, I don't think I'll ever retire.

The music industry is a strange combination of having real and intangible assets: pop bands are brand names in themselves, and at a given stage in their careers their name alone can practically gaurantee hit records.

Business is the force of change. Business is essential to solving the climate crisis, because this is what business is best at: innovating, changing, addressing risks, searching for opportunities. There is no more vital task

Having colleagues nearby, whether at the beach or in a crypt, means the ideas are always flowing

A generation ago, the image was that you had to trample everyone else down to succeed; but I don't believe that makes good business sense

Many assume my business success has brought me happiness. But the way I see it, I am successful because I am happy.

If you can make peoples lives a lot better, you've got a really good business.

Don't become a slave to technology - manage your phone, don't let it manage you.

If you're hurt, lick your wounds and get up again. If you've given it your absolute best, it's time to move forward,

Above all, you want to create something you're proud of.

Chance favors the prepared mind. The more you practice, the luckier you become.

The time to go into a new business is when it’s badly run by others.

Good brands reflect the histories of the time and the group of people that made them. They can not be copied. They can not be recycled.

If you don't succeed at first, there's no need for the F word (Failure). Pick yourself up and try, try again.

Once a changemaker, always a changemaker but only a few swim against the tide.

If I was a businessman, or saw myself as a businessman, I would have never gone into the airline business.

Succeeding in business is all about making connections

I never set out to be a businessman

Building a business is not rocket science, it's about having a great idea and seeing it through with integrity.

British Airways was doing everything they could do to put Virgin Atlantic out of business -- what's become famous here as the dirty tricks campaign, ... We felt that we needed the financial muscle to combat them. And I still had a lot to prove at Virgin Atlantic whereas we proved that we could, you know, build and run a successful record company.

Respect is how to treat everyone, not just those you want to impress.

Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.