Richard Branson

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.

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.

Listen – it makes you sound smarter.

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

Life is a helluva lot more fun if you say yes rather than no.

What’s the quickest way to become a millionaire? Borrow fivers off everyone you meet.

I always look at it that I work with my employees as opposed to them working for me.

Our clients pay for value. London is the top city in the world, the best tax haven in the world for some and the top residential site in the city is One Hyde Park at the top end of Sloane Street.

About half my time is spent on business operation type stuff.

There is no need for advertisements to look like advertisements. If you make them look like editorial pages, you will attract about 50 per cent more readers.

I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information.

Everything I do in life is framed through the view of a businessman. That’s my instinct. If I go into a pharmacy to buy shaving cream, then I’m going to look for the best deal on shaving cream.

I’ve been making deals all my life.

My definition of an executive’s job is brief and to the point. It is simply this: Getting things done through other people.

Nobody buys a farm based on whether they think it’s going to rain next year. They buy it because they think it’s a good investment over 10 or 20 years.

Never write an advertisement which you wouldn’t want your family to read. You wouldn’t tell lies to your own wife. Don’t tell them to mine.

Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.

I have no Napoleonic dream. I’m just hard working and pragmatic.

The worst of times often create the best opportunities to make good deals.

In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product, and profits. Unless you’ve got a good team, you can’t do much with the other two.

Cutting wages is not the way to recovery. Raise wages and improve the product.