The last post in our Lessons From Richard Branson is about creating a brand. Branson might have started with only one business but he has built one of the world’s largest and most recognized brands by partnering with other individuals to build out over 250 businesses that now carry the Virgin brand.

“In the beginning it was just about the business – now it’s about the brand. Many people know the Virgin brand better than the names of the individual companies within the group.

If you get your face and your name out there enough, people will start to recognize you. Branding is everything.

A young girl once came up to me and told me I could be famous because I looked just like Richard Branson!”

One of the most powerful tools you can use to grow your business is leverage. The concept of leverage is to put the assets you have to work for you in the most effective way possible. It is commonly used in financing where you borrow money against your house, for example, to be able to invest in a higher return asset such as the stock market. If the market returns 10% a year and you are paying 6% interest then you have earned 4% on your money without having done any real extra work.

Richard Branson applies this same philosophy to his businesses. He has spent a lot of time and effort building up his Virgin brand. It is recognized as a leader internationally and Branson has been leveraging his brand by partnering with like minded individuals to enter into new markets. He does not have to do much work in the companies he helps build - what he brings to the table is the credibility that goes along with the Virgin name while his partner does the work of operating the business.

Think about how you might be able to better leverage your business and your brand. Partner with individuals who share your same passion and will represent your brand effectively. Give them the opportunity to work under your banner and split the profits - you end up doing very little actual work but can bring in significant new money because your partner is working hard and is benefiting from using your name (they are also leveraging your name to build their business faster than they could without you).

You do not need to be the size of Virgin to benefit from brand extensions - just find someone who is smaller than you and is eager to start / expand.

Evan Carmichael

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Part 4 of our Lessons From Richard Branson series looks at building a team and surrounding yourself with people who can help take your company to the next level.

“As much as you need a strong personality to build a business from scratch, you also must understand the art of delegation. I have to be good at helping people run the individual businesses, and I have to be willing to step back.

The company must be set up so it can continue without me. The companies that look after their people are the companies that do really well.

I’m sure we’d like a few other attributes, but that would be the most important one.”

Most businesses are run by solo-entrepreneurs. The entrepreneur does the selling, the production, the capital raising, the partnerships, and is even the company bookkeeper and janitor.

One of the biggest challenges entrepreneurs face is building a business beyond themselves. It is crucial, however, to delegate and bring on help if you hope to grow your company because there is only so much one person can do.

In the startup phase you will end up doing most of the work yourself but as soon as you start bringing in revenue you should take a good look at where you are spending your time. Is your time being used up on high value projects such as landing new business or are you doing low paying jobs that can be easily outsourced?

Once you start bringing on additional help you can leverage their work to take your business to the next level.

Many new entrepreneurs feel like they cannot afford to hire employees but fail to realize that you do not need to hire a full-time person. Start by offering a part-time position. The first person I brought on in my company was working for me for one hour per day doing admin work that I did not want to do (and could not afford to do if I wanted to grow my business).

An easy way to find people is online at websites such as Elance. Here you can post projects that you need to get accomplished and people will bid on them. You can review their qualifications, cost, and previous experience. Also look at the people around you who might be good fits for your business - if only for part time work.

The sooner you can start bringing people into your business to help you, even if it is only for an hour a day, the sooner you can focus your time and energy on projects that will be more valuable to your company.

Evan Carmichael

Part 3 of our Lessons From Richard Branson looks at being a businessperson vs. being an inventor / creator

I was never, ever interested in becoming a businessman or an entrepreneur. My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them.

I was interested in creating — creating things that I could be proud of and so, you know, I was interested in being an editor of a magazine, things that I could be proud of, and so, you know, I was interested in being an editor of a magazine, but in order to be an editor of a magazine I had to become a publisher as well.

I had to pay the bills. I had to worry about the printing and the paper manufacturing and the distribution of that magazine.

Many entrepreneurs start out because they have a passion for creating - whether it is inventing a new product or dreaming up a new service that has never existed before. Unfortunately, while most new entrepreneurs are great dreamers, they are not good executors or businesspeople.

At the end of the day you will have a family to support and bills to pay. Not many people can afford to live a life of simply creating new ideas and not working to commercialize them. To be successful you need to understand the business side of your industry.

Becoming a businessperson is usually a step outside the comfort zone of most new entrepreneurs and might take some getting used to. You might consider taking a course offered by a local organization on small business management. Many local government organizations also put on free seminars for new business owners.

You need to create a business plan, a marketing plan, and then go out there and hit the streets selling. There is an old expression that “nothing happens until somebody sells something.” Being creative is not enough to be a successful entrepreneur - you need to convince people to spend money on your creations and make enough from it to support your lifestyle.

If you are not business minded enough and do not want to learn how to be, find someone who is. Get a partner who can handle the business side of working with customers, partners, investors, media, and other stakeholders to make sure that the business runs smoothly and the money comes in.

Otherwise your chances of success drop dramatically and your creations will not have the opportunity to improve the lives of people as you hope they would.

Evan Carmichael

Part 2 of our Lessons From Richard Branson series looks at knowing why you are starting a business in the first place - is it because you are passionate about your ideas or are you just trying to make a buck?

“Above all, you want to create something you are proud of…. That has always been my philosophy of business.

I can honestly say that I have never gone into any business purely to make money. If that is the sole motive, then I believe you are better off doing nothing. 

I don’t think of work as work and play as play. It’s all living.

I’ve had to create companies that I believe in 100%. These are companies I feel will make a genuine difference.

Then I have to be willing to find the time myself to talk about them, promote them and market them. I don’t want to spend my life doing something that I’m not proud of.”

I have researched and profiled over 70 famous entrepreneurs on my website so far and one of the recurring themes that comes across is to start a business because you love doing it and because you feel you are making a difference instead of doing it for the money.

Starting a business requires a lot of hard work and effort. You will invest your time, your money, and a lot of energy to get it off the ground. Sleepless nights will be the norm and you will not get the chance to see your friends and family nearly as much as you would if you were working a 9 to 5 job - such is the life of an entrepreneur.

It usually takes a couple of years of hard work before a business really brings in any kind of serious revenue. Many of the most famous entrepreneurs in the world struggled for a decade, or more, before their company hit it big.

If you start a business only for the money then you are likely not going to be prepared to put in the effort needed to make it succeed. In addition, instead of loving what you are doing you will be forcing yourself to go to work, hoping that one day it will pay off.

Sure, you need to have a business mind and focus on trying to land clients so you can support yourself and build your company but it should not be your primary concern. Focus on your passion and on making a difference and the money will follow.

Evan Carmichael

In a slight change from my normal routine of posting and to shake things up for our summertime readers I thought it would be fun to learn from the successes of one of the world’s most well known entrepreneurs - Virgin’s Richard Branson.

Over the next five days I will look at one of Branson’s success factors and share it with you. I have always said that the easiest way to do well is to model someone else’s strategies for success and if you are going to model somebody, why not look at the best?

Today we will look at how Richard Branson identifies an opportunity:

“We look for opportunities where we can offer something better, fresher, and more valuable, and we seize them. We often move into areas where the customer has traditionally received a poor deal, and where the competition is complacent.

And with our growing e-commerce activities, we also look to deliver ‘old’ products in new ways. We are pro-active and quick to act, often leaving bigger and more cumbersome organizations in our wake. When we start a new venture, we base it on hard research and analysis.

Typically, we review the industry and put ourselves in the customer’s shoes to see what could make it better.”

This is a hallmark of Branson’s strategy for entering new markets - look for industries where the customer is either being taken advantage of or is receiving such poor service that they would welcome a change. One of the hardest jobs of a new business is to convince customers to switch from an existing supplier to their companies. Switching costs include time, money, and energy and customers typically do not want to move suppliers unless they have no other choice.

If customers in your industry are already happy with their existing supplier then you will be fighting an uphill battle to land new business. Focus on markets where the switching costs are low because your potential clients are so dissatisfied with their current providers that they would welcome a change.

Evan Carmichael

Here is a great story about a young entrepreneur out of Scotland named Fraser Doherty. Fraser is an 18 year old student at Strathclyde University and his company, SuperJams, is already a million dollar business. With his recent success, Fraser is looking to make his studies a part time endeavor while he focuses on building his company. “It’s done a lot better than I expected. It’s growing really fast. The difficult thing is producing enough.”

Fraser sells jams and preserves that target a new, younger audience. They stay true to his grandmother’s original recipe but attract more health-conscious consumers. For example, instead of using sweetener like the other, big name jams, Fraser uses grape juice. He also focuses on the “superfoods” like blackcurrants, blueberries and ginger which are attracting buyers looking for a healthier diet. “I think people are looking for something a bit healthier, and it’s more fun and modern. It appeals to people who might not normally buy jam.”

Despite the growing revenues, Fraser has not taken any money out of the company, preferring to pump it back into the business. “For me, it’s not really about making lots of money. You have to create something you enjoy and have a passion for. I genuinely do love jam. When I read that sales had been falling for a couple of decades, I was horrified by the idea of it becoming extinct.”

Fraser started the company four years ago at the age of 14, selling his jam door to door as a way to earn extra spending money. He expanded by setting up shop at a local farmer’s market and soon found that he could not keep up with the demand for his jams. “I think I’ve still got a lot to learn. It’s not easy to set up a business and you have to really believe in it. There were points when I thought it would never be ready to go on the shelves.”

With his recent success, Fraser is about to release a book that discusses his story called “How to be a Teenage Millionaire.” It just goes to show that if you have enough passion for your business and a product that is in genuine demand, you can create a real business no matter how old you are.

Evan Carmichael

It has been a while since my last post on Google Filters and I wanted to continue the series today by discussing the Overoptimization Filter.

How It Works

Google frowns upon website owners who try to trick their algorithms by putting their keywords in too frequently throughout the webpage. This is often referred to as “keyword stuffing” and if Google catches you doing it they will downrank your website dramatically. This is typically one of the first things you want to look at if you have suddenly lost your high positions in Google - are you using too many of your keywords in your website coding?

The reason Google implemented this filter was because when spammers figured out how to manipulate Google’s rankings by keyword stuffing they quickly rose to the top of the index. As a result, the top pages were no longer valuable resources for visitors - Google had to crack down on the practice. Google blogger Matt Cutts even wrote about the filter recently in a post of his: SEO tip: Avoid keyword stuffing. When Google starts giving SEO tips, website owners pay attention.

What To Do

Identifying the appropriate keywords for your website is important. You should include them in your title tags, your meta tags (although Google does not look at meta tags for their ranking algorithm), and in your text. Use the keyword every one or two paragraphs, make sure you have at least 300 words of text on your page and keep the content relevant to the keywords you are writing about.

You also want to ensure that the content is significantly different across the pages on your site. Do not use the same paragraphs of text on different pages. Make sure that each page has its own unique content and that it is descriptive and relevant to the keywords you are targeting.

A good tip to use is to look at which websites are currently ranking at the top for the keywords you are looking at. How often are they using the keywords in their text? Use it as a benchmark for what you need to do to get on the first page in Google.

Evan Carmichael

This afternoon I met with a business owner who was interested in joining one of my Mastermind Groups. He is in the human resources industry and might be a little too early stage for my groups but he has an excellent strategy - start working on your business while you are employed by someone else. The potential member is currently holding down a full time job in his field of interest while he lays the groundwork for his own company which he has started on the side. He has a plan to go out on his own full-time in the next 12-18 months.

Here is a formula for success if you are considering starting a new business:

1) Learn & Earn - Find a job that is in the industry that you want to start a business in. This way you can learn what it takes to succeed in that market and not lose money doing so - you will actually be getting paid by your employer to learn about the industry! Make sure the job also pays enough to support your lifestyle and a little extra that you can save for when you start your own business. If your goal is to run your own business and your current job is not giving you the learning experience you are looking for, find a new job. Work for someone else to learn the ropes, not to build a career. Make sure, however, that you do not sign a non-compete agreement which prevents you from competing with your employer once you leave their firm.

2) Find Your Niche - By working for someone else in your industry you can learn what sells well and what does not. You will learn about the new trends in the market as well as who the main players are. You will also hopefully learn more about what you are passionate about and where a niche can be carved out for your own business. Get involved in as many projects as you can - especially the ones that deal face to face with the customer - so you can learn about where people are spending their money. Once you identify a niche that could be potentially profitable, begin exploring a business plan for how you can build a company of your own.

3) Find A Customer - The easiest way to succeed is to find customer with a problem and solve it for them. If you can start your business with a paying customer you will ease many of the cash crunch situations that many new business owners often find themselves in. Get a single customer whose needs you can service on a part time basis. Make the product or service easy to source and deliver. Moonlight while keeping your existing job so you can keep the cash stream coming in. If your ideal product or service requires more time or money to get going, find a way to deliver a scaled back version of it immediately. The goal is to experiment with new offerings that you can sell, bring on a few customers, and not lose your job in the process.

4) Break Away - Once you are confident that you have a product people will pay for (and already have paid for) you can break away from your job. Your chances of success are much higher because you have learned about the industry, made your mistakes on someone else’s dime, and have built your business around paying customers. Usually the decision to break away comes with a large customer order that you will be unable to fulfill unless you leave your job. This is a good problem to have and forces the move. If you are not quite ready to work for yourself full-time but want to spend more time on your business, see if you can work part-time or on a contract basis with your employer. If your product or service is a direct competitor to them then they will likely not want to keep you on but if you are in a complementary business then it is more feasible to do. If you are going to steal one of your employers customers (a great way to get going in a new business), make sure you have not signed anything that prevents you from doing so.

Evan Carmichael

Beauty tycoon Estee Lauder had a modest upbringing in Queen’s, New York with eight brothers and sisters. She would go on to found and build the company that bears her name and become an icon of the fashion industry. When TIME magazine put out its 20 most influential business geniuses of the 20th Century, Lauder was the only woman on the list. She was a big believer in personal accountability and felt that if your company was not achieving success the problem is likely looking at you in the mirror.

“If you don’t sell, it’s not the product that’s wrong, it’s you. When you stop talking, you’ve lost your customer. When you turn your back, you’ve lost her. I have never worked a day in my life without selling. If I believe in something, I sell it, and I sell it hard. I didn’t get there by wishing for it or hoping for it, but by working for it. I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.”

As entrepreneurs we rarely like to admit that the problem is us - there is always somewhere else to place the blame. The supplier is not providing the right products, you do not have enough of a budget to sell effectively, your customers are not forward thinking enough to accept your offering, and so on.

To be successful as a business owner you often have to overcome your biggest weaknesses. If you are an inventor, for example, you are going to have to learn how to sell or find someone who can sell for you (but by doing so you will need to sell him / her on why your company is the best one to work for).

If you are having challenges getting your company to the next step, chances are you need to take a good hard look in the mirror and ask yourself what is holding you back. It can be a hard pill to swallow but once you do you will finally have the knowledge you need to get your business where you want it to go.

Evan Carmichael

Our 10th Review our Blog entry comes thanks to Taz from Beard Care. You can read what he had to say about us in his blog post: YE Blog Review.

Taz is the 25 year old founder of Beard Care. It all started on one of those days when Taz was brainstorming to get his own online store. No epiphanies here nor any high stated purpose to solve all the beard problems in the world. It was just a cool idea (at least he hoped so!), and so he went ahead and registered the URL: http://www.beardcareproducts.com

Thanks for the review Taz! If you are interested in doing a review, check out our Review Our Blog initiative for instructions.