By Cristina Colella
This scriptwriting assignment was written in August 2018 during the author's Modlingua internship.
Introduction
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is a remarkable English businessman, investor and philanthropist, known above all as the founder of the Virgin Group, which controls more than 400 companies. Branson wanted to become an entrepreneur from a young age and launched his first venture at 16: a magazine called Student. In 1972 he opened a chain of record stores, Virgin Records, later renamed Virgin Megastores, and through the 1980s the Virgin brand grew at high speed as he expanded the music label, signing some of the most relevant and controversial artists of the 70s and 80s, from the Rolling Stones to the Sex Pistols.
Branson's rise from a record shop to a corporate empire shows how a resilient attitude, combined with strategy and effective planning, can produce outstanding results. Here is the story of an aspiring entrepreneur who became a role model and a mentor to future businessmen.
Early life
Branson was born in London, the eldest of three children of Eve Branson, a former ballet dancer and air hostess, and Edward James Branson, a lawyer. His family had ties to India going back generations, and on the television show Finding Your Roots he learned that he carries a small percentage of South Asian DNA. Branson has dyslexia and performed poorly at school; his headmaster once told him he would either end up in prison or become a millionaire. History proved him right on one count. His parents supported all his early projects, and his mother was an entrepreneur herself, running successful ventures building and selling wooden tissue boxes.
Starting a business
Branson achieved his goals gradually, step by step. He did not earn much money at first, but his early activities made him known and earned him a valuable position in the music industry. What inspires people is that he kept going despite the modest initial results. Branson once said, "There is no point in starting your own business unless you do it out of a sense of frustration" - a sentence that holds the key to his determination and success.
His record business grew out of Student magazine, for which he interviewed prominent music personalities including the Rolling Stones' frontman Mick Jagger, and in whose pages he advertised popular records of the time. He began trading under the name "Virgin", suggested by an early employee because they were all new at business. He then opened a record shop on Oxford Street in London, selling records at very low prices. In 1972, as the store began earning more, Branson launched the Virgin Records label with Nik Powell and set up a recording studio in Oxford, The Manor Studio. Mike Oldfield's debut album Tubular Bells (1973) was the label's first release and became a chart-topping best-seller. Virgin also became known for signing controversial bands other companies were reluctant to touch, such as the Sex Pistols, and acclaimed artists including the Rolling Stones and Peter Gabriel. Within a few years, Virgin Records had become the world's largest independent record label.
Meanwhile, Branson started diversifying, expanding into an airline. In 1992, he made the painful decision to sell the Virgin label to EMI in order to keep Virgin Atlantic flying.
A mentor to other entrepreneurs
Branson has launched numerous initiatives to support aspiring entrepreneurs, aware that younger generations are essential to bringing new impulse and innovative ideas to the market. He created Virgin StartUp, an official delivery partner for the UK's Start Up Loans programme, providing loans to entrepreneurs aged 18 to 30 across the UK - a scheme that injected 600,000 pounds into 100 businesses. In 2005, he set up the Branson School of Entrepreneurship in South Africa, a partnership between Virgin Unite, the group's non-profit foundation, and entrepreneur Taddy Blecher, founder of CIDA City Campus in Johannesburg. The school aims to support economic growth in South Africa by helping start-ups and micro-enterprises with mentoring, networks and finance.
What we can learn
Branson's rise from a record shop to a big corporate is an excellent example of how understanding who you are can build a strong personal brand. Knowing your value gives you the confidence to believe in your abilities, and being aware of your skills means you will not surrender to obstacles. Do not forget that he started out selling records for a few bucks; when the money grew, he expanded his range of activities. Pushing your own boundaries is another way to succeed: investing in further skills is never a bad investment, even for a freelancer, because attending a course or an internship adds value and makes you more competitive in the market.
Diversifying a business means addressing different kinds of public, so it is crucial to identify the people you want to reach and tailor your offer to their wants and needs - choosing the right tone of voice and language. People remember you only if you speak their language and show you care. Part of the success behind Branson's initiatives also lies in networking: he gathered a team of people who believed in his ideas - one of them even suggested the future company's name. Knowing your colleagues can lead to further opportunities and collaborations. When Branson started out in the 70s this was harder; today, platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter make it far easier to start conversations that can lead to surprising opportunities.
And again, in his own words: "There is no point in starting your own business unless you do it out of a sense of frustration." Do not give up when the first difficulties appear. Obstacles help you develop your abilities and make you grow. Handling a business is never easy, and problems will arise even when you think you have reached your goals - what matters is learning how to face and overcome them.
