British mogul Richard Branson has spent decades making his name in the music, air travel, hotel, banking, and even space travel industries. His net worth stands at $2 billion as of 2024, Forbes reports.

The 73-year-old has been building his empire since he founded his first business, a magazine called Student, at the age of 16. In 2024 he shows no sign of slowing down, and is continuing to move the chess pieces strategically in order to build his wealth even further.

Let’s take a look at three lessons that all business owners can learn from him.

1. Use perceived “failures” to your advantage

In March 2024, news outlets around the UK announced that Virgin Money, a banking company owned by Richard Branson, would be taken over by Nationwide, a 140-year-old building society.

In a press release, Virgin Money states that the sale will go ahead in the fourth quarter of this year.

With Virgin Money set to be absorbed by Nationwide by the end of 2024, this could have been bad news for Branson’s reputation. Virgin Money’s profits took a hit in 2023, with “rising arrears in its credit card business” causing issues for the business amid a “gloomy economic outlook”, the Financial Times reports.

But for Branson, the new Virgin Money deal is nothing but an opportunity to advance his wealth position and move on to better things. The Sunday Times states that Branson stands to earn between £250 million and £650 million from Virgin Money’s deal with Nationwide.

As a business owner, it sometimes helps to quit while you’re ahead and create further wealth opportunities in the process – even if your pride is somewhat bruised along the way.

If you’re entering a new chapter, whether it’s needing to sell all or a portion of your business or reduce outgoings another way, accepting the situation and being decisive may enable you to spin gold from straw.

Whereas, holding onto a business model that you know is likely to fail in the long run might mean that your business suffers more than necessary. As Branson has demonstrated with Virgin Money, there’s nothing wrong with falling – it’s how you land that counts.

2. Make sacrifices when necessary

In 1970, Richard Branson built a business called Virgin Mail Order Records. By 1972 he owned 14 record stores, and in the same year, started his own record label: Virgin Records.

Having signed legendary artists like the Sex Pistols and Ozzy Osbourne, Branson was quickly making a name for himself in the music industry, and his passion for rock ‘n’ roll was undisputed.

Fast forward to 1984, and Branson’s success had advanced to the point where he could establish Virgin Atlantic, the air travel business that was worth £3.1 billion by 2020, Statista reports.

But this success came at a price – in 1992, Branson sold Virgin Records for $1 billion in order to keep Virgin Atlantic from going under. With terrorism becoming a prevalent fear for air travel customers, and regulatory costs increasing as a result, selling his passion project was a sad but necessary sacrifice to maintain the more lucrative business, Virgin Atlantic.

History tells us that Branson certainly made the right move in disposing of Virgin Records. The prevalence of online music streaming means his record label may not have been as successful over the long term.

Plus, there is a timeless lesson for business owners here: sentimentality can always get in the way of your decision-making, but ultimately, it’s important to make choices for the financial health of your business.

Branson could have held onto Virgin Records and remained a rich man, but the risk of Virgin Atlantic’s dissolution was too great. Making sacrifices is part of corporate success, like it or not.

3. Prioritise succession planning

Back in 2010, when Branson was 60 years old, CNBC reports that he made a bold yet important statement in an interview with HR Magazine: “The business must be set up so that it can run without me.”

This may sound like a counterintuitive statement for such a successful business owner to make. But at age 60, Branson understood what many business owners do not – if you want your business to outlive you, then it needs to be able to run smoothly when you are not around.

Branson went on to say: “As much as you need a strong personality to build a business from scratch, you must also understand the art of delegation. I have to be willing to step back now.”

In 2024, although Branson has not fully retired, he continues to delegate important roles to executives across his several businesses. If he were to pass away suddenly or step back from his companies altogether, it is highly likely that they could run like well-oiled machines without him.

If you are a business owner who is approaching retirement, it could help to take a leaf out of Richard Branson’s book and start creating a succession plan.

No matter how you plan to retire – winding up the business, passing it on to family, or looking for a buyer – putting infrastructure in place to support a smooth transition could be helpful. After all, you can’t always control when you need to step back from work; sometimes life and health events decide for you.

Steps to take now may include:

• Setting a realistic retirement timeline of between 5 and 10 years
• Ensuring your team is ready for the transition
• Putting protections in place in case you need to stop working sooner than you’d planned
• Talking to a personal finance expert about retirement affordability, how to invest a windfall after a business sale, and supporting your family in your later years.

By using your leadership role to set the course for your business’s successful future, you may find that you, your team, and your family all gain greater peace of mind.

Work with a financial planner who specialises in making life easier for business owners

Richard Branson has a huge team of experts around him, driving his ideas into action – and as a business owner, you need a similar infrastructure (scaled down to suit your needs, of course).

At iQ Financial, we specialise in managing the personal finances of successful business owners like you.

While you get on with the important day-to-day of running your company, we’ll help to make sure your personal wealth is growing in line with your life goals. And when it’s time to hang up your hat, we’re here to help you manage your retirement funds over the long term.

To learn more about working with us, email us at clients@iqf.ie, or call 353 71 915 5560.

Please note

This article is for information only. It does not constitute advice.

It describes financial planning services that iQ Financial can offer to you. Financial planning services are not regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.

iQ Financial is not a tax adviser and tax advisory services are not regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.