Richard Branson Quotes
240 Richard Branson Quotes
1 2 3 4 5 6
[On Virgin records] We wanted to relate to the customers, not patronise them; and we wanted to be cheaper than the other shops.
Richard Branson
I knew very little about the record industry, but from what I saw at the record shop I could see that it was a wonderfully informal business with no strict rules. It had unlimited potential for growth…
Richard Branson
[On the record industry] It is also an industry in which the few successful bands are very, very rich, and the bulk of bands remain obscure and impoverished.
Richard Branson
The rock business is a prime example of the most ruthless kind of capitalism.
Richard Branson
[On the Virgin Mail Order business] Sometimes our customers pretended that they hadn’t received the records so we would have to send out a second copy, and often a third and a fourth and so on.
Richard Branson
You don’t have to study for six years to qualify as an architect. Just start doing it!
Richard Branson
Most people assume that a record shop’s success lies in selling records. In fact, Virgin’s success both in mail order and the record shops lay in Simon’s [Draper] skill at buying records. He was able to pick out bands that did not sell through the mainstream shops and sell large numbers of them through Virgin.
Richard Branson
We realised, that if we were going to make money, it would have to come from opening up more Virgin Records shops.
Richard Branson
We found that the timing of shop openings was crucial. After negotiating the lease until we were sure that the landlord would go no lower, we would push for a rent-free period for the first three months. This was the single most crucial element. We would not agree to open the shop unless this was in place, and as as result we walked away from a great many opportunities. However, when we opened we knew that the record sales in the first three months would help pay for the rent on the previous shop that we had opened…
Richard Branson
We always looked for the heaper end of the high street, where we might attract shoppers to come a few extra yards off the beaten track without us having to pay an exorbitant rent.
Richard Branson
[On Virgin Records] If we could have sold marijuana, we would have done.
Richard Branson
I have always enjoyed parties, and I love throwing the Virgin staff together. It’s an important part of life at Virgin.
Richard Branson
My parents gave us a beautiful old Bentley with red leather seats and a walnut dashboard as a wedding present. Although it tended to break down as much as my Morris Minor, it was supremely comfortable to sit in while we were towed along.
Richard Branson
I find it impossible to stop my brain from churning through all the ideas and possibilities facing me at any given moment.
Richard Branson
[On Tubular Bells] I was too aware that Virgin needed to sell a lot of copies to make money for next month’s tax repayment.
Richard Branson
The music industry can make people rich beyond their dreams in a matter of months.
Richard Branson
One of the things every record company aims for is to transform its bands into household names.
Richard Branson
New artists have a high failure rate, but once they have crossed a threshold they have far greater potential for growth than books of films, or indeed almost anything else that I can think of.
Richard Branson
Music is more international than almost any other business.
Richard Branson
Part of the secret of running a record label was to build up momentum, to keep signing new bands and to keep breaking them into the big time. Even if a high-profile band lost us money, there would be other, intangible benefits, such as attracting others to sign with us, or opening doors to radio stations for our newer bands.
Richard Branson
My life has been a constant stream of telephone calls.
Richard Branson
[On 10cc signing with Phonogram] One of the things this episode taught me was not to count our chickens.
Richard Branson
[To Mike Oldfield in 1976] We pointed out that Virgin Music as a company was making less money than he was personally. When he asked how this was possible, I made the mistake of being completely honest with him.
Richard Branson
We had two options: either tuck away a little money and eke out a living without taking any more risks, or use our last few pounds to try to sign up another band that could break us back into the big time.
Richard Branson
[On The Sex Pistols] They had earned 125,000 pounds for doing nothing more than a bit of swearing and vomiting and one single.
Richard Branson
It was good business: the more it was banned, the better it sold.
Richard Branson
I make up my mind about someone within thirty seconds of meeting them…
Richard Branson
One of my favourite signs was an old picture advertising Danish Bacon and eggs which showed a pig leaning casually against a wall listening to a chicken singing.
Richard Branson
Knowing that Jamaicans didn’t trust written contracts, we flew in with a briefcase containing $30,000 in cash and set up shop in the Kingston Sheraton.
Richard Branson
There was a world of difference between Mike Oldfield and The Sex Pistols. But both of them had found that they could not cope with the pressures of fame.
Richard Branson
Mike [Oldfield] and Sarah went more or less straight from the register office to the lawyers, and he ended up paying her over 200,000 pounds in alimony. My mind boggles at what went on that night, but whatever happened it must go down as one of the most expensive one-night stands in history.
Richard Branson
The best measure of a [rock] groups success is how many records they sell overseas.
Richard Branson
We had miscalculated: we had forgotten to include VAT in our estimations; we had used the wrong retail margin; we had hopelessly overestimated the numbers of records that were sold in Paris. But by then it was too late…
Richard Branson
One of the neighbours shifted a box, and to our embarrassment a large vibrator fell out. When it hit the ground, it turned itself on and started to vibrate. As we all watched it, it buzzed around and finally fell into the canal, where it zipped through the water like a torpedo before finally vanishing from view.
Richard Branson
Mike Oldfield was as popular as ever – someone even misspelt his name ‘Oilfield’, which was certainly closer to the truth for Virgin…
Richard Branson
I recently came across a list of immediate priorities of the time in my notebook. It brings back the sense of desperation: 1) Remortgage the Manor 2) Turn off the swimming-pool heater 3) Sign Japan [the band] 4) Sell the houses in Vernon Yard 5) Ask Mike Oldfield if we can hold back his cash 6) Sell the houseboat 7) Sell my car 8) Lease all the recording equipment 9) Nik could sell his shares to a merchant bank or Warner Bros 10) Sell The Venue.
Richard Branson
The 1980 recession caught us with all the unexpected ferocity of a squall at sea.
Richard Branson
[Letter to the editor of the New Musical Express] Since in your last issue you speculate that I am in deep financial trouble you will appreciate my need to sue you in order to acquire some interest-free money rather than approach the merchant banks…
Richard Branson
I recognised that if rumours… are not hit hard on the head they have a horrible habit of becoming self-perpetuating. Worse still, they were true.
Richard Branson
I was well aware that there was no difference between owning 100 percent and 60 percent of a busted company.
Richard Branson
1 2 3 4 5 6
Return from Richard Branson Quotes to
Quoteswise.com