How can we hope to succeed in business? One way is to take advice from those who have already succeeded, so here are ten top tips from some of the UK’s richest self-made millionaires.
Peter Jones (£145m)
Peter Jones is most famous for being a television celebrity on BBC2’s Dragon’s Den, but he is also a businessman with interests in telecommunications, media, leisure and property. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2009 Honours list.
Jones says that his chief asset is honesty, and it is something which he is well known for thanks to the Dragon’s Den. He frequently tells people what he thinks of their ideas, and sees this as a way of being cruel to be kind.
Tom Jones (£142m)
Sir Tom Jones OBE has sold over 100 million records since 1965. His tip is to get help: "I've written songs before, but not so many. I mean, I co-wrote them with songwriters - I'd be there, and I'd give them ideas, for what kind of thing I wanted, and then they'd put it together. And then I'd alter things. So I worked with some really good songwriters."
Sting (£128m)
Sting made his name as bass player and lead singer in Geordie punk band The Police. He has received sixteen Grammy Awards, as well as an Oscar nomination for best song. His tip is to take risks, try something different.
"I am not going to become a traditional folk singer, but there has always been that strain in my music. That's where I am at the moment, it's not really an end result. It's just what I'm doing now. I take risks because I get bored easily. I don't like doing the same thing; even though on paper that would seem the most successful thing to do, my instinct tells me otherwise."
Hamish Ogston (£330m)
Hamish Ogston left school at 16 wanting to be a train driver or an architect, but ended up setting up his first business selling shop discount cards in 1970. Many other businesses have followed including Guinness World Record museums and sports marketing. The majority of his fortune comes from the CPP group which was founded in 1980 with a thousand pounds. The York-based credit card insurance company has around eleven million customers.
His tip is to never rely on other people. “At 17, I joined the Norwegian Merchant Navy and worked my way around the world. My Dad gave me £50 at Euston station and that was the last he saw of me for a year. I worked on building sites in Toronto and in uranium mines in Canada and I was on my own. It wasn't like today, with credit cards and mobile phones, all you had was a c/o bank address in Darwin or something. It taught me you can't rely on other people.”
Hugh Osmond (£138m)
Hugh Osmond invested his student grant in nightclub promotions. When he graduated from Oxford he took over Pizza Express and made twenty million pounds. He then made a series of bids for pub chains and created Punch Taverns. At 41 his fortune has reached £138 million, and he also owns London’s Camden Palace nightclub.
Despite studying medicine, Mr. Osmond never entered the NHS. That is his tip; don’t work in the public sector. "you do look at the appalling shambles of it and think it is inconceivable that the thing can work. I have various relatives who are doctors and you hear things that make it sound like all the worst big companies you've ever come across rolled into one."
Paul Smith (£136m)
Paul Smith is a draper’s son who left school at 15 to work in a clothes warehouse. After a tragic accident ended his dreams of being a professional cyclist he decided to manage a clothes shop instead. His partner Pauline Denyer was responsible for encouraging him to open a boutique with six hundred pounds and have a try at fashion designing. Now Smith, who is 57, has homes in Tuscany, Sardinia and Holland Park. His tip for success is simple hard work, “You can’t rest on your laurels”.
Richard Branson (£1.5bn)
Sir Richard Branson was born in 1950 and is best known for his Virgin brand which encompasses over 360 different companies, from trains, to planes, to music, retail and telecommunications. It all started with a magazine he published called Student. Next came a mail-order business, followed by the record shops, and the rest is history.
His tip is not to criticise employees; “Leaders who have bad tempers need to learn to keep them in check.”
Alan Sugar (£730m)
Also probably better known as a TV celebrity, Alan Sugar is a successful businessman as well as boss on BBC1’s The Apprentice. Born in 1947, Sugar originates from the East End of London. In 2007 he sold his largest business venture, Amstrad, to concentrate on his TV career. He has also been chairman of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from 91 to 2001. Sugar has a few tips for budding entrepreneurs, including: respect authority, listen to your colleagues, be flexible and know the market.
JK Rowling (£560m)
Born in 1965, Joanna Rowling is best known as the author of the incredibly successful Harry Potter books. She says the idea initially hit her while she sat on a train from Manchester to London in 1990. The Harry Potter books have garnered attention from all over the world, winning many awards and selling over 400 million copies. Several of the books have also been turned into films, and there is a plethora of Harry Potter merchandise which has helped grow the Rowling empire.
She is an icon for many, as her rags to riches tale takes her from living on welfare to multi-millionaire status all within the space of five years.
Perseverance is her tip: "perseverance is absolutely essential, not just to produce all those words, but to survive rejection and criticism. However, the utter joy of seeing a book you wrote sitting in a bookshelf is a prize worth striving for!"
Jamie Oliver (£40m)
Jamie Oliver, better known as the Naked Chef is a TV chef and media personality, known for his food-focused TV shows. Jamie broke away from the traditional TV chef route by getting political and tackling issues around the nutritional value of school dinners.
Although running non-profit restaurants for disadvantages young people might seem like a good way to ensure that your personal empire doesn’t grow, these philanthropic ventures do gain him significant publicity and public approval. His tip is “don’t be scared to be political!”