What I find astonishing abut Branson is his unfailing enthusiasm for seeking out new things and doing them his way. From his earliest days, when he apocryphally sold records from a phone box, he has created a phenomenally wide range of ventures, all branded in a way which appeared cool in the 1960s, although perhaps less so now.

Branson has not just been responsible for music stores, he has ventured into publishing, financial services (which he soon hopes to expand with the purchase of a network of RBS bank branches) broadcast media, air travel and rail services. Not to mention the things he has failed to pull off, like the attempt to win the contract to run the National Lottery, Virgin Clothes, Virgin Vodka; the list goes on.

Richard Branson has come in for a lot of stick over the years, much of it fuelled by nothing more than jealousy. His populist, self promoting style rankles with many people and his (somewhat misleading) anti-establishment image has upset many in the business world, notably British Airways.

But the point about Branson is that he is an entrepreneur, a creator of jobs and wealth, a man who thrives on putting ideas into practice. It is very easy for us to forget, in our contemporary corporate world that every business, no matter how hierarchical, sober or staid, was created by entrepreneurs; people who saw an idea, believed in it and went for it. They failed more frequently than they succeeded, that is in the nature of entrepreneurism. But without the failures there would have been no successes, and our economy and lives would have been the poorer for it.

As an economy we have always had a steady stream of entrepreneurs. Some have vanished as quickly as they arose (remember John DeLorean?). Very few have Richard Branson’s staying power. We need more like him.

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Starting a business is a major undertaking. It is not just that you need to have the right business idea, although the lack of a good idea is what holds many potential entrepreneurs back. You also need to be sure that you are prepared for the risks that necessarily come with any new business including, but not limited to, financial uncertainties. You need to have done your market research, and quality testing. If you are planning to set up on your own you need to be sure that you will be happy working without any colleagues. You need most of all to have a business brain.

But the real impediment to starting a business in a recession is the lack of a vibrant market. How long will it take until your product sells at a level which can support you? Yes, recessions bring opportunities and it may well be the right time for you to get into the market. But you will almost certainly need more money behind you than you would have needed in a more healthy economic environment.

Walt Disney Corporation, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft may all have started off in a recession. But the economic graveyard is packed with the corpses of other businesses which started during a downturn, and failed. Our advice at Career Energy is that if you are entrepreneurial, have the right idea and believe you can make a go of it, this is a great time to start a business. But make sure you you are adequately funded.

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