Don't hesitate to seek external help or advice where need be. Sometimes, it takes an external, emotionally unattached individual to detect your business flaws and render unbiased advice.

When employees tell you about their good ideas for the business, don't limit your response to asking questions, taking notes and following up. If you can, ask those people to lead their projects and take responsibility for them. From those experiences, they will then have built the confidence to take on more and you can take a further step back.

For a successful entrepreneur it can mean extreme wealth. But with extreme wealth comes extreme responsibility.

There are no quick wins in business - it takes years to become an overnight success.

I am convinced that companies should put staff first, customers second and shareholders third - ultimately that's in the best interest of customers and shareholders.

Set impossible challenges. Then catch up with them.

Perhaps, therefore, it is odd that if there is any one phrase that is guaranteed to set me off it's when someone says to me, 'OK, fine. You're the boss!' What irks me is that in 90% of such instances what that person is really saying is, 'OK, then, I don't agree with you, but I'll roll over and do it because you're telling me to. But if it doesn't work out I'll be the first to remind everyone that it wasn't my idea.'