It is 9am on a chilly spring morning, and I’m standing in central London exterior posh financial institution Coutts & Co, watching my very own breath, ready for Brian Butterfield. That is our third try at assembly resulting from “diary points”. Butterfield dropped his diary down the bathroom, twice.
You’ll know Butterfield, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the comic Peter Serafinowicz, as one of many UK’s most distinguished businessmen alongside Lord Sugar, Sir Richard Branson and Sir Philip Inexperienced. (I ask why Butterfield hasn’t been made a sir but. “I used to be Liz Truss’s main financial adviser, so I was shocked to not be supplied a knighthood in her honours listing.”)
Butterfield made his reside stage debut in 2023 with Brian Butterfield’s Name of Now, a self-improving enterprise seminar that resembles a Ted Speak, or “BRIAN Speak”, as Butterfield places it. The tour was a sellout, though Butterfield later denies this. “I’ve not offered out! I’ve at all times caught to my enterprise ideas,” he protests. He’s now readying himself for extra reside dates in Might to coincide along with his first ebook, There’s No Enterprise Like Enterprise.
“Are you right here for the interview?” he asks, arriving at pavement stage. Butterfield travels by Sinclair C5 – the battery-powered recumbent tricycle from 1985. “I signed up for a 40-year lease. Solely two funds left. I’m fascinated about buying and selling in for a C6. It’s best to get one. You don’t pay the congestion cost and it’s nice for going underneath automobile park obstacles.” Butterfield seems in fantastic fettle. Hair: tidy. Moustache: neatly trimmed. (“You might want to look pretty much as good as your enterprise.”) His trademark gray go well with appears to be like freshly pressed. “It’s made out of a cloth I invented myself – Brylon – a mix of wool, nylon and asbestos. I’ve solely been capable of put on it since Brexit because it contravenes a number of European well being laws.”
Butterfield not often grants interviews. He’s not press-shy, however time is cash, and he’s a busy man. Finally, his PA Briana – who sounds suspiciously like Butterfield himself on the telephone – manages to squeeze me in. (“I’ve needed to let Briana go,” Butterfield tells me later. “He was hopeless. I imply, she.”) The proviso is that I don’t thoughts if Butterfield is “on responsibility”. Who wouldn’t need unique entry to witness the extraordinary enterprise titan at work?
Coutts is the financial institution that infamously closed Nigel Farage’s account in 2023. “Farage owes me cash!” snorts Butterfield. “£2,000 from 2010 when Butterfield Aeronautics serviced his two-seater plane.”
How lengthy has he banked with Coutts? “Oh, I don’t financial institution with Coutts,” he scoffs. “I’m providing Coutts the possibility to financial institution with me.”
“What’s safer than a secure?” he says, his voice elevating an octave as he walks into the financial institution. The pitch has begun. “Butterfield Safe Banking, the place you may entrust all of your cash, gold and cryptocurrency. It’s probably the most safe banking service on the planet … ”
Deborah, the Coutts receptionist, appears to be like baffled. “Have you ever obtained an appointment, sir?” she asks.
“By no means thoughts that, right here’s the way it works,” he says, handing over a takeaway menu for Chicago Rooster. “Oh, grasp on.” He pats his pockets. “I had 100 leaflets printed this morning. Come on, Stephen. Let’s come again this afternoon.” Stephen? Apparently he’s speaking to me. I’ll appropriate him later.
Butterfield was born in “19 … one thing or different”. He’s unwilling to be extra particular. “I need individuals to see me as a younger, fresh-faced businessman,” he causes. “I worry traders could be disinterested in the event that they knew I used to be 65 … 66 subsequent month.”
Butterfield grew as much as working-class dad and mom. His schooling then is a shock. “You’ve caught me. I’m an Outdated Etonian,” he says. “My dad and mom may solely afford at some point’s tuition. Nonetheless, I discovered rather a lot and made robust friendships in that lunch break.” He’s conscious he hasn’t matched the heights of different Outdated Etonians. “I didn’t turn out to be prime minister, like Boris Johnson. Or a helicopter pilot, like Prince William.”
His first job was a candy store he arrange exterior a nursery. “Promoting sweet to infants is tougher than it appears to be like as a result of infants don’t carry cash.” He then labored because the lord mayor’s croupier and as a circus horse dentist. “That was intense. And likewise in tents. Very large tents.”
Butterfield can also be chargeable for The Butterfield Food plan, a revolutionary programme the place you virtually starve your self for 5 days, gorge on something for at some point (“deal with day”), then recuperate on the seventh. Butterfield is adamant he spawned the intermittent fasting craze. He additionally says he provided £120m-worth of PPE to the federal government, however is in some way the one contractor who misplaced cash. “I’m nonetheless paying again a number of Chinese language producers. I imagine each failure is a chance to study a brand new lesson,” he provides.
After the Coutts false begin, our subsequent assembly is lunch with fellow captain of enterprise Sir Richard Branson. I ask the place we’ll be eating. “Pret a Manger on Tottenham Court docket Highway. It’s his favorite one. As Branson says: ‘It’s straightforward to turn out to be a millionaire, however to stay one, it’s important to watch out together with your cash.’ That’s why Branson retailers at Lidl, whereas Sugar is extra of an Aldi man.”
A desk for 3, please. However there’s dangerous information. Branson has WhatsApped to cancel, Butterfield says. There’s a disaster at his flagship enterprise, Virgin Olive Oil. “It’s typical Branson,” says Butterfield. “At this time is his flip to pay.” I flip this to my favour: some alone time with Butterfield, to search out out what makes the nice man tick. “Good thought,” he says. “I really forgot to print out your CV, so that you asking me questions is a brilliant use of our time.”
Barely confused, I ask what Butterfield has discovered from his reside exhibits to date.
“Tons of issues,” he says. “For instance, I discovered that the cash you make from the tickets must be extra than the price of hiring the venue. Hopefully the second leg will assist repay my money owed from the primary.” He touches the plastic tray. “Contact wooden.”
“Everyone seems to be totally different. What works for one particular person might not work for one more,” he continues. “However you may’t do a private seminar for every particular person. I did attempt but it surely was very time-consuming and never cost-effective.”
I ask if Butterfield really believes that enterprise seminars can rework individuals’s lives. “There are a lot of charlatans on the market charging a small fortune for the promise of success,” he says. “Don’t belief anybody who tells you they know the secrets and techniques to enterprise success. That’s simply one of many enterprise secrets and techniques I reveal in my seminar.”
With the price of dwelling disaster, what recommendation would he give to the general public? “By no means quit. Maintain working onerous and finally you’ll obtain your targets. I simply want I may communicate to my youthful self. Inform him to hold in there … I’d additionally inform him to not make investments all his cash in Woolworths and Blockbuster Video.”
Butterfield goes silent. I ask if he’s OK. He says he’s higher than OK. “A telephone that means that you can communicate to your youthful self? Write that down, Stephen. I need to pitch it on Dragons’ Den.”
The dialog strikes on to Butterfield’s private life. I realise that, past the asbestos go well with, I do know little or no about him. Is he married, for instance? “I’m married,” he says. “To enterprise.”
The alarm on Butterfield’s telephone instantly goes off. “Nicely, it was beautiful to fulfill you, Stephen,” he says, extending a hand. “Congratulations! You’ve obtained the job!” He fingers over a crumpled piece of paper. “Might you decide up my dry cleansing and click-and-collect from Tesco?” He tells me he’s obtained to hurry off to a gathering with Guardian journalist Wealthy Pelley who’s writing a profile piece on him. Earlier than I can level out I’m from the Guardian and never interviewing for the job of his new PA, he’s out of the door. Thanks, Brian. See you within the workplace tomorrow.