The pandemic has offered an opportunity for individuals to remake themselves. In an Entrepreneur article, Dr. Anthony M. Criniti IV (AKA “Dr. Finance”) warns, “Not everyone is cut out to be a successful entrepreneur, especially during these challenging times. Probably only a very small percent achieve this status, although many more will try. In short, you will need a variety of personal attributes to conquer this environment and emerge as a winner including positivity, vision, and courage.”
For those bent on making it as an entrepreneur, Alon Braun, author of the forthcoming book The Entrepreneur Journey: A Strategic Blueprint for Market Domination, founder of Edition.co.uk, Riverbanks.com, and Neurotech.com, outlines a path to success.
Take it From an Expert
Braun has been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, Longevity Technology, and Due, among others and is ranked among the top thirty international entrepreneurs.
He is an experienced business architect who guides companies on how to grow from an initial idea to profitability and achieve their goals quickly. He has worked with numerous entrepreneurs and with organizations in both the public and the private sectors. As an innovator at heart, he seeks inspiration from bioengineering, algorithms, computers, communication, and, most centrally, nature itself.
A notable feature of Braun’s work is his commitment to improving decision making from an organization’s inception through its growth, ensuring that the relevant factors are taken into account in a methodology that combines mathematical rigor with holistic consideration of the values important to the entrepreneur.
He specializes in applying his model to companies in the tech industry, including the areas of neurotech, agetech, genetic engineering, and biotech. His extensive experience in marketing, research and development, and managing teams enables him to solve problems and exploit opportunities in these fast-paced industries.
If he can do it, so can you. Braun ushers you on your way in his forthcoming book The Entrepreneur Journey: A Strategic Blueprint for Market Domination.
Self-Examination
You can’t be a successful entrepreneur without self-examination. An entrepreneur has to start with an innovative idea. In his book, Braun suggests, “What’s important is that we are receptive to the ideas that visit us; we need to hold on to them (27.)” Loosening up creativity is the first step to opening the channels for new ideas. To be prepared to sense innovation, you need to attend to your body, mind, and emotions.
Once an idea takes hold, you first need to express it to yourself and then the outside world. Through clarity of purpose, conviction, action, passion, and purpose, you can arrive at the result that you’re looking for and prepare to articulate your idea.
The foundation of a successful entrepreneur begins with meeting your basic human needs: safety, variety, significance, connection, expression, growth, contribution, and impact.
Team
Once you have a solid foundation beginning with self-examination and a clear articulation of an idea, you need to focus on your team. According to Braun, “For most entrepreneurs, this shift will be a big step – one that entails a complete change of mindset from focusing on the self or perhaps thought and wishes about the world to focusing on the team. This is why I call it the ‘reorienting’ phase (57.)” During this phase, you will identify project leaders, reorganize responsibilities, and attract more investors.
Once a team is assembled, they will need to make decisions and confront the unknown while staking everything. “Collaborating minds are uniting, merging their skills and experience to bring innovation into the external world (71.)”
Planning involves effective methodology. Braun clues us into key principals: eliminate uncertainty, work smarter not harder, develop a minimum viable product, and show demonstrated progress.
The Payoff of Development and Function
The breakthrough is the moment every entrepreneur is waiting for. Through adaptive development and project management, your work will pay off. When you’re innovating, “you have to be agile in your thinking, ready to respond and to change direction according to the outcomes of your experimentation (96.)”
Before engaging with the market you usually need a controlled group of people to test your product’s functionality. Braun advises, “Usability testing allows design and development teams to identify problems at the earliest possible stage. The sooner these problems are fixed, the cheaper and quicker it is to address them without compromising the production schedule (108.)”
Moment of Truth
Once your product is ready to roll out for users, you have some big decisions to be made in terms of outward-facing functionality. This is the stage where mistakes that you’ve made will be revealed but also where thoughtful work pays off. You will need to integrate user experience and create a marketing and sales strategy.
Have You Got What it Takes?
If you’ve got the fire behind an innovative idea and motivation to implement strategy to put your idea in motion, you can be on your way to becoming a successful entrepreneur. For more information about Alon Braun, his book, and his offerings, you can find him on LinkedIn.
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