Rob Braiman is CEO and founder of Cogent Analytics, a business consulting firm. Since 2005, he has personally engaged with over 1800 small to medium size businesses. An entrepreneur himself, he knows the challenges of the journey, and his passion is to help others achieve success and profitability that also enhances quality of life. He has grown Cogent Analytics from 6 people to over 120 inside of 5 years; and has ranked on the Inc 5000 fastest growing companies 3 years in a row.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
When business started difficulties overcame:
“I would say as a young man even understanding what being an entrepreneur was about was provincial at best. I had come out of a military experience so my viewpoint on getting what I call my first JOB mature profoundly after I got into leadership and then entrepreneurship. So how do you prepare for becoming an entrepreneur is always the question people like to ask me. And I hate to give a silly answer but how do you prepare for becoming a parent. Nobody really writes the parent book although everybody seems to have an opinion. I think preparing for entrepreneurship… I have got some good advice things you got to do before you open the door relative to planning and cash flow and being wise before you jump out of the aeroplane without a parachute”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
- The E Myth: Why Most Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It Book by Michael E. Gerber
- The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It Book by Michael E. Gerber
- Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t Book by Jim Collins
Favourite Quote:
“raise others up and you will rise”
Recommended Online Resources:
- Google LLC is an American multinational technology company that specializes in Internet-related services and products, which include online advertising technologies, search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware.
- LinkedIn – LinkedIn is a business and employment-oriented service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Founded on December 28, 2002, and launched on May 5, 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking, including employers posting jobs and job seekers posting their CVs.
- Facebook, Inc. is an American online social media and social networking service company based in Menlo Park, California. Its website was launched on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg, along with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes.
- VanillaSoft – Sales Engagement Software for Inside Sales. Engage with leads close deals with VanillaSoft Our sales engagement software for inside sales helps sales development reps streamline processes.
- Salesforce – CRM software solutions and enterprise cloud computing from Salesforce, the leader in customer relationship management CRM and SaaS
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“manage profit. Profit is not about greed, it’s about solvency, it’s about building equity, it’s about retiring debt, it’s about taking care of your family, it’s about the benefits you offer to your employees. And if you don’t manage profit first bad things happen. So, I am a profit for sky and I don’t want to again communicate that that somehow supposed to be about greed because it’s not. The responsibility of every small business owner every mid-sized business owner, every large business is to produce a minimum mandatory profit that is engineered within a company because that impacts so many areas of the business. Don’t do that haphazardly do it purposefully”…[Listen for More]
More About Rob Braiman:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“Saying no to loud people gives you the resources to say yes to important opportunities.” Seth Godin
Other Quotes From the Chat with Rob Braiman:
- “it always costs more to go into business than most people plan for. I think budgeting for how your business is going to get off the ground is critical. So, don’t skip planning stage.”
- “A great thing is paying attention to what they can learn from their people, what they can learn from their customers, what they can learn from life itself”
- “A goal without a plan is a dream”
- “learning the decision-making process for self is as important as learning the decision-making process for the people you have as leaders in your organisation. Because critical thinking and how people make decisions you can see successes and failures and in that one behaviour”
- “for something more than you stand against something”
- “you have to be vigilant in your life practices. Successful people always have certain behaviours that are repetitive. From the way they start their day to the books they read to their putting of their head on the pillow at night. Successful people tend to be very ordinates it to in their approach, it’s more finite and seat of the pants”
- “it’s about trying to do your level best because what your level best does is impact over people’s lives”
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