The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It

The E-Myth (Revisited) - Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work And What To Do About It by Michael E. Gerber

The "E-Myth" is without a doubt one of the most influential business books any aspiring entrepreneur should read.

If you flip to the back cover of this best-selling business classic, you will find these words written: "After you have read The E-Myth Revisited, you will truly be able to grow your business in a predictable and productive way."

In this best-selling business classic, Michael Gerber gives you a formula for building not just your business successfully, but ANY business successfully.

In 2001, I took over a company in which I had become its top sales trainer and sales representative. Shortly afterwards, someone presented me with a copy of this book. I immediately understood from Michael's book a fundamental and most important distinction ... just because someone is an exceptional technician in a business, doesn't make them a competent business owner. This point alone is the reason why most small businesses don't work ... they are enterprises started by technicians who suddenly believe they have become entrepreneurs simply because they now own their own business. This is the E-Myth, or the "Entrepreneurial Myth."

Although the revised version of this book is less than 270 pages and can be read in just a few days, putting the theory into practice took me and a small team I put together to build my new company almost four years of full-time dedicated work. If I was to try and summarize why it took me this long to apply the E-Myth principles to my business, my "answer in a nutshell" would be that the E-Myth formula outlined by Michael Gerber is about taking the same principles as McDonald's have used to create their successful business model, and applying it to your business. In other words, creating a fully duplicatable, systems-driven business that can run without you as "the technician", but that can be multiplied to unlimited success by you as an entrepreneur. This is the difference between working "in" your business and working "on" your business.

On my second attempt at transforming a company into a systems-driven operation, I was employed as a business consultant to turn a small electrical services business into a "franchise-ready" operation. This time, I was better acquainted with the E-Myth way of thinking and so the process took me only 18 months. During this time, the electrical company went from being a business where the owner worked 6-7 days a week with 3 electrical tradespeople to assist him and barely covered its costs, to a company that now employs 13 people (9 tradesmen, 3 full time administrators and a book keeper), where the business owner only works 4 days a week and takes several vacations during the year with his wife and children, and where the business puts a clear $20K+ profit each month into the owner's pockets.

The E-Myth formula works and I have proven this to myself with every project I have undertaken since having read the book. Once you understand and begin to apply the E-Myth concepts to your business ideas, not only will you never want to do business again the "old" way, but it will become immediately apparent to you why almost every other business out there is struggling. Why? Because they don't have the right systems in place that allow the business to consistently deliver on its promise to its customers. In most businesses, it's the business owners that make the business successful. Take the business owners out of the business, and the quality of the business drops noticeably.

Michael Gerber's book shows you how to create a business that can run successfully with or without you. But, as I have hopefully illustrated with my own personal situation, it does take a huge commitment of focus, effort, time and constant attention to details to make it work. The rewards, however, are that you get to build a money-making machine that delievers outstanding results for your customers every single time, and unlimited potential for wealth for the business owners.

What You Will Learn In "The E-Myth":

The book is divided into 3 parts:

In Part I, "The E-Myth and American Small Business", you will gain a clear understanding of the problem with most small businesses, which I only lighly touched upon earlier. Michael Gerber makes it very clear why most businesses can only grow so far before "all hell breaks loose" and the business either gets small again, or things just get wildly out of control and all you can do is just try and "hang on!"

In Part II of the book "The Turn-Key Revolution: A New View Of Business", you are then given a clear picture of what a "business that works" looks like. After reading this section, you will probably never look at a business the same way again. You will see exactly why most small business owners are "trapped" in the machine they call a business and why for many of them, their business has become their life, instead of providing them with the freedom that would allow them to pursue all of their dreams.

In Part III of the book, Michael Gerber gives you the blueprint to follow. You are shown how to build a business from the ground up, that originates from your life's vision, goals and values, and that systematically incorporates not only all of these principles into each area of your business, but allows room for innovation and continual improvement in your business.

Some of the key things I have experienced building an "E-Myth" based business that I have found to be very powerful are the following:

• If you build a business the E-Myth way, you don't have to fill your head with "stuff", i.e. dates, appointments, numbers, problems with orders or customers, etc ... everything will be documented in processes and procedures, and accessed through databases and reports. You are free to go home at the end of the day and just focus on your family, your areas of passion or interest, and your dreams and goals, instead of business-related issues.
• The people you employ in your business don't need to be highly skilled or experienced. They just need to be willing to follow the systems, processes and procedures that you have documented for their position. They too are free to get on with their own lives outside of work.
• Contrary to what many people believe, following procedures, completing checklists, etc does not "dehumanize" people and turn their day into a "dull" and monotonous routine. By giving people the big picture of what your business is about and then making them "managers" of the systems responsible for meeting your business objectives, they actually experience greater personal freedom and become more engaged with their work.
• If you build and run things the right way, nothing ever falls through the cracks and the business you are building will only get better, since you will have systems in place for dealing with the operational aspects of the business, and information and marketing systems for constantly addressing issues and improving on the performance and profitability of the business.
• It is extremely difficult to try and "work backwards" and completely systematize an existing business that has been operating for some time without systems. To do this often requires a massive "retraining and reprogramming" of everyone who works in the business, as well as the creation and introduction of extensive documentation that people have to be willing to follow, plus, dealing with issues of control (i.e. letting go, delegation, ideas of people being "indispensable", etc ...). It is much simpler, therefore, to create an "E-Myth" business from scratch, than to try and "repair" a moving train.

I hope you will find this review of “The E-Myth (Revisited) - Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work And What To Do About It” by Michael E. Gerber useful and, if you have not read it yet, that it will soon become an indispensable reference book in your business arsenal, as well as a practical guide and mentor in your own business development.

You can get a physical copy of the book here - e-Myth Book, or download an audio version of this best-selling business classic here: eMyth Audio Book.

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