The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It
ISBN:9780887307287 read summary

This is a great book for the person who wants to understand what it takes to make a business succeed. It is written for the entrepreneur (that's what the E stands for in E-Myth) and it describes the three basic types of people who work in any business; the entrepreneur, the manager, and the technician. Michael Gerber spends a lot of time explaining how each of these people brings something unique and irreplaceable to the process of running a business.

The central theme in the book is that true entrepreneurs are rare if they ever exist. What typically happens when a business starts is that a technician has an "entrepreneurial seizure" and starts a business. Then after the new business euphoria wears off the technician takes over again and since the technician is solving technical problems and not management problems the business is managed very poorly if at all. This then leads to failure.

What most people need to learn, according to Gerber, is how to manage. He then uses a good portion of the book talking about how to think about a business from the perspective of a manager and be successful.

The beauty of this book is its simplicity. If you are looking for a step-by-step book about how to run a business you will not find it here. Gerber does not go into that much detail. This book will give you tools for looking at a business from a broad perspective and see if the business as a whole is healthy, and headed in the right direction and what you need to do to make it better.

I think that anyone can benefit from this book, not just managers or entrepreneurs. It never hurts to learn more about how each part works to make the whole operate.

I've worked in start-ups and small cap business environments for over 20 years. Gerber has captured the essence of why so many organizations fail; especially in there early years.

This is a must read if you plan on starting a business of any type!

You should also take the Kolbe A index test to see where you fit in terms of how you execute plans.

Having worked for an organization that enrolled in the E Myth program, I can attest that this nothing more than "By my product" garbage. Taking the idea of "systems" to a degree which demeans employees and tramples individual contribution may work at mickey dees but does not work with professionals. Sorry if you got suckered and wasted a nickel on this hippie burn out.

As a design professional working for a startup, here is what I took away from the book:

Good:

Nicely defines the 3 personalities that go into making a company.

Displays an easily understandable division between doing the work "in-the-trenches" and the "big picture" work of setting up a company to run like a well-oiled machine. Gerber argues for a system of designing the company that can be readily reproduced in most any location with most any people. It might be said that this is the AK-47 model of business: a design so good that it works successfully even when shoddy materials are used in its creation, That even the most basic workers will suffice because the business plan ensures a high minimimum-level of quality.


Bad:

Overly dependent on rules, rather than on good employees. Runs a great risk of micromanagement through it's encouragement of tightly-controlled behaviour. In such a system it seems that common sense would be discarded in favor of following the rulebook to the letter when an unexpected situation arises. Gerber's system of rule-making appears to be rather inflexible in dealing with unique situations on a case-by-case basis.

As Fast Company has said of hiring: "Many companies fail from the start by talking down to their new hires and using training materials geared for the lowest common denominator." The E-Myth method is geared entirely towards recruiting the lowest common denominator, the most basic worker that could accomplish the job. While it's good for success to be dependent more on a solid business plan than any individual employee, Gerber doesn't seem to account for the superior customer experience that one receives when collaborating with employees that meet more than the minimum requirements.

His model is primarily applicable to retail shops and other businesses that have multiple locations. It does not address the business plan of the design studio or other creative ventures. As a matter of fact, the book belittles the role of the craftsman and doesn't do justice to creative professionals.

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I would prefer to rate it 3 1/2 stars; very good, but not great. As it stands, it's still worth a read, just keep in mind that too many rules in a business can easily suffocate the work atmosphere.

Absolute must read for the small to mid-sized business owner or manager. Gerber looks at the root cause of business failure - the owner's desire to work IN the business rather than ON it - and provides a common sense approach to looking at the business in a different way - that of a replicatable series of systems rather than an extension of the owner.

Critical to Gerber's thinking is that each business can be run similar to a franchise model - where the customer experience is consistent, the talent and skill required to run the business is minimized, and the approach is well documented and easily learned. The role of the owner is to view their business as a potential franchise, begin with the end in mind, and start building a business system that will deliver consistently for all stakeholders.

There is a reason this book has been on the must read list for 30 years - and it is still fresh and relevant today.