Good day to everyone who’s here to take on the world with their business ventures!
The E-Myth revisited by Michael E. Gerber is rated as the #2 Bestselling audiobook at Amazon in the category of small business at the moment of writing.
But Social-Proof is not always the best indicator.
This book elaborates on many of the aspects of the previous book I’ve reviewed, The 1-Page Marketing Plan by Allan Dib. But in a lot more of a storytelling manner.
Worth reading or not? Well, both you and I will find out by the end of this post, join my 1-100 rating process to find out!
Introduction ( 00:09:21 )
Chapter 1: The Entrepreneurial Myth ( 00:16:11 )
Chapter 2: The Entrepreneur, the Manager, and the Technician ( 00:27:10 )
Chapter 3: Infancy: The Technician’s Phase ( 00:16:40 )
Chapter 4: Adolescence: Getting Some Help ( 00:13:12 )
Chapter 5: Beyond the Comfort Zone ( 00:31:15 )
Chapter 6: Maturity and the Entrepreneurial Perspective ( 00:16:07 )
Chapter 7: The Turn-Key Revolution ( 00:21:50 )
Chapter 8: The Franchise Prototype ( 00:10:56 )
Chapter 9: Working on Your Business, Not in It ( 00:31:47 )
Chapter 10: The Business Development Process ( 00:32:02 )
Chapter 11: Your Business Development Program ( 00:03:08 )
Chapter 12: Your Primary Aim ( 00:26:48 )
Chapter 13: Your Strategic Objective ( 00:34:25 )
Chapter 14: Your Organizational Strategy ( 00:37:17 )
Chapter 15. Your Management Strategy ( 00:17:53 )
Chapter 16: Your People Strategy ( 00:40:07 )
Chapter 17: Your Marketing Strategy ( 00:31:09 )
Chapter 18: Your Systems Strategy ( 00:36:22 )
Chapter 19: A Letter to Sarah ( 00:11:49 )
Epilogue: Bringing the Dream Back to American Small Business ( 00:15:07 )
Afterword: Taking the First Step ( 00:03:34 )
Attributes of The Book
Length: 8hrs 5 mins
Subject: Marketing, Small Business and Entrepreneurship
Author: Michael E. Gerber – called #1 Small Business Guru by Inc. Magazine and is the author of this book that is considered to be a mega – bestselling book by the New York times for 2 consecutive decades.
Decision Process:
Here are the parameters I’ve checked and what I’ve found out about them
Mentioned by Allan Dib
I’ve been listening to the 1-Page Marketing Plan by Allan Dib, and he had put a reference to this book, so I’ve figured If that is one of the books a 100/100 book writer reads, It is most definitely worth checking out.
I also understood that the System building Ideas Allan put in his book, partly came from this book.
4th Bestselling book at one of the Amazon lists
At some of the amazon bestselling lists the E-Myth Revisited was 4th on the list, while the 1-page marketing plan was on the 5th.
Subject
Small business marketing
The Author
He runs a company that gives advice to small business owners.
Reviews
In addition i checked out the reviews, but some said that this book had lots of fluff, while others said it was very worthwhile, so I didn’t really count on those, the other parameters seemed to make it valuable enough.
Using Patrick's Decision Process
Of course Patrick’s decision process was as always sitting at the back of my mind! 🙂
Introduction
There’s something that Michael Calls, the Entrepreneurial Myth (The E-Myth). It is a myth that spread throughout America, according to which, all businesses are opened by entrepreneurs, but in reality – it is half true. Businesses are started by “Technitians”, who are having an “Entrepreneurial Seizure”, a Moment In which they get the Idea of working Independently on their own terms. And that is the big problem, that causes 96% of businesses in America to fail.
Michael Gerber’s book – The E-Myth Revisited discusses exactly that problem.
And answers it with the Ideas of the “Turn-Key Revolution that occured in American business”.
Part I shortly summarized
General story outline
Plot occurs as a series of conversations between Michael E. Gerber and the business owner of “All About Pies” (Not it’s real name) named Sarah which represents the typical small business owner.
He sets out to help her solve her problem by helping her change her perspective.
The main problem of most of the business owners is – As I mentioned in the Introduction – that they are not really entrepreneurs, but rather Technitians who just had an entrepreneurial spark for a moment.
The Technitian, Entrepreneur and Manager
Who are the Technitian and The Entrepreneur and what’s the difference?
According to Michael we all have three Identities when it comes to owning a business, and they all want to be the boss, those are the Entrepreneur, Manager and Technitian.
Entrepreneur- Responsible for future thinking and vision
Technitian – Work for Work’s sake, brings things to life now.
Manager – Puts work into place and organizes it to make the Technitian do it more orderly.
3 stages of business development
Infancy
The stage where the owner is the business, if owner takes vacation – no business.
Adolescence
When the owner hires help. Usually to do work he doesn’t know how to do.
Because the owner hires people to do work he doesn’t know how to do, they end up doing it in their own way, which he usually does not like, rather than according to his guidance, and that’s when the owner feels that he loses control and the business ends up failing. Unless he changes his perspective and understands the business from a mature point of view.
Maturity
Business can be started that way, don’t have to go through the other two phases necessarily.
This kind of business is started, or continued to, when the owner understands, that he must work on the business structure, have the exact job description for each person, a vision, and a deep understanding of where it is going.
Part II Shortly Summarized
The Turn-Key Revolution
The turn-key revolution is a general name for the change in the business industry that McDonald’s started. Ray Krock of McDonalds had built a franchise format, through which he could sell the franchises to people, and it was so well planned, and worked so well, that after teaching it to the buyers, they knew it would produce the same results it already did. The only thing the franchise owners would have left to do is to turn the key.
Work ON the business not IN the business
That’s why all Small Business owners should go to work on the business rather than in the business, they should see the business as the product, rather than the commodity, for when they see it that way they can secure their retirement, and have the business work flawlessly.
3 Takeaways / Implications
1. Make an organisational chart – Write down all the things I currently do, then break it down into possible roles that can fulfill those tasks. And at the same time make it more orderly for myself.
2. Pay attention when the technitian takes over – I do fall for this trap, and should pay attention that when I only do the repetitive day to day work without working on the vision and order, it would not be very productive.
3. Train my entrepreneur (or begin with the end in mind as Stephen Covey calls it in the 7 habits of highly effective people) – think where Is the ending point, do I want to sell the blog? Do I want to franchise it? Or do I want to keep going ’till death? Or maybe just rely on SEO for it to stay in the air and give me income?
Ratings Breakdown
Narration
Expression of feelings – 5/5
Clarity of speech – 5/5
Engaging – 5/5
Fluent (no stops, gulps, repeated readings) – 5/5
Plot
Sequence – not a lot of sequence at times, feels like just principles that are not in any particular thought order, though there is a rough outline
5/10
Characters – very abstract characters could have been described a bit more, though still nicely done as it’s a marketing book 8/10
Chapter Division and Headlines
Could have been clearer, sometimes didn’t feel when he passed chapters, or the connection between them, though the description of the chapters is mostly fine.
for example, the headlines of chapter 7, 8 and 9 are basically the same Idea.
Content
Interesting and relevant.
Examples
Good examples, though in some cases feel like an overdo, for example In the marketing strategy chapter he does not explain how to know more about your target audience, in case you don’t have one like Sarah does, you have to deduct it yourself.
Drive to Implicate
Pretty high as from the nature of the content, though there is no direct reference to keeping your motivation up but once in the ending of the book
Conclusion and Final Rating
Most small businesses fail because their owners just go to work and do the same work over and over again, not working on the planning or organizing the work, this book could help you gain the Ideas necessary and start seeing the world from another perspective to put you on your way to doing business the right way 🙂
– Narration – 20/20
– Plot – 10/20
– Chapter Division and Headlines – 6/10
– Content – 20/20
– Examples – 12/15
– Drive to Implicate 11/15
Final Rating: 89/100
People intoxicate themselves with work so they don't see how they really are
Acquiring options
Take back the control from the technitian.
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