I am currently reading ‘The E Myth-revisited’ by Michael E. Gerber; firstly I just have to say, within the first few pages I was captured, the knowledge and insight within the book is exciting. I have this feeling, where I begin to read an insightful, educational book, and have this moment of reading something that you knew, but when you read it in context or in an example, it clicks and is so accurate about life or business that its just a powerful moment.
So after the initial excitement for the book, I got further in, understanding more about the process of a small business, the pits and peaks, and why elements fail. In more cases than not, it is the business creator, or owner that is the failure, as opposed to many businesses themselves.
The book is largely about ‘the entrepreneurial myth’, in which the creation of a business suggests that you become an entrepreneur, on the contrary, an entrepreneur is more of a mindset than a title, and this book explores how the various ‘business types’ have to be within the business in order for it to work. Often the person who understands a type of work or career, is a good technician in that subject, they are good at what they do and decide they don’t want to have a boss anymore, they want to be their own boss and run their own business in the same market. The unfortunate truth is that it is not as easy as that. This book explores levels of a business, likeliness and percentages of business success, as well as the 3 main business types needed to run a business; The entrepreneur, The manager and The technician.
From here, the books lines out the key ways in which each ‘business type’ can be the problem, as well as pointing out the problem and then suggesting the ideal way. The book also refers frequently to Ray Kroc, and the way he revolutionised McDonalds and how he franchised the business, and made it a turn-key solution, in which the system was all in place, so that even the lowest of skilled person could work there.
Other areas of the book explore the themes of how you can work on your business as opposed to in it, how to develop your business, figuring out you primary aim and ultimate goal of your business, and having that clear image, and knowing how to take steps to fulfill that, whilst also ensuring that every employee or anyone involved with the business knows exactly the point and reason, so they know their responsibility in relation to the overall project. The final few chapters of The E-Myth illustrate various strategies for different elements of your business, such as marketing, organisation and management strategies.
Throughout the book, there is a key example, a story if you wish, illustrating in a real situation exactly how each topic is a problem, and this element of the book really helps clarify why things do and don’t work, and the thinking behind the people behind the business.
I honestly cannot express enough how great of a book this is! I strongly urge you to take a read yourself, especially if you are starting up, planning to start up or have your own business already.
There is so much knowledge within this book, and whilst the majority is 100% relevant, the only downside of the book is that it wasn’t released at a time when social media was a large part of society, so it does lack a little in terms of more todays marketing options, however, the general points, and key information of the book is scarily accurate, and largely informative to any business owner.
If you’re interested in taking a closer look and purchasing this insightful book for yourself, then just click here and head to the book section, where you can find the E-myth and other great books!
Thanks for reading
~Journal of a Trader