Book Review: e-Myth by Michael Gerber
In a business, everyone has a role…or at least they ought to.
I remember about 2.5 years ago when Joe, Levi and I were straining to get FreshBooks off the ground. We had few resources, but always had great camaraderie (Joe and Levi are best friends from high school and that helps) and I was searching for some deeper understanding of our respective roles. Then came a great little book by Michael Gerber – e-Myth.
In the book Gerber explains why so many small businesses fail to grow, and where they stumble when they try to grow. He explains that to grow you need to have three characteristics – that of a technician, a manager, and an entrepreneur. The trouble is, many small business owners are not capable of being all three – few people are. The challenge then is recognizing which of the three you are and bringing in the other two people to your team who can fill the other roles.
We totally lucked out. Joe loves to write great software; as I often say, for him it is like painting – it’s art. Joe is our technician. Levi is extraordinarily good with people, projects and details. He is our manager. Me? I have my eye on the future. I am constantly living 3-6 months down the track. That makes me our entrepreneur.
If you are struggling to get your business off the ground – or you are on track for growth and not struggling yet – I strongly recommend e-Myth. It’s an enjoyable read with many pearls of wisdom throughout.
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5:02 pm
I must admit I also really enjoyed the book. When I gave it to my entrepreneur brother as an x-mas gift he got a lot out of it because he was just getting his backcountry ski lodge off the ground.
5:50 pm
It’s helped our business too, and deepened our consulting work with clients – but few actually put it into action. For one thing it takes a LOT of discipline to turnkey processes. And for another some people hear “turnkey” and envision zombie robot employees. Hardly, we explain. Routinize tasks that should be in order to gain efficiencies, and thereby free up employees to bring *more* of themselves to the work.
10:10 am
The e-myth inspired the systems in both my web development company Globacore and my ultimate frisbee clothing company VC Ultimate. We constantly go back to it. I’ve bought it for AT LEAST three people. And I agree with David — you don’t have to systemize every aspect of the business, however, the business will benefit just from having a number of those systems in place, freeing you up to be creative in the areas that you’re supposed to be creative in… ie: not your invoicing.
1:49 am
I read this book several years back. But as David says, most people don’t put it into action — and I never did so myself.
Perhaps it’s time to go back to it.
3:04 pm
We are a small ad agency that often works with start-ups, brick and mortar and online. We’ve recommended “The E-Myth” by Michael Gerber to every single entrepreneur that has walked in.
In fact, we have a booklist of great books on advertising, marketing and business on our site: http://www.thenextwave.biz/tnw/?page_id=50
Which includes some others that can help a new business get started.
Some things in every business should be turn-key, like your accounting processes – it’s here where I have most diligently written out processes and procedures to try to cut down errors and make things run smoothly. I highly recommend it.
7:38 pm
[...] be worth a read of these books. The E-Myth / The E-Myth [...]