Key Themes:
Business, Entrepreneurship, Scaling A Business, Franchising, Strategy
Summary:
The E-Myth Revisited by Gerber is the ultimate read for an entrepreneur. This updated edition debunks the myths about starting your own business. He takes you through the steps to grow your business in a clear and structured manner from his years of experience as a small business consultant. His invaluable insight dispels the common assumptions and expectations of being an entrepreneur and provides the clear distinction between working on your business and working in your business.
Content Overview:
The book focuses on the belief that small businesses are started by entrepreneurs, when in fact most are started by technicians who have decided to quit their job and create their own business. The fatal assumption is that if you understand the technical work of a business, you understand a business that does technical work. As Gerber demonstrates these are two distinctly different things.
He also explores the truth that most small business owners work in their business rather than on it and people who are exceptionally good in business are so because of an insatiable need to know more. Gerber outlines the three roles in the business; the entrepreneur, the manager and the technician and how these three roles work (or not) together.
Gerber covers seven distinct areas:
– Understanding your primary aim for having a business
– Your strategic objective
– Your organisational strategy
– Your management strategy
– Your people strategy
– Your marketing strategy
– Your systems strategy
He recognises that if a business owner is unwilling to change, their business will never be able to give them what they want. He covers the schizophrenic concept that everyone who goes into business is actually three people in one (entrepreneur, manager and technician). He also takes us through how a business owner can draw out of themselves each of these characteristics and their roles in the business and its growth.
The key learnings of the book are to start your business with a plan for scaling it in mind. See your business as a separate entity to yourself and a way of solving your customers problems. Don’t treat your business as a job and consider how you can make your business function without you – a key method for growth.
Rating: 9.5/10
Gerber’s book has been voted No 1 business book by Inc. 500 CEOs and by reading this, you can see why. A practical, searching book that helps you to understand how you can grow your business as an entrepreneur without sacrificing yourself in the process.
Readability: 9.5/10
Gerber takes a structured approach to guiding you through the steps in the life of a business – from its infancy to a mature enterprise. His clarity of focus and practical analogies provides numerous ‘aha’ moments and clear direction, whatever stage your business is at.
Does what it says on the tin: 9.5/10
Yes – Gerber’s book will help you to grow your business in a productive, confident and planned manner. This international bestseller is definitely worth the hype!