The eMyth Revisited

Systematizing Your Business for Success

In his book The eMyth Revisited, Michael Gerber presents us with valuable information that every entrepreneur should take to heart before and after going into business:

1. It's a myth that most businesses are started by entrepreneurs. They are started by technicians who want to do the technical work of the business.

2. The Turn-Key revolution has provided small business with a model that if implemented can lead to extraordinary returns for small business.

3. Every business should have a business development process - a system at the heart of every business.

4. This system can be implemented over and over again for success in your business.

The fatal assumption that most business owners make is that if they understand the technical work of a business, they understand a business that does technical work. A programmer starts a programming business, a contractor starts a contracting business. They don't account for all of the other jobs that will come with a business.

Within each business owner there is an entrepreneur, a manager and a technician. The entrepreneur is the bold visionary who lives in the future. The manager is pragmatic, lives in the past and craves order. The technician is the doer who lives in the present and does the technical work. According to Gerber, each of these roles is at war with one another in small business. The goal is to have balance between the three but typically, the breakdown is 10% entrepreneur, 20% manager and 70% technician.

Gerber argues that the turn-key revolution or the business franchise format provides the warring factions with a solution - an environment in which each personality can strive and be satisfied.

Many ask "what is wrong with being a technician" and the answer is nothing but if you want to purely be a technician then don't own a business, continue to work a job where you are allowed to do the technical work.

A business hits adolescence when the owner realizes they can no longer do all the work by themselves and they hire an employee. Most business owners manage by "abdication" in which they merely turn over many of the business tasks they don't want to do to the employee. The problem becomes that no standard has been defined by which the employee should operate and soon, things fall apart. Orders come back, customer service goes to pot and the owner starts doing everything again. Many times the business gets small again. The widget machine is placed in the center of the room next to the telephone and the owner plops down on a stool next to the machine.

The Turn Key Revolution

When Ray Kroc visited the first McDonald's (then MacDonald's) in San Bernardino, CA in 1952, he found a business system that was humming along like a Swiss watch, serving up burger after burger by employees working a system. He saw the future and Kroc came up with the idea to license the system over and over to franchisees. Herein lies the turn-key revolution (put key in the door, turn key and presto, you are in business) and what Gerber proposes is the salvation to many small business owners - the Business Development Process and the Franchise Prototype Manual. Not stating that everyone should buy a franchise but that each entrepreneur should develop and apply a standard within their business similar to how a franchise operates.

80% of small businesses fail within the first 5 years while 75% of franchises succeed. This process if implemented within your business can lead to a greater chance of success.