The eMyth Revisited Wrap-Up

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. In the second half of his book he details the Business Development Process - a method to systematize your business.

Seven Steps of the Business Development Process

1. Primary Aim
2. Strategic Objective
3. Organizational Strategy
4. Management Strategy
5. People Strategy
6. Marketing Strategy
7. Systems Strategy

Your Primary Aim is simply your personal Mission Statement. Gerber argues that your business is not the end all purpose to your life, it is merely a piece and thus, your business should faciltate your Primary Aim or Mission Statement.

Your Strategic Objective is a very clear statement of what your business has to ultimately do for you to achieve your Primary Aim. Your business strategy and plan provide the structure within which your business is enabled over time to fulfill your Life Plan. This objective also includes a set of standards that starts defining the standard operating procedure within your business. The first two that Gerber includes are the money (how much revenue do you want to generate, how much do you want to sell the business for eventually) and the question - is it an opportunity worth pursuing? (does it meet your primary aim? Is there market demand for this business?)

Additional standards in this business are open ended to your paticular business but can include; when will the prototype be finished, where will you be located, what type of business (retail, wholesale?), what standards are you going to insist upon regarding reporting, cleanliness, management, etc.?

In simple terms, your Organizational Strategy is your organizational chart but it is much more than a group of boxes with the CEO's name at the top. This organizational chart should also spell out roles and responsibilities and you should institute position contracts which also spell out guidelines, resources, desired results and consequences both positive and negative.

Once you have your organizational chart in place, which includes the necessary roles the business needs to complete the org. tasks, you need to prototype each position. What this means is that you work in the sales role, documenting all of the work efficiencies and ways of doing things, hire out the role explaining the company strategic objective and presenting the standard operating procedure manual for this role you have created based on your work, and then you move up the ladder into the sales manager role and begin prototyping that position.

Gerber defines the Management Strategy as a system designed into your prototype to deliver a marketing result. The example he uses is a hotel in which personnel captured his personal preferences for coffee and newspaper in a database and delivered these preferences to him throughout his visit. Once they had him in their system they continually catered to him upon each subsequent visit.

The People Strategy is having your people understand the idea behind the work they are being asked to do. According to Gerber, your employees "want to work for people who have created a clearly defined structure for acting in the world. A structure through which they can test themselves and be tested." He calls this structure a game. In the hotel example the employees are constantly testing themselves to deliver on great customer service. Part of this game comes from the overall goals of the company and the specific job duties as detailed in the organizational strategy.

Your Marketing Strategy is identifying what your customer wants through Demographics and Psychographics or Marketing Research. (folks, we are having a free workshop on marketing research this Thursday at noon in Garrret Conference Center. Click here for details and to register). Chiefly, the marketing strategy should answer who the customer is and why does she buy?

The Systems Strategy is a set of things, actions and ideas that interact with each other. For example, a selling system would be an example of a soft system within the business. The database from the hotel example would be an example of an information system, and signs within the business would be an example of a hard system.

At the end of the day, each of the prececeeding strategies along with your Strategic Objective and how it relates to your Primary Aim, should be documented within a Standard Operating Procedures Manual. This manual should be implemented into the business throughout meetings and day to day follow-up and create consistency throughout.

This Thursday at noon we will be hosting a free workshop in Garrett Conference Center room 100 that covers the Marketing Research portion detailed in the eMyth Revisited. Click here to register and see the side-bar for details. The following week Thom Crimans of FranNet will be here to discuss purchasing a franchise. He offers a free service to see what franchise model you are best fit for.

Also, if you would like free one-on-one counseling and wish to implement the systems discussed here, register

here for free coaching.

Thanks,

Adam