E-Myth Revisited

Michael Gerber's The E-Myth Revisited is great book for anyone thinking of starting a business venture. Gerber describes how most businesses are started because people are fed up with their boss, or think they are doing all the work already so why not work for themselves. He states that every small business consists of three main characters the technician (the doer and builder), the manager (the planner), and the entrepreneur (the dreamer, visionary). There are life phases in a small business the infancy phase which is the technician's phase, the adolescence phase which is when the business owner gets some help, beyond the comfort zone, and, maturity and the entrepreneurial perspective. The technician who starts a small business will start off great, but will run into problems as the business grows. The technician tries to do everything himself; this is the infancy, working long hours and wears himself out and eventually having to hire some help. Once help is hired the technician also becomes a manager and moves out of the infancy phase and into the adolescence phase. From this point on the company will either keep on growing, or will the owner will downsize and go back to the infancy phase.

As someone considering a business venture, I found myself becoming a little intimidated as I read The E-Myth Revisited. For many years I have been saying I am going to open my own business, my own restaurant. I have even came very close to making my dream come true last year, until many restaurant owner told me there horror stories. Now that I have read this book I think the safer route and I always new this is buying into a franchise. Gerber states that Business Format Franchises have reported a success rate of 95 percent in contrast to the 50-plus-percent failure rate of new independently owned businesses. He also states that where 80 percent of all businesses fail in the first five years, 75 percent of all Business Format Franchises succeed! These numbers make it very scary to even think of opening your own business.

I found it pretty interesting how the colors of your uniforms, the shapes or symbols on you business card or sign and even the walls and flooring can affect how successful your business is. He says that instead of saying "Hi, may I help you?" try "Hi, have you been in here before?" By doing this he says that by doing this one thing your sales will increase between 10 and 16 percent almost immediately.