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50 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
Danger in the Entrepreneurial Zone, September 22, 2004
This book deserves 7 stars for pointing out the fallacies of how most entrepreneurs operate. The book deserves 1 star for proposing a standard that most people cannot hope to meet. Pay attention to the former, and go light on the latter.
Gerber is correct that most entrepreneurs are limited by a comfort zone of wanting to remain in control as either strong technicians or managers, which limits the potential of the business. As soon as they exceed what they can handle, the business either fails in a break-out attempt or shrinks back to a simpler state. The new businesses that succeed the most are the ones that have a business model that is easy to replicate with ordinary people.
Where Gerber goes wrong is in suggesting that many people can develop such business models. I regularly study the top 100 CEOs in the country for stock-price growth, and few of them think they can develop a new business model. Why should someone starting up a new company be likely to do better than that? They won't. In fact, I have a friend who attempted to start a new business following Gerber's principles and almost failed before he adjusted to normal operating approaches. He spent so much time developing his business model that he never got around to operating it.
Gerber's three favorite examples are McDonald's, Disney, and FedEx. Notice that two of the three got most of their business model ideas from someone else (Ray Kroc from the McDonald brothers in San Bernardino, California and Fred Smith from an Indian air freight operation).
I think there is another fallacy here: You can get ordinary people to do simple things (deliver packages, cook and deliver cheap hamburgers, and smile at people on automated rides). But in many businesses the demands of the market are extraordinary such as in many technological product businesses and services. Microsoft has a business model, for example, but it is not one that Gerber would recognize.
Finally, he condemns people who want to operate their business as a job by being technically expert. What if Peter Drucker spent all of his time developing business models and systems to make pizzas and tacos rather than writing business books about management? What if great musicians developed business models for teaching children to play the violin and piano rather than performing? In other words, there is room and a need for extraordinarily able one-person companies run by technicians.
But don't let my quibbles keep you as an entrepreneur from failing to appreciate the excellent case Gerber makes for having a business model as soon as possible, and working systematically to improve it. If you can do that, you may well develop a true irresistible growth enterprise.
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
E Myth Revisted, November 28, 2005
This review is for the unabridged audio version. I spend a lot of time in the car and listen to a lot of audiobooks, mostly business and sales. I found this book to be far more relevant and applicable than most. The book really gets down to the operational how-to level where as most books can't seem to get past broad cliches that sound good and may be true but don't give you anything to run with.
Most of the business management books out there seem to be written for larger businesses. I'm sure this is because the authors that write them usually are running large corporations. It seems very hard for these authors to get back to the very beginning stages where most of us are starting from.
The ideas of creating systems to run and grow your business are so obvious yet I have such a tendancy (as apparently many others do as well) to try to manage everything on the fly. This book takes a lot of the mystery and intimidation out of running and growing a business. I will admit that the author could be more concise and often he spends far too much time on a simple point but I will still give it 5 stars because it is far better than most. I would definately recommend it to anyone just starting out or anyone who wants to grow their business past mom-and-pop size.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
Good advice, but ...., November 1, 2005
This book actually has alot of good points and advice for starting a business. But it could be about half of the length it is. The author makes a point, and then gives several metaphores in a row trying to drive the point home. Sometimes making it tedious to listen to, even on a drive home when I have nothing better to do.
Later in the book, he tries to touch home by talking about 'your spirit.' That just made me want to turn it off. But I kept on.
If you can get through all of that, there are alot of good ideas here. Not all of them will apply to your business, but you should find something usefull from it.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
E Myth, July 28, 2005
This book covers a broad range of information related to the development of a small business and the pitfalls that await...
Lots of pointers and lots of valuable information. As a small business Owner of 7 years, there was still lots of invaluable information for me in this publication. It also seems to apply to any business sector, although I was at first dubious that it could apply to my business... it is a concept not a hard and fast book of rules.
The greatest lesson taught is that you should actively create the life you want, not live around the life that you lead. In order to be considered a sucessful entrepeneur your business should not be a new job, but the means to allow you to do the things that you want to do... a hard lesson to learn for a workaholic.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
The E-Myth Revisited CD, July 13, 2006
After being in business for over 21 years and finding myself in a changing market environment, this book helped me get back to basics. I had read the book many years ago and found it very helpful in taking my business to the next level. Once again, I wanted to grow my business and this CD helped me to reflect on what I was trying to accomplish. I highly recommend this CD for any entrepreneur.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Business systems starting point, August 8, 2004
This book is great. Many professional collegues have advised me to read this book if I wanted to excell in my business. It outlines the steps taken in organizing your business with systems. Accountability & consistency are key topics. Agreat overall book for those in business for themselves but only own a job and great for those wanting to start a business. There is great use of anologies and in real life exaples that Gerber uses. READ THIS BOOK 2x at the least and make it your bible.
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18 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
Avoid if you bore easily, May 30, 2006
This book may be lauded by professionals and amateurs alike, but the author is so god-awfully wordy that I couldn't get beyond the second chapter. I actually tossed it across the room in frustration--which I NEVER do to a book. It reads like an infomercial or sales letter where the main tactic is interminable repetition. If the redundancies were removed, it would be one-third to one-half its current length--and a MUCH better book.
I'm disappointed that frustration and boredom will not allow me to get to the excellent lessons I've heard it contains. Perhaps the author could give it over to a good proofreader or editor for condensing and offer us a third version.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Good message but might want to go with abridged version, March 20, 2008
This book has a useful message for businesses in the infancy stage: when someone who is good at something wants to start their own business, they will eventually have to STOP doing what they are good at and start building a business -- a very different skill set. I give the book four or five stars for the principles to be gleaned (though I do have some qualms about his insistence on hiring barely adequate people, not the best people, which seems to be in contradiction to "Good to Great," which emphasizes the importance of quality workers doing what they do best).
However, the unabridged version has SO much padding in it, it became grating fairly quickly. Gerber could probably have said what he needed to say over the course of two CDs, not seven. He runs on and on, beating his points to death. I found myself skipping ahead quite a bit. Since it's an audio CD, I might have missed something useful, but I couldn't take the pedantic, overkill I was being subjected to. A typical example: "Jim and Bob own a business together. Sometimes Jim does the books. Sometimes Bob does the books. When Jim doesn't do the books, Bob does. When Bob doesn't do the books, Jim does. When they hired Al, either Bob, Jim, or Al did the books. When Bob or Jim didn't do the books, Al did. When Al or Bob didn't do the books, Jim did." And so on and so forth. It was either skip ahead or crash my car into a wall to end the mental anguish this style of speaking/writing caused.
So, useful info mixed into the dregs. I recommend the abridged version.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
excellent business principles, March 19, 2006
Emyth revisited is a good start if someone is planning to start a business. The principles and guidelines to business is very helpful. To get the full benefit, I took notes and bought the book also. I highly recommend it.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Will Turn Your Head Around (like the girl in The Exorcist) , July 8, 2007
The E-Myth is essential business knowledge, and I wish I had had this wisdom 20 years ago. Gerber basically busts the old paradigm that being "good" at what you "do" - i.e., being a good "technician" - is the most important critical factor in having a successful small business. As Gerber correctly points out, you will crash and burn if you spend too much time working *in* your business and not enough time working *on* your business and seeing it as something separate from yourself.
What I found most helpful was his explanation of how having precise and thoughtfully crafted job descriptions and operational methodologies can make all the difference between making true progress and floundering on a day-to-day basis. Likewise that a mission tied to deeply held personal values, understood by *all* persons in the business - top to bottom-, is absolutely necessary. And likewise that clients (in my case) or customers want a consistent, positive experience that meets or exceeds their expectations every time they do business with you, especially if you're in a profession or a service business. Let me tell you, truer words have not been spoken. It's news you can use immediately.
Gerber reads the E-Myth (unabridged) on this CD set. His delivery is avuncular and warm, and apart from the "pie" theme (see below) didn't grate the way many author-read works do. What drove me crazy (and why this is a 4-star instead of a 5 star review) was the conceit of a running dialog between Gerber and a "client" named "Sarah" and her floundering small business called "All About Pies." The take-away from this is valuable, but cheeze lou-eeze! I kept imagining Jimmy Cagney in Public Enemy, washing the face of his whiny girlfriend with a grapefruit over breakfast, only here, I was rooting for "Sarah."
I have the book also. Trust me - go with the CDs.
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