The E-Myth Contractor: Why Most Contractors' Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It [Paperback]

Michael E. Gerber (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 17, 2003

With The E-Myth Contractor, Michael E. Gerber launches a series of books that apply the E-Myth to specific types of small businesses. The first is aimed at contractors.

This book reveals a radical new mind-set that will free contractors from the tyranny of an unprofitable, unproductive routine. With specific tips on topics as crucial as planning, money and personnel management, The E-Myth Contractor teaches readers how to:

• Implement the ingenious turnkey system of management—a means of creating a business prototype that reflects the business owner's unique set of talents and replicating and distributing them among employees and customers.
• Recognise and manage the four forms of money—income, profit, flow and equity.
• Harness the power of change to expand the company.

The book also provides help on a larger level, leading readers towards becoming business visionaries by relinquishing tactical work and embracing strategic work, by letting go to gain control. Once put into action, Gerber's revolutionary ideas promise not only to help contractors build successful businesses, but successful lives as well.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Despite the single letter at the heart of its hyphenated title, The E-Myth Contractor isn't another book about e-commerce. Instead, like previous entries in Michael E. Gerber's popular series, it focuses on a different e-word--entrepreneur--and the fact that most of us who go into business for ourselves are doomed to fail because we really don't understand business. This time, Gerber lays out the basics for starry-eyed newly self-employed contractors who know everything about their trade but precious little about being a boss. "I don't try to tell you how to do the work you do," he writes at the outset. "Rather, I share with you some profound insights into how great businesspeople think." In his easy-to-understand manner, Gerber explains the concept of Strategic Thinking and how it "will enable you to create a business that works apart from you instead of because of you." He addresses key topics like money, people, management and growth with an eye toward making related functions run seamlessly and effectively as we build our independent enterprises into true companies that have inherent value whether we stay involved or ultimately hand them off to eager buyers. Taken to heart, it could save more than a few worthy ventures as well as the people behind them. --Howard Rothman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

In a work that is slight in both size and content, consultant Gerber (The E-Myth; The E-Myth Revisited) makes one compelling point: entrepreneurs (the "E" in his title) need to draw a clear distinction between the work they do and the business they have created and are in charge of. If they don't, all they will have is a job and not a company. As Gerber correctly puts it, "The value of your equity is directly proportional to how well your business works. And how well your business works is directly proportional to the effectiveness of the systems you have put into place." Had he then talked specifically about how readers can create and implement those systems how to hire, price, subcontract and the like his book could have been an extremely valuable tool. Instead, he gives contractors of all sizes general advice concerning the need to create turnkey systems and manage their time with few real suggestions about how to do it. The overall tone is supportive of entrepreneur contractors, and the book may be of some help to contractors just starting out.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: HarperBusiness (June 17, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060938463
• ISBN-13: 978-0060938468
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #84,458 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael E. Gerber is a true legend of entrepreneurship. Inc. Magazine
called him "the World's #1 Small Business Guru." He started over 40 years
ago addressing a significant need in the small business market: businesses
owned primarily by people with technical skills but few business skills, and
no place to go to get meaningful help. Over the years, Michael E. Gerber's
companies have helped tens of thousands of small business owner-clients
to successfully transform their businesses into world-class operations.

Mr. Gerber's latest books are The Most Successful Small Business in the
World, Awakening the Entrepreneur Within, The E-Myth Enterprise, The E-Myth
Mastery, The E-Myth Manager, along with co-authored E-Myth Vertical books
The E-Myth Attorney, The E-Myth Accountant, The E-Myth Optometrist, The
E-Myth Chiropractor, The E-Myth Financial Advisor and soon to be released
The E-Myth Landscape Contractor and The E-Myth Architect.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Weak summary of the E-Myth Revisited., November 8, 2004

By 

Jake E. Baloian (LOS ANGELES, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The E-Myth Contractor: Why Most Contractors' Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It (Paperback)

This book is a watered down version of the E-myth Revisited, which is a good book. The E-Myth Contactor - is a summary of M. Gerber's program with "contractor stories." There is no true insight into the contactor industry. My guess is this is the 1st of many books focusing on specific industries. My advice is to skip this book, just purchase Gerber's E-Myth Revisited & make the connections yourself.

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars It puts a hook in your mouth., October 21, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The E-Myth Contractor: Why Most Contractors' Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It (Hardcover)

This book is filled with wonderful ideas and philosophies. They all make sense and seem to put you on the path to the realization of your goals. The problem is that not all the keys to making the ideas work that you could actually put into practice are provided in the book. The idea of the book seems to be to get the reader excited and then point them to a web site where one can sign up for classes (at a healthy fee) to learn the fundementals of the systems and how to put them to use. The limited scope of the book was no doubt designed to provide the author, Mr. Gerber, with more income than he receives just through book sales. I would be very cautious before getting hooked because the "rest of the story" is provided in a lengthy process that is quite expensive.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good but not necessarily great, September 20, 2005

By 

P. F. Molloy "PFMolloy" (NZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The E-Myth Contractor: Why Most Contractors' Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It (Paperback)

I enjoyed the original E-Myth very much, though it was painful too as I recognised all my own mistakes in business over the years. I found this particular volume just a tad too new-age in places for my own liking. It is also, like so many small (the book, that is) business-help books, a little on the glib side, making the issues out to be rather easy to solve whereas entrepreneurship is somewhat more challenging in reality, and not quite as formulaic as the author might have us believe. But there's still a lot of truth in it too, and it is easily read, with some good lessons to take from it. Certainly worth both the purchase price and the time it takes to read.