Michael E. Gerber

Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It

The E-Myth Revisited

E-Myth \ 'e-,'mith\ n 1: the entrepreneurial myth: the myth that most people who start small businesses are entrepreneurs 2: the fatal assumption that an individual who understands the technical work of a business can successfully run a business that does that technical work

Voted #1 business book by Inc. 500 CEOs.

An instant classic, this revised and updated edition of the phenomenal bestseller dispels the myths about starting your own business. Small business consultant and author Michael E. Gerber, with sharp insight gained from years of experience, points out how common assumptions, expectations, and even technical expertise can get in the way of running a successful business.

Gerber walks you through the steps in the life of a business—from entrepreneurial infancy through adolescent growing pains to the mature entrepreneurial perspective: the guiding light of all businesses that succeed—and shows how to apply the lessons of franchising to any business, whether or not it is a franchise. Most importantly, Gerber draws the vital, often overlooked distinction between working on your business and working in your business.

The E-Myth Revisited will help you grow your business in a productive, assured way.

why most small businesses don't work and what to do about it

The E-myth revisited

you'll find this book on lots of reading lists. i felt like taking one for the team when I made my way through dozens of anecdotes and a mansplainy general structure in this book. the main argument is: treat your biz like a franchise by creating structures, checklists and manuals for everything. you're welcome. don't read the OG book – life's too short for that. 

Kato

Sarah Schumacher

There are some great insights in this book, but the writing is unbelievably bad and drawn out. Speed read the fluff and focus on the sections about roles.

Meghan Navoy

In some ways this book was extremely useful! But the author's attempts at adding in fun bits of creative writing were just awful. It seemed like he was flirting with the fictional pie shop owner character at times and was so weird. There's also approx 5 pages of him talking about his life story under the guise of 'let me tell you a story about a young man....' and I just flipped through. If I wanted to read fiction I would be......There's a lot of "Sarah's eyes were shining bright like diamonds" etc. 

One passage re: Sarah made me feel like I was reading part of a romance novel. Bottom of p. 96 "I could see that the flush on her cheeks now had nothing to do with the work she'd been doing all day. I could see that her dark, intelligent, creative eyes were riveted on mine, and teat the questions were bubbling within her. She was feeling excitement contemplating the creation of an entrepreneurial business." ummmm????

BUT there was definitely useful information in this book and because of that I would recommend it to someone who wants to learn about how to run their own small business. Maybe Gerber's editor should take another pass through and release a new edition though without the weird fictional aspects ;)

Wenny

Reads like one of those distillation wisdoms that doesn't always make sense now, but will once one has gone through the actual process of building a business.

3 stars for the lack of concrete examples.

Who knows, maybe in a few years I'll re-read it, and I'll be nodding along the next time around.

Todd Luallen

This book was a bit of a struggle to get through for me. The book was originally written back in the 70's, but has been re-written and updated since then. I listened to the majority of the book at 2x speed...and even 3x speed for bits here and there. The author is a slow reader, takes forever to get to the point sometimes, and also waxes eloquent with philosophical jargon throughout the book. The book is primarily directed at the individual who is considering starting a typical brick and mortar business. The author LOVES McDonald's and Ray Kroc and franchising. But he does not push you to buy into a franchise...he just pushes you to create a business that COULD be franchised. As a person that is not at all interested in brick and mortar, this book was tough to buy into. The book does have some lessons to learn for any business owner, but I definitely felt like the information may be a bit dated. Ultimately this book stresses one thing very heavily...build your business in such a way as it could be franchised...and the way you do that is by systematizing EVERYTHING. While this probably has merit, I'm just not sure all his data would hold true for online shoppers. I do think it's true that you need to meet expectations, but cookie-cutter is now very much a bad thing, and McDonald's is definitely not viewed as favorably as it once was. Anyhow, judge for yourself.

An instant classic, this revised and updated edition of the phenomenal bestseller dispels the myths about starting your own business. Small business consultant and author Michael E. Gerber, with sharp insight gained from years of experience, points out how common assumptions, expectations, and even technical expertise can get in the way of running a successful business. Gerber walks you through the steps in the life of a business—from entrepreneurial infancy through adolescent growing pains to the mature entrepreneurial perspective: the guiding light of all businesses that succeed—and shows how to apply the lessons of franchising to any business, whether or not it is a franchise. Most importantly, Gerber draws the vital, often overlooked distinction between working on your business and working in your business. The E-Myth Revisited will help you grow your business in a productive, assured way.

Cams Campbell

I liked the concepts of the entrepreneur, the technician and the manager. I did get a bit b0red towards the end though. I feel like it could have been half the length and just as valuable.

Adrian Mejias

The totally revised edition of a groundbreaking bestseller, first published in 1986, provides information and guidance in starting and maintaining a small business or franchise. Original.

The E-Myth Revisited Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It

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