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

A "must buy" for the sole practitioner or small business

You need to buy this book if you're a small business person or a sole practitioner or artist of any sort thinking of starting a small business. Gerber has a very important concept that is so often overlooked: to turn yourself from an artisan to a business person, you need to stop working IN your business and start working ON your business.

The best way, he says, to think of this is to imagine if you had to "franchise" your business. Is the way you're doing things systematic enough that it can be replicated all over the country? In reality, of course, the odds that you WILL franchise your business are negligible, but the same method of thinking will allow you to:
...expand your business to include more employees
...allow you to go on VACATION with a free and easy conscience
....allow someone else to pick up the slack if you fall ill.

There are some other good points in here (the value of consistency, etc.) A definite must read for the small business owner.

Having said all this, I am not really sure why Gerber "revisited" his original E-myth. If you can find a copy of the original, it was even better, lacking the superfluous "sarah" character who mars and confuses this revised edition slightly.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

American Common Sense

This book is striking from the beginning because it was like a refreshing breeze on a hot and humid summer day. In an age where many businesses are chaotic, without vision, and without direction this book reminds us of the power, and wealth-building potential, of engineering, uniformity, and simplicity. While the book is targeted to small business many of the biggest corporations can definitely benefit from its wisdom. Some of the worlds' most famous franchises are evidence the utility of an engineered approach to business. In my opinion this should be required reading, and mastery of concept, for any executive.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A reviewer

The Book E Myth was recommended to me by a good friend. He insisted that I read this book before I go into unchartered territories of starting my new business. I thank him everyday for pushing me to read this book. If you ever have thoughts of becoming a small business owner,or currently have a small business make sure to read this book. Michael E. Gerber must be physic, because it seemed as if he was reading my mind. The clarity in which he talks about why most individuals start a business was phenomenal. The way he described the average small business owner and there struggles really hit home. I re-evaluated my entire plan and thanks to Michael E Gerber and E Myth Revisited, my business has been successful from the start. Great Book, would encourage all entrepreneurs current and future to read.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Good for Students

I am young and have not graduated college yet, but can't keep from thinking about owning my own business someday. I found this to be a great read simply b/c it was informative on an issue that I have no experience with. Overall it's a good starter book for those interested in running a business.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great refresher with some good new tools

Enjoyed the read.

Life Changing!

My husband and I have both read this book and it has absolutely changed our lives. This is an absolute MUST READ for any business owner or aspiring entrepreneur. Easy to read and understand, this book provides simple, yet profound, solutions to implement into your own business (and life). If you follow Michael Gerber's guidelines, he will help you lay down a solid foundation for your business, assist you in defining your future (outside of the business), give you the ability to streamline your business' processes so that your business can operate regardless of whether or not you are there, and much, much more. SIMPLY AMAZING.

A must read for ANYONE who owns a business or has a job

This book explains the way business SHOULD be done. It tells how every business and every employer need to set-up and run their business. People need to quit thinking about their business or job how they would do it, and instead think of how to make it simple for someone else to do it. With a simple change in the way you look at your business or job, you can make huge, drastic changes in your happiness and productivity.

Before you quit your job, read this book

If you are ever asking the questions, "Why dont I start my own business," or " Why do I continue to work for this crazy company," then you need to pick this book up and you are thinking about starting your own business, then this book is for you.

This book is also for people who have a small business and are trying to make it grow.

This book does what other books do not do. It describes people who are real good at a skill and say, it is time to start my own business. And after 4 months or so in, they are burnt out mad, unsuccessful and wonder why.

This book is not a technical boring book. It is a real easy read and it is very pratical. I recommend this book before you quit your job.

Excellent

The E Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber stresses the importance of planning, organizing and running a small business with ethics, excellence, and a sense of responsibility to the owner, employees and the public. It makes the case for living, working and running a business from the best in us, doing what we love and giving back!

I highly recommend it!

Easy Read, Great Resource

Had started the original version from a friend and decided to get my own. Fantastic resource with modern day examples.

Must read for new entrepreneurs

Great book for small business owners. Michael Gerber writes with statistics, coaching/consulting style along with a storyline. It's a great read for young entrepreneurs.

E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do about It by Michael E. Gerber Average Reader Rating: E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small businesses Don't Work and What to Do about it by Michael Gerber

A must have/must read for ALL small business owners and prospective entrepreneurs! I wish I would have read this book when I started my company over 16 years ago, it could have saved me a lot of unnecessary "brain damage"!

Innovative thinking

Book is an easy read and gives you tools for digesting problems with your company. It gives an interesting perspective to the makings and success of a small business, could even be applied to a medium size business.

The prototype is a lot of work and the detail envolved and why the prototype is needed is clear cut. Most of what is said is common sense, but we all need direction to get our minds thinking - it is a great guide for bigger things.

How to Build (or Repair) Your Small Business

Most small businesses fail within their first two years, and the success rate after that isn't much better. In this book, author Michael Gerber shows why that is, and what can be done about it. Gerber begins with the reason most businesses are started in the first place (because an individual feels like they could do something better than their current company) and proceeds to explain the mistakes that most business owners make while starting and growing their business. Gerber shows that it is only through building and refining a system that a business can survive and thrive with or without its owner. The E-Myth is a great compliment to Kiyosaki's Rich Dad books, which speak to the philosophy of building wealth without getting much into the specifics.

Outstanding

This might be the best book ever in terms of learning how a successful business runs around a 'system'. He uses great examples throughout the book. Using Sara as a backbone example, I like the way she tries to explain what she just learned in her own words (sometimes helps the point he just made 'click'). Make sure you have a highlighter for this one so you can keep track of all the useful information when coming up with your own system for your business! This book is priceless!!!

All Present & Future Business Owners Should Read This

Michael Gerber has done a great job in explaining why 10 out of 12 small businesses fail within 2 years after they're opened. This is an easy read that contains insightful and practical messages for business owners. There are three components to a business (technician, manager, entrepreneur). The problem with most businesses is they focus most of their time on the technical component of the business. Gerber uses a woman who bakes pies to illustrate. She may feel that since she makes the best pies in town, this will drive masses of people through the door. The problem is that couldn't be farther from the truth! Sales and Marketing bring customers to your business. This is part of the entrepreneurial hat the business owner must also wear. E-Myth is fantastic so if you want to decrease your chances of becoming a statistic, I recommend purchasing this book ASAP! - Dr. Matthew J. Loop (Author of 'Cracking the Cancer Code')

A concise guide for entrepreneurs and other dreamers

Business owners typically learn about corporate pitfalls the hard way. After falling into a professional pit, entrepreneurs are forced to yank themselves up by their fraying bootstraps. Fortunately, Michael E. Gerber provides a well-written tutorial about business plans, strategic growth and employee management. He delivers an elegant dose of reality with strategic examples, concrete numbers and marketing insights. At times, some of the examples and scenarios are a bit sappy and repetitive, but the book scores points for delivering difficult lessons in bite-sized portions. We recommend this book to entrepreneurs and other dreamers.

What Every Entrepreneur Should Know About Their Business

Michael Gerber's E-myth Revisited is a work of genius. Every entrepreneur at one point or another thinks that the only way their business will succeed is if they do all the work themselves. The key to any effective small business is to create a system that can exist without the owner's direct involvement, and that is what the E-myth Revisited teaches you. Michael Gerber's advice helped me grow my eBay business, Koss DVD, to over $1,000,000 in sales and become a top 200 seller on eBay. Read this book and prepare to take your business to the highest level! - Corey Kossack, author of eBay Millionaire or Bust

emyth mastery

this book is a waste of money. Michael ramble about things that have nothing to do with business such as a conversation with sara about her pie business, he never get to the meat and potato of what the book is all about. and then he talks about what happen to him in the 80s he sounds like he is venting about what happen back then. I don't think I would by any more of his books. maybe he didn't have an idea himself about the book. He lost me a few time where I had to say what are you talking about. A big let down for me waste of my time and money with this one. Maybe the next one will be better I never know.

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Peaks Early

Bought this book on the recommendation of a friend who is also starting his own company. Don't get me wrong--it's full of lots of helpful information. It's also full of lots of superflulous crap. The book does a really good job of building up to the point of making the reader realize s/he has to make changes in her/his company, then when it starts to give advice on how to make and impliment those changes, it backs down. Unfortunately, this happens 2/3 of the way through and you're left reading the last 1/3 of the book, hoping to come across something useful and don't. It's like in high school where you write 'he was a very very very very very big man' to try and get the paper's word count in. You get the feeling that somebody's just trying to get the word count in. So, worth a skim, but not a read. Check it out from the library don't buy it.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.