The E-Myth

Michael E. Gerber

(see the Table of Contents)

As with many prescriptive books, you're going to hear wildly varying recommendations on Michael Gerber’s The E-Myth Revisited. (…Revisited is an updated version of the popular original volume, The E-Myth.)

What is the “E-Myth”? Here’s what Gerber has to say in the introduction:

There is a myth in this country--I call it the E-Myth--which says that small businesses are started by entrepreneurs risking capital to make a profit. The real reasons people start businesses have little to do with entrepreneurship.

The real reasons people start businesses, according to Gerber, are myriad, but they often spring from what he calls “the fatal assumption”:

…if you understand the technical work of a business, you understand a business that does technical work.

So off he goes, our technically-savvy (and “probably damn good at it”) entrepreneur-to-be, and what happens?

Suddenly the job he knew how to do so well becomes one job he knows how to do plus a dozen others he doesn't know how to do at all.

By now Gerber is in full swing. We meet Sarah, maker of delicious pies. We learn how she made that fatal assumption, and the price she's paying for it. And we start to learn, by understanding her situation, some things she can do about it.

For readers in a hurry…

Skip the forward and the introduction. They seem to be there primarily to get across two points:

• You probably got into (or plan on getting into) your small business for the wrong reasons, but, if you want to stay, you can still be successful using the system in the book, and
• if you want help making it work, Gerber has a company that would love to help you.

Get right into Chapter 1. Read and understand “The Fatal Assumption”, and then meet Sarah, the first example of a small business owner who has discovered the E-Myth the hard way."

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The E-Myth Revisited
Table of Contents

Part I: The E-Myth and American Small Business

1. The Entrepreneurial Myth
2. The Entrepreneur, the Manager, and the Technician
3. Infancy: The Technician's Phase
4. Adolescensce: Getting Some Help
5. Beyond the Comfort Zone
6. Maturity and the Entrepreneurial Perspective

Part II: The Turn-Key Revolution: A New View of Business

1. The Turn-Key Revolution
2. The Franchise Prototype
3. Working On Your Business, Not In It

Part III: Building a Small Business That Works!

1. The Business Development Process
2. Your Business Development Program
3. Your Primary Aim
4. Your Strategic Objective
5. Your Organizational Strategy
6. Your Management Strategy
7. Your People Strategy
8. Your Marketing Strategy
9. Your Systems Strategy
10. A Letter to Sarah

Epilog: Bringing the Dream Back to American Small Business

Afterword: Taking the First Step

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Read: 1999 (in progress)

Interim Rating: * * * * (out of 5)

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