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The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It (平装)
by Michael E. Gerber
| Category:
Entrepreneurship, Small business |
| Market price: ¥ 178.00
MSL price:
¥ 158.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
From world's #1 small business guru, this entrepreneurship classic and essential business reading is a must own for all entrepreneurs and managers. |
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AllReviews |
  1 2 Total 2 pages 16 items |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-30 00:00>
Gerber addresses how to make your business work for you instead of you working for your business. I desperately needed this change from thinking I have to do it all to learning to set up my business so it can run without me. I believe I am like most small business owners-I know my market and my product but hate the bookkeeping aspects. I have my own business - I get to choose which 20 hours a day I want to work. Gerber explain the typical mentality of a small business owner and how to change your thinking and avoid the common pitfalls. I found it eye-opening.
The previous review that wrote he only read the first part (then tore it apart on a partial reading) should have read the whole book. The first part presents the problems and the second the solutions.
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Ting Liu (MSL quote), Canada
<2007-01-30 00:00>
This book is an excellent book for changing mind-set of business owners. The book starts by describing many problematic areas that small business owners may have especially those owners whose background are not in the business but more technical oriented. Then, the book stresses the importance of developing a solid system, where the business process are well designed, and thought-of.
As a business owner myself with a technical background, I found it to be a fun book to read. It requires technician-type owners to think more on the business side rather than technical side. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who needs a mind-set change.
However, this book focuses more on business systems, processes and management, it does not provide systematic suggestions or solutions on marketing or sales, which I believe small biz owners need most. Also, this book uses too many stories to illustrate just one idea, which is too wordy.
All in all, this book worth its value. With its price just a little over ten bucks, this book can change the mind-set of a technician-type biz owner, and possbily benefit or even re-shape the course of your business in the future. |
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Caroline Jordan (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-30 00:00>
Gerber's book E-Myth Revisited is an extremely valuable book that should be read by every small business owner. Here's why: In my work as a consultant and mentor for small business owners, I see first hand, every day, the cost of trying to run a business without understanding the fundamentals. I see one business owner after another who is stressed out, overwhelmed, and working for less than minimum wage.
Gerber's whole point is that you have to look at each piece of your business to find ways to make it work, developing systems so you're not constantly putting out fires and reinventing the wheel. It's about recognizing that your business will grow and preparing for that ahead of time, anticipating the changes. That enables you to grow the business the way YOU want it to grow as opposed to having it spiral out of control.
Gerber's premise is that by building value in your business, you create a saleable entity. In his opinion that is the reason to have a business--build it, then sell it. I think that's a matter of personal choice. However, it certainly makes more sense to build a healthy, flourishing business than to struggle along with a pale, sickly business, regardless of what you do with it in the future.
E-myth changed the way I look at my own business and has definitely helped me when I'm stepping into a new client's business to quickly figure out where the problems are. The quicker I can find the problems, the quicker I can provide the solutions.
Gerber's book oversimplifies. It has to. He has to break through all the swirling chaos of day to day small business ownership and get down to the underlying causes. Read the book, think about it, see how it applies to your own business, then apply it in the ways you think will be most helpful to you. This is not a quick fix, it's a "here are the problems, some solutions, now apply it to your own situation" fix. The most powerful part is that by making the more mundane things in your business simple, you have time for the really important functions like marketing, strategy, and business development.
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B. Grossman (MSL quote), Australia
<2007-01-30 00:00>
First off, this book is NOT meant to be a guide to franchising, as so many people have perceived it. Gerber just uses large franchisors as examples of successful businesses. Why? Because they have sold their business model many times over, and therefore proved that it works.
He advises you to think of your business AS a franchise, but not literally, unless you want to. He goes into great detail, explaining that your business should be thought of as a product that should be sellable many times over and be people-independent. That is, be able to survive without depending on the skills of people within the business.
He believes the major difference between large corporations and franchises, with that of failed and failing businesses, is STRUCTURE and having SYSTEMS in place. Of course, the be all and end all of a successful business isn't just structure, but it obviously attributes a large part to the success.
If anyone has gone from working in a large successful company, no matter what position held, onto a small premature business, you'll understand when I say how much of a shock it is to go from having so many guidelines and systems to follow, to having none.
Gerber finishes by providing practical information regarding marketing, management, and naturally suggests further reading in those areas.
This book should be the foundation for anyone thinking of going into business.
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Gregory Dwyer (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-30 00:00>
First let me start off by saying that I'm not a business owner. I picked the book up because I'm in a transitional period in my life and trying to decide which way I should go professionally.
Gerber makes a couple of main points in the book. The first is that most small businesses fail because the "technician" in all of us exert too much influence over the business without allowing the "entrepreneur" portion of our personality to exert enough influence on the business. I think the point he makes here is valid. Too often the pie maker, mechanic, plumber, etc. in all of us is the driving influence of our businesses and not enough attention is paid to the overall business side of things.
That, in a nutshell, is the point I took from Gerber's book. Gerber makes another point of instructing the small business owner to run his business as if it were a franchise. Noting the success of McDonald's and other franchises, he recommends that business owners plan that their operations could be easily replicated and simply repeated, with processes written on paper, etc.
He goes on to mention several times the statistics of failures of small businesses. They fail at alarming rates in the first year, again in the first five years and even in the five years after that. Meanwhile, franchise failure rates are microscopic in comparison. Ergo... run your small business in the same manner that the franchises run theirs.
Now again, this is all well and good, but from the standpoint of someone who is NOT a small business owner, the main point that I derived from the book is this: If I want to start my own small business, look into franchising. That may not be the intended point that the author was trying to make to me, but I'll give the book four stars as it may have led me in a direction I was not previously strongly considering.
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Gary Wang, Shanghai
<2007-05-07 19:02>
I just finished reading this classic on entrepreneurship. It is so well written that you know the author shares all the issues and problems going with a small business that it turned out to be an invaluable resource for all the small business owners and those who want to start their own business. Refer to this book whenever you're at at a loss what to do with the challenges and problems in starting or running a small business. Highly recommend to all entrepreneurs and managers. |
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1 2 Total 2 pages 16 items |
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