Book Review: “The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It” by Michael E. Gerber

We all know small business owners that seem frustrated with their businesses. Sometimes it shows through their interactions with customers; sometimes we don’t see the frustration unless we know the owner on a personal basis.

Running a small business turns out to be much different than most people think. It’s difficult and there is much work to do beyond the “fun” stuff they started the business to do in the first place. Many people-- and I have been one of them--become burned out struggling daily with an endless task lists that never seems to be completed. Ultimately, unless they figure out how to deal with the frustration, it begins to come through in their customer dealings. Gradually, business erodes—customers don’t like doing business with frustrated owners—and many close their doors.

In “E-Myth”, Michael Gerber first points out aspects of the entrepreneurship myth; the perception of what being in business will be like and how it actually is. He then lays out a systematic approach to dealing with all the other “stuff” involved in running a business and how the small business owner can learn to manage the “stuff” effectively and avoid the deadly burnout so many small business owners face.

Gerber develops an ongoing scenario of Beth, a young woman that started a pie business. The unique offering of her shop is the special qualities of the pies resulting from recipes she learned from her aunt when Beth was a young girl. Beth works long hours in her business, alone now after her trusted assistant abruptly resigned one day for reasons not totally apparent to the bewildered Beth. Beth is so burned out that she doesn’t enjoy actually making the pies anymore, a result of being constantly overwhelmed with all the other “stuff” of running the business.

Gerber’s approach in solving the problem is to help Beth “divide” her personality into the various types of job responsibilities required to run the business. Basically, an entrepreneur, operations manager and marketing manager are required. Beth learns to define these roles in a formal way, developing an organization chart for the business even though she is alone. That way, when she hires the next assistant, she will be hiring someone to fill a specific position with specific responsibilities instead of an assistant unaccountable for any specific responsibilities, merely helping out “where needed”.

The other great concept Gerber brings out is the need to document our business procedures as if we were going to franchise the business, even if we have no intention of doing so. Documented procedures insure the kind of consistency customers demand, making possible customer loyalty that only happens when we consistently provide customer service far beyond what is expected; a kind of customer service that customers can’t resist keeping them coming back for more. Documentation also makes new employee training easy and consistent.

Finally, the “systematizing” approach as laid out in the book adds value to the business, making it something the owner can sell or transfer to others someday without seeing it merely shut down in a huge, devalued ‘going out of business’ liquidation sale.

This book should be on the reading list of every business owner as well as all aspiring entrepreneurs working to position themselves toward starting their own businesses. Given that a new venture’s product or service is unique and valuable in the marketplace, setting up a business in this manner would greatly increase the chances of long term success without the owner becoming burned out.


Any book store will have this book in stock as will all the online book-sellers. We have a copy available for check out at our newly formed Independence Business Resource Center. Contact me at jcorrell@indycc.edu or 620-252-5349 for more information about checking out this or other business resources.