Rating: 
Summary: Well worth the price paid!
Review: I enjoy listening to audio's while driving. This one was so interesting that I listened to it two times in a week! I am more of a manager and technician than entrepreneur. This audio has given me a different view of why businesses work and what I can do to increase the chance taking my business to the top!
Rating: 
Summary: Audio version is dreadful - BOOK is great!
Review: I have given the lowest possible rating to the cassette version of this book. It is abridged - poorly! Very boring and sounds like an infomercial for his services rather than the inspiring, sound information of the book. VERY DISAPPOINTED in the TAPED VERSION!
Rating:
Summary: Nice Book
Review: I have listened to this audiocasset over 20 times. My 5 year old business has left me wanting to close the doors and walk away. It leaves me with too little free time to enjoy life. This tape really hits home and makes you think about what a business really is and has opened my eyes. I have now started taking steps to change my business for good. Gerber believes your business should be apart from its owner and this makes perfect sense. I can't believe I haven't seen it before now. I have been a slave to my business for years and I need to set up a system so the business can run itself. My concentration should be making the system run smoothly and not the day to day work.
I can understand how this book doesn't make sense for somebody just starting a business. All the 'one star' ratings are understandable for those people. However, if your business is running your life and can't seem to figure out how to change it this book is for you. I love it and wish there was a follow up with more examples of successes.
Rating:
Summary: A book in a million
Review: I have never been a full-fledged business owner although I worked for one as his business fell apart. Had he had this book I might still have that job.Gerber takes his cue from the fact that most small businesses close after less than five years. You'd think that facing these odds the world would be full of books on the reasons why and how to avoid them, but this is the first one I've seen. As you read you'll be struck by his understanding of the people who set up business, and also by the clarity of his solution. Yes, to some degree it's an advertisment for his consulting services, but there's plenty of advice. I feel that a local business I frequent is beginning to enter a period of decline, and I wish I knew the owner well enough to give him a copy. Incidentally, I didn't notice any of the problems other reviewers have mentioned, and in one case the book went right over the head of of one. I expect to re-read this book several times, and I'm looking at some of the other Gerber titles.
Rating:
Summary: Will shape the future of your business and your life.
Review: I have read The E-Myth many times over and have found the Franchise Prototype system absolutely amazing. I am now 26 years old and in the last 4 years have built 2 very successful companies. Being in business for yourself is not about making money. It is about fulfilling a part of yourself. Understanding the principals in this book will change the way your run your business and give you balance to your life. That is what it is all about you know. Balance. Understanding why God placed you on this Earth and making sure you spend time to stop and smell the roses. If you take what Michael says in this book to heart and apply it's principals to your life your business will never be the same. Trust me from the experience in what this book has done to my past business and the power that is pushing my Statewide Business Brokerage. I would easily pay 1 million dollars for the knowledge and understanding I have learned from this book. Thank you Michael for leaving a legacy with me that will reshape my family tree.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book but too long
Review: I haven't try any of these techniques because I'm totally broke, so I can't tell you that it's REALLY good. But I do give it three stars because it provided some interesting insight I have never thought about like the difference between commodity and product or how colors and shapes influence sales. But there was a suggestion about touching your costumers to increase sales. Do I smell sexual-harassment lawsuits? This book bascially has three messages. 1) You must be balanced: 33% Entrepeneur, 33% Manager, 33% Technician (Most people are primarily Technicians and there lies the fault) 2) You must have an impeccable business model worthy of being franchised. This model focuses on the business as being the product, not what you are selling. The author provides a plan to create such a model. 3) Always lift the curtain! (The curtain being your comfort zone) I gave it only three stars because it was longer than it should be. There is this ridiculous example given throughout the book with some lady starting a pie business. And then a mini-autobiography of the author (glorifying himself to some extent) halfway in the book. To top it off, a really cheesy letter written to the pie lady took up one entire chapter! (Telling her to lift her curtain!) The letter is scary to say the least. Absurdly long-winded...such a letter written by a person who is sad and pathetic...a letter if sent over email would have the recepient pressing her delete button several times over. The author is confused with the genre of book he wants to write. This belongs in the entrepeneurship/self-help/fiction/spiritual genre if there's such a thing.
Rating:
Summary: Mandatory reading for Kwantlen College's E Training
Review: I read Michael Gerber's book and heard him at a seminar in Vancouver year's ago. When I became the new program coordinator for Kwantlen University College's Entrepreneurial program I made Mr. Gerber's book mandatory reading for all my students. The comments form our students have been postitive, but I don't think they will appreciate Michael's words until they get into their own business. Jim Zalusky
Rating:
Summary: Get it today, read it tonight, implement it tomorrow
Review: I read this book twice in one weekend, and was particularly struck by Chapter 12, where the author really explains his personal journey into understanding small businesses and why they don't work. I have watched small businesses struggle from the inside for more that 12 years, and if the owners had read this book, they would have saved themselves headache, heartache, and bottom line $$. I have a consulting company that focuses on the needs of small businesses, especially those just getting going. I give a copy of this book to every one of my clients who says "Gee, I want to start a business...what do I do?" This book helps clarify both the "what" and the "how". If you are are the kind of person who has discovered that common sense ain't that common, and agree with the (paraphrased) comment in Michael Hammer's "The Agenda" that the miracle of American business is merely that it functions, this book is the perfect reference. I found myself saying "yes!" and "Exactly!" as Mr. Gerber took us through the story of a small business owner who had traded the idea of a tyrant boss for a tyrant business. It's a great read, and worth three times the price.
Rating:
Summary: Avoid Failure
Review: I was referred to this book by someone who immersed himself in Michael Gerber's philosophy. This person was able to create a successful and profitable business based on the concepts presented in this book. The philosophy is broken down in two main themes. The first is that too many people work in their business, and not enough people work on their business. The second is that most successful businesses, regardless of their size, operate in a franchise model. This means the business can operate as a turn-key model, which would make it easy to sell or replicate anywhere. Gerber opines that most small businesses in the US fail. It is not because the people running them are stupid; they are not. Many people allow too many assumptions to get in the way of running a business. Contrary to a popular myth, most successful businesses are not run exclusively by entrepreneurs. They are also not run exclusively by managers. He walks the reader through the steps of maturity in the life of business, including the different types of people involved with operating the business. This is a must read for small business owners and sales professionals. There is a reason companies like McDonald's, Federal Express, Starbucks, etc. are so successful.
Rating:
Summary: Only an outline. Not much meat on the tape
Review: I was very dissappointed in the audio version. Having never read the book and hearing lots of raves, I was expecting much more. He gave a very breif outline, then spent the last 5 minutes in an advertisement to hire his company. Very dissappointing. Maybe the book is better.
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