Rating: 
Summary: If I had only bought it sooner....
Review: I first bought this book at about the end of 2000. As I read it, the story of my eventual business failure unfolded. Through his story-telling style, he pretty much described exactly where I was (at the nine-year point) and foresaw where I would end up. He was right. I had to close the doors of my business about eight months later, and it happened for reasons that Mr. Gerber detailed in the book.If I had bought the book and implemented the systems approach to business he suggests about five years sooner, I can see it would have made the difference between failure and success. I began to implement some of the techniques he writes about, and I could feel the improvement in our operations immediately. Yes, the book is sort of a marketing tool for his company's business development programs. And yes, the book is a little bit too wordy or warm and fuzzy for some. But the author puts enough in this book to help change the basice attitudes about business and point people in the right direction, so that aimless wandering is eliminated, and for that I appreciate his efforts. I would recommend this book for anyone who is thinking about starting a business or who has not hit the point of no return in an existing business. Sadly, I got it too late for my first business effort. But I'm sure that the next one will be much better off for having invested the small sum of the purchase price and time to read it. It changed my thinking, and if you are willing, it will change yours.
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: Read this book BEFORE you risk your future!
Review: Gerber warns us that most new businesses are not started by entrepreneurs risking capital to make a profit. The IS the E-Myth. Most small businesses are started by people in the grips of an "Entrepreneurial Seizure." Most people who start a new business quickly get in over their heads. This is why most businesses fail. Building on this theme, Gerber offers the reader solid business principles that may increase the liklihood of success. If you are in any way involved in business, this book is a MUST read. It could save your investment.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent teaching/learning tool for anyone in business
Review: I am now using this book as a text for a college level course designed for Information Technology students. I read the original version about 6 years ago when I purchased it for 39 cents at a thrift store. Having been a business systems analyst for many years I used these techniques but never knew it. Now using the messages in this book, I can share techniques that work with others. This book is a practical giude to business problem solving and it can be used to design useful information systems and implement effective training in any size operation. The "Revisited" edition has been enhanced using a case-study approach that makes the message easily understood by any reader. Employers today want more from employees than mere technical proficiency. They want people who can analyze their business and provide viable technical solutions that contribute to a good work environment as well as to bottom line success. This book focuses not only on developing a good business strategy but also on the leadership skills required to develop a business and meet goals. It provides all the steps needed to implement these ideas in the real world. It is an exellent book for the technician, the manager or the entrepreneur. Whether you run or are a part of any business I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Eye Opener!!!
Review: Pros: Easy read, exposes pitfalls, many helpful ideas and many paradigm shifts, excellent!
Cons: Challenging concept for my business of one. No Index. This is an easy read that took me two days to get through. It's simple, repetitive and just the way I like it. But by no means simplistic. To me, it is well written, when the author gets their ideas across quickly and makes them seem easy. The book gets personal about the author as it tries to relate itself to the reader, yet shows a sense of writing maturity in it's simple delivery of so broad a topic. It also gets personal about you as you discover that your business is a reflection of you. A mixture of experience and facts, blue prints and rules told in a conversational story with a semi-fictional character. This style of using a third party character to clarify and reinforce the ideas worked well with me. It helped balance and pace the lessons with a fine sense of timing and added perspective. The book is informational, motivational and even funny at times. Gerber sets the stage by prefacing the four ideas that are the basis of the book's lessons. He identifies and compares three personalities being The Entrepreneur, The Manager and The Technician in us and shows us how and why most businesses fail. He identifies phases of the entrepreneurial business as infancy, adolescence and maturity and the pitfalls of each. He covers six rules on how to shift from working 'in' your business to working 'on' it. And goes over the three activities to help it evolve being, Innovation, Quantification and Orchestration, systems to blueprint your business. He covers the Business Development Process and to think of how to turn it into a franchise that is a saleable Turn-Key business. He then explains the seven steps to developing your business, which he covers in detail but some didn't inspire my confidence, as they are large subjects in themselves. Like, 'Your Marketing Strategy' or Your People Strategy'. But they do develop a framework from where to start and the questions to ask yourself. He constantly helps focus us by asking excellent thought and direction provoking questions. The book packed with many useful ideas and principles if you decide to buy into them, however is also a way for him to sell his services. By occasionally positioning his company or website as a source of answers to some of the questions the book poses is a great form of self-promotion, however they may be disguised in a story. Some thoughts that came to mind while reading were, why not just find and utilize a mentor? Success leaves clues. I struggled with the though that all businesses are started with one thing in mind and that is to sell it for a profit. The book has many paradigm shifts like this one that challenge us to look at our companies in a different light. Only when I realized that I didn't have to sell my business (If I happened to build an IBM) did I understand the idea. I'm still struggling with finding a compelling vision of how to turn my particular service business of one into a salable entity. Maybe I need to visit his website and enlist in the services he offers. Maybe I just need to find a few successful role models within my business. I will read it again in a few weeks. I would have liked to see an index in the back to help find needed references quickly. Maybe a future publishing might get one? A healthy experienced perspective and a plan to help build a successful business life.
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: Read this book BEFORE you risk your future!
Review: Gerber warns us that most new businesses are not started by entrepreneurs risking capital to make a profit. The IS the E-Myth. Most small businesses are started by people in the grips of an "Entrepreneurial Seizure." Most people who start a new business quickly get in over their heads. This is why most businesses fail. Building on this theme, Gerber offers the reader solid business principles that may increase the liklihood of success. If you are in any way involved in business, this book is a MUST read. It could save your investment.
Rating:
Summary: The Small Business Bible
Review: Without this book, I surely would have been one of the statistics that made costly mistakes that would have put me out of business within the first couple of years. I watch small businesses fail around me constantly while I flourish, and I owe it all to following the advice in this book. I give this as a gift to anyone who is opening a business, thinking of opening a business, or who owns or manages a business and is having difficulty. This is a must-read for every entrepreneur, and also served me well as a corporate vice president previous to owning my own business. Thank you Michael Gerber, wherever you are!!
Rating:
Summary: Fish or Cut Bait
Review: I read this book when it was first published almost 20 years ago and have returned to it periodically ever since, curious to see how well its core concepts have held up. Most of them have held up quite well, although Gerber obviously saw the need to "revisit" them. It's true: Most small businesses fail. Reasons vary. Some small businesses are underfunded. Some are poorly managed. Some fail to offer for sale what enough people want to buy. (Many of those small businesses which do cannot compete on price.) Some are unlucky. In this revised (revisited?) edition, Gerber explains his objective: "I have attempted to answer the most important questions I have been asked [since this book was first published] about the principles covered in each chapter by means of a running dialogue with a wonderful woman named Sarah (not her real name) with whom I've spent quite a bit of time over the past year." This is an especially clever device to use Sarah as a surrogate for everyone who has asked questions of Gerber (e.g. members of audiences which he as addressed, participants in workshops and seminars he has conducted, executives of his client companies, e-mail correspondents). Presumably most (if not all) of these questions would also have occurred to those who read this book for the first time. A clever device indeed. It would be a disservice to both Gerber and to those who read this brief commentary to reveal the "E-Myth" or to provide a summary of the key points concerning what Gerber calls the "Turn-Key Revolution," the "Business Format Franchise," and the "Business Development Process." He carefully explains all of them throughout his book. Here is how the material is organized: Part I The E-Myth and American Small Business Part II The Turn-Key Revolution: A New View of Business Part III Building a Small Business That Works! Following the final chapter, Gerber then provides an Epilogue ("Bringing the Dream Back to American Small Business") and an Afterword ("Taking the First Step"). Obviously, no reader will wholly agree with everything Gerber says. Also, the immediate relevance of each individual chapter will vary from one reader to the next. However, it is important to keep in mind that Gerber proposes what he is convinced is a cohesive, comprehensive, and cost-effective program which will help a small business to escape the fate that awaits most others. Here are a few brief excerpts which, I hope, suggest the bent as well as the flavor of Gerber's thinking: "Contrary to popular belief, my experience has shown me that people who are exceptionally good in business aren't so because of what they know but because of their [in italics] insatiable need to know more. The problem with most failing businesses I've encountered is...that they spend their time and energy defending what they think they know." "...the greatest truth about the greatest business-people I have known is that they have a genuine fascination for the truly astonishing impact little things done exactly right can have on the world." "...value is what people perceive it to be, and nothing more." NOTE: This comment reminds me of Warren Buffett's observation that "Price is what you pay. Value is what you get." Or at least what we think we get. Now more than ever before, customer perceptions ARE realities in every competitive marketplace. To paraphrase Descartes, "I think it is, therefore it is." "The Franchise Revolution [which Gerber analyzes in Chapter 10] has brought with it an application of Innovation that has been almost universally ignored by American business. By recognizing that it is not the [in italics] commodity that demands Innovation but the process by which it is sold, the franchisor aims his innovative energies at the way in which his business does business." Gerber introduces and then develops his ideas with great passion as well as with meticulous care. He has total faith in the American Dream. He also has total faith in the potentiality of small businesses to make that dream a reality for themselves, and, for those whom they are privileged to serve. Having revisited his original material, Gerber finds very little to revise but much to clarify and develop further which he does. He includes "A Letter to Sarah" which I immediately felt was written to me. After I read and then re-read the letter, I saw it then -- and see it now -- as being both a declaration of independence for American small businesses, and, a call to action to them to take full advantage of everything such independence makes possible. The choice is theirs. FYI: To those who purchase and read this book, Gerber makes an extraordinary offer: an "E-Myth Experience" consultation at no cost and without any further obligation. Of course, all information provided will be treated in strictest confidence. Complete details are provided on the page inside the back cover. Worth checking out.
Rating: 
Summary: Should have been a pamphlet.
Review: This book provided some good insight into common business assumptions. Gerber has some good points, but had trouble putting them into a book. The dialogue was forced, dull, and extremely repetitive. This book could use a lot of editing. The book seemed more like a sales pitch for his company. He listed all the pros of his methods and beliefs, but didn't address any negatives. His fictional character Sarah left the impression she would believe anything he said. Why doesn't she question anything he suggests? She just bought into everything he said. Did McDonald's pay him to write this book?
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