The E-Myth
Michael Gerber’s The E-Myth makes the case for documenting your systems so thoroughly that your business could become a franchise prototype. With checklists for most daily tasks, your staff can serve clients well without reinventing the wheel.
The question it answers
If everything we do were written down, could the business run without me doing the work?
Use it when
Your team reinvents the wheel every day because nothing is written down.
You just grew through marketing and need to consolidate that growth.
You can’t assess anyone’s performance because the process lives in their head.
It’s the wrong tool when
You’re in the middle of a growth push. Grow revenue first, then document and optimize.
You don't plan to scale or step back. If the owner wants to stay the main technician on purpose, a full seven area operating system is more structure than the business needs.
“Systems permit ordinary people to achieve extraordinary results predictably.”
Michael Gerber
Half my marketing clients had a systems problem
Nearly every client came to me with a marketing need, usually more leads to grow the company. In roughly half the cases, the real problem was systems. Nothing was documented, so they reinvented the wheel every day. With the process locked inside everyone’s head and no clear metrics for each staff member, they couldn’t assess how anything was performing.
Grow, then systemize
A pattern showed up. Companies grow through marketing, then need to consolidate that growth by documenting and optimizing the systems it created. It’s the same pattern as growing revenue first and then optimizing it for profit. Trying to do both at once is incredibly difficult.
The franchise prototype
Systemization has built a cult following over the past 30 years, starting with The E-Myth. Gerber argues for documentation so thorough that your business could become a franchise prototype. His timing lined up with the second wave of franchise expansion in the United States, after the FTC set regulations following the bumpy launch of franchising in the 1960s and 70s. His training system works, and many companies credit their success to it. The most famous is 1-800-Got-Junk.
Technician, manager, entrepreneur
In The E-Myth Revisited, Gerber sets a great goal for owners: move up from the technician who fulfills clients, past the manager who supports the technicians, to the entrepreneur who sets the vision and direction of the company. Day to day, that’s a great goal to shoot for. But there’s more to owning a business than figuring out what you want to do each day.
Where owners get it wrong
They try to grow revenue and build systems at the same time. Grow first, then consolidate what the growth created.
What you walk away with
Documented systems and checklists for daily tasks, plus clear metrics for each person on your team.
Still the best closer on your team? That's the technician trap.
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