How can I get my business to work and grow, but without me?
– Michael E. Gerber (excerpt from The E-Myth)
To be honest, I had never heard of this book before my mentor, Shri Shyam Taneja ji had introduced it to us during our annual ILEAD Committee meet-up at Udaipur in March 2019. At the first look of it, I found it boring, no images, no graphs, no examples to look at, just text to no end.
If I can recall any book that had a profound influence in the way that I conduct my business, it has to be this book, The E-Myth. Although, a lot of the concepts in the book were earlier explained to me by Shyam Sir during my Epad session in 2012, 2014 & 2018 , I must say reading this book has been an entirely different experience.
So what are the key learnings that I got from this book?
- To Work ON Your Business And Not IN It!
- Everybody has 3 Personalities, that is of: The Entrepeneur, The Manager & The Technician. The degree to which you can achieve success in your business would be directly proportional to the degree to which you have successfully managed these personalities.
- You must seek to automate your business so that it does not require your presence to grow and be profitable
- The purpose of going into a business is to get free of a job so you can create jobs for other people
- Difference between Management by Abdication and Management by Delegation
- Create Standards for self and the business and strive to match those standards
- McDonald’s as an Example of a Turn Key Revolution – Business Format Franchisee System
- 6 Rules to win the Franchisee Game
- Simple Process of Innovate, Quantify & Orchestrate
- Systems as a key Differentiator among Businesses
I would like to explain a bit more on the last point i.e. Systems as a key Differentiator. I would add here that to support the System, Data from departments is very crucial.
So What do I mean by a “System”? In simple words, System is the way my business interacts with my Customer / Vendor / Employee. The System has to be predictable, it has to repeat the same selling process customer after customer, repeat the same procurement process vendor after vendor, repeat the same production methodology batch after batch and create the same experience while the goods are delivered.
Systems and Processes form the key to conducting any business. To give an example of a system, you go to McDonald’s, you know that you have to get into the queue, give your order, wait for a minute or two, look for your Token Number and when it is announced, you are done. No matter where you are, be it in Delhi or Durban, San Francisco or Shanghai, the system would be the same.
What McDonald has done is pretty simple. They have created System which has to be replicated everywhere, in all franchisee, no exceptions. The System is so straightforward that it can be implemented by a fresh graduate. This is what exactly what the book asks its readers to do.
There are 3 types of Systems discussed in the book:
- Hard Systems (Anything about your business that is visible be it your workplace, your employees, your Invoices, Challans, product packing, followup mails)
- Soft Systems (Steps that you follow to convert a Sale, Steps that you follow to take up a feedback and use the information to make changes in your product)
- Information Systems (Information usually Data that is an input for the Soft System for eg. information on the number of calls made, prospects converted, Rs. value brought in as revenue are all information systems)
I personally believe that the way we conduct ourself on a personal level, our business / job / profession will follow the same trajectory. Lethargic on a personal level will spill over to lethargy in our business / job / profession. Hence the creation of systems is not limited to business, it should be implemented in our personal lives too.
The book taught me a lot about how it is important to have skin in the game for anything that I am pursuing. If I am pursuing a business, I should know everything about it. It could start from basic questions like:
- What is my per day turnover or per week turnover?
- What is my weekly cash outflow?
- What number of new clients joined last month?
- Which are the products that are bringing in the most Revenue?
- Which geographical area is not performing for the last quarter?
I found this book to be extremely informative and practical. It has ideas that you could start implementing from day one. Again it is a book that has been mentioned again in the podcasts by Tim Ferris. If you are interested in getting your own copy, please click here.
I hope you would have got a ton of take-homes from the posts. Please write to me if you wish to discuss any of the points that I was unable to explain in a coherent manner. I will try my best to explain it to you.
“Create Systems to Automate your Business”
~ RG ~
P.S.: EPad is a program run by Unnati Success Academy in Ahmedabad. Currently they are offering it online which you can attend by sitting in the comforts of your home/office. Epad is a Leadership Development Program that assists you in living life to its true potential. Attended by thousands of Entrepreneurs, Professionals, Housewife, Kids, this program has brought a dramatic change in the life of many individuals who have attended it. You can send in your interest to them by clicking on this link.
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