Working On It, Not In It: The Four Secrets to Successful Entrepreneurship

Working On It, Not In It: The Four Secrets to Successful Entrepreneurship

2 From the desk of Michael Gerber Founder, E-Myth Worldwide For over three decades, we have worked with thousands of small business clients helping them produce results they never could have imagined. My intent is to provide you with a clarifying moment, one of those treasured insights that can happen to you when you least expect it. The insight suddenly enables you to see, more clearly than you ever have, the truth about something, which up until that moment felt hopelessly complex and confusing. Unfortunately, most small business owners feel this way about their business. They feel the business is too complex. That people are difficult to work with and, therefore, trust. That money is most often not available in the quantities needed. That the flow of money through the business creates problems that can only be resolved with more money. That customers are unreasonably demanding. All in all, the only thing that can be depended upon is you, the owner-operator. Even then, you ve got enormous doubts about your ability to do everything you re called upon to do. So much to do, so little time to do it. If any of this sounds like the truth to you, then this e-book will be an eye opener. I intend to reveal to you why none of the conditions listed above need to trouble you any more. Building a business that works for you is simpler than you think. It is very important for you to realize that the information I m about to share with you has been applied by thousands of small business owners just like you with profound, often unbelievable, results.

3 Here are just a few: E-Myth has helped me to believe that my business can and will work more effectively. What s more, my business has grown from $600,000 to $2.7 million per year and my profitability continues to skyrocket. David Harvey Reno Green Landscaping, Inc., Nevada What really ate at me is that it would be impossible to work any harder... and I still wasn t making any money. Because of E-Myth we plan to double the business over the next eighteen months. We ve positioned the company to grow to the $4 million range. Gary Nash Nash Construction, Virginia We are a start up company and I can honestly say that the E-Myth Mastery Program saved us from certain death. It not only gave us the ability to create incredible structure and systems, it played a key role in awakening the entrepreneur within our entire team. I not only recommend the program but insist that anyone serious about building a business go through it. This program helped us to become first in our class and made a tremendous impact on our lives as well! Eric Parish Mentor Investment Group, LLC, Texas This e-book describes how to transform your thoughts, transform the actions, thereby transforming the results you produce. You will be liberated from the business frustrations that prevent you from living a rich and full life. I guarantee that if you follow the prescription I m about to share with you, you will create a business that serves your life.

4 I. How to Think About Your Business The reason most business owners are frustrated is simple. Most business owners are not entrepreneurs, but are actually workers in their business. They are what I call technicians suffering from an entrepreneurial seizure. Most small business owners work for a living... even in their own companies! Most small business owners do the selling, answer the phone, clean up, drive the truck, go to the bank, answer employee s questions, handle their customers complaints, and so forth and so on. The work is endless. Unfortunately, time is limited. So here s the point. Small business owners do all this work not because they should, or because they need to, but because they think they should. Because they think they need to. That s what they believe. They also believe it s the only model in which to operate their business. That would be fine, except for the fact that all of the frustrations a small business owner experiences are caused by this erroneous belief that the small business owner s job is to do whatever has to be done. They believe that to be successful in a business of their own, they have to learn how to do everything, whether they like it or not. They believe that if they didn t do it themselves, the work would never get done. Does this sound familiar to you? Of course it does. You can justify that conclusion by the facts. There isn t enough money. You can t find and keep good employees. Since you re the owner, you re responsible for everything. Since you re the owner, your financial life is at stake. You can t trust anyone to do the things that need to get done. Because every time you do, you re disappointed. And so forth and so on. The logic is as pervasive as it is endemic. This is the mindset of most small business owners in the world. This is the mindset that cripples most businesses, and keeps them where they are... very, very small. Too small because the potential of your business is so much greater than you imagine it to be. Failing to fulfill the potential of your business is failing to fulfill your life s potential. And failing to fulfill your life s potential is tragic.

5 So why is it that what started out as an exciting, joyful endeavor becomes an overwhelming, chaotic, frustrating grind? Here s your answer. Your business is significantly less satisfying than it could be because your actions in business follow your thoughts about business. If you want to change your business, the first thing you need to do is to change the way you think about your business. If you want your business to become more than it is, you have to think of your business as something completely separate from you. You need to think of your business as though you were going to franchise it. I don t mean literally franchise it, but just go along with me for a moment. This is very, very important. I want you to get this. If you want your business to become more than it is, you need to think of your business as if it were a product that you re inventing. A system that you re going to create. A completely integrated system that works exactly the same way, every single hour of every single day. See it clearly. See the colors of your business. The sign, the windows, the floors, the walls, the impeccable uniforms of your employees. See this wonderful thing you re going to create, that works no matter where you are. A business that doesn t depend on you at all. What would your life be like if your business did not depend on you? I assure you that if you begin to think that way, everything will change. Everything. Nothing will ever be the same again.

6 II. How to Turn Your Thoughts into Action When I say to a small business owner that simply changing the way you think, you will change everything you do, he typically doesn t buy it. But it s true. I have personally witnessed this truth, not only in my own life, but also in the lives of thousands of business owners who have come to realize that the way they think is the ball game. For example: The complaint I get most often from small business owners who want to improve their business is that they don t have any time to improve their business given all the work they ve already got to do. Not so, I say to them. All you need to do is to make up your mind to do it. Make up your mind that you would like your business to give you more life. Make up your mind that you want it to work better. Make up your mind that you don t know how to do everything in your business... and that it is all right not to know! Make up your mind that you will set aside time to build a business that works. Make up your mind to it, and hear me, you will find the time. The time you ve got is simply a reflection of how you think about time. Think about time differently and you will begin to do things differently. And that s the secret of turning your thoughts into action. Productive action. Action that is directed by your clear vision of what it is that you want your business to be.

7 This is what great entrepreneurs do and have always done; they visualize the business they want to create. They imagine heroic businesses, doing things heroes do. Doing things better than anyone else. That s how Walt Disney did it. That s how Sam Walton did it.. That s how Fred Smith at Federal Express did it. You can do it too. And the actions you create will follow the track your mind forges in the path of the future.

8 III. How to Turn Your Action into Results So then what? Now that you know that if you think differently you will do everything differently, you may be asking yourself, where is the gold in all this? How do you turn this into results? Here s the amazing thing. I have watched this phenomenon happen in thousands upon thousands of small businesses throughout the world. It begins with a simple question: What are the results you want to happen in your business, in your life? What s not working for you right now? What is the experience you want to create for everyone around you? Why is that so important to you? How important? When do you want this to be realized? Do you see how this works? Once you see what you want and what you don t want, once you clearly see it in your head, then and only then, can you make your vision a reality. The problem is getting you to see it, getting you to see all that you can create from a different perspective. And yes, we do have a system for assisting small business owners to do this thing I m describing here. And, yes, of course, we would love to invite you to become our client, to help you navigate the shoals of this new vision I m sharing with you. But most importantly I need you to know that the secrets I m sharing with you will transform your business and produce results you cannot imagine right now. Countless businesses just like yours are producing these kinds of results. And there s a system for doing it. The system starts with the thoughts in your head that inspire productive action. The system that turns itself into results, simply because the actions you took could not help but produce results. It s just waiting to happen to people who shift their thinking to what I m describing.

9 IV. How to Turn Results into More Life What would you like to be doing if you thought you had the time? Who would you like to spend your time with, if you could spend your time any way you chose to? You might be wondering what is meant by more life? It s the ability to spend your time in completely new and enjoyable ways. Know this: in order for more life to happen, your business needs to make room for it. Your business must be able to operate so that it is not dependent on you. Based on your experience, this probably seems like an impossible challenge. The challenge isn t that you need to better understand your experience, it s that you must create a vision of your business that inspires you to imagine what more life could mean. You can t possibly know the extraordinary things that are in store for you until you get out of the box you ve built for yourself. How was it that Bill Gates could become one of the wealthiest men in the world, starting as a college drop-out, with only a world-size vision and a piece of unremarkable software to make it happen? How was it that Mother Theresa could become world-renowned as a saint, working as she did in the slums of Calcutta? How was it that Gandhi could liberate his country, with only his unwavering determination? How indeed? What s your vision of a life worth living? What s your vision of more life? Are you getting my point? The only obstacle to your breaking free is your mind and the thoughts you allow to dominate it. Not your lack of capital. Not your lack of information. Not your lack of skill. Not your lack of great employees. Not that you are just a small business owner.

10 Not your limited experience. Not the limitations of competition. Not that there are no new ideas left to pursue. Not any of those facts at all. They are not facts; they are reasons. They are what our mind does when it doesn t want to pursue the opportunity. It s what our habits do when they kick in to keep us in the box rather than blowing the top off it. Remember, to blow the top off that box, to push that envelope, to get more life, you need only start with the 4 secrets to successful entrepreneurship: n Change the way you think about your business; n Turn your new thought into action; n Identify the result that you re after and then define the actions required to achieve it; and n Create a vision of your business that inspires you to imagine what more life could mean. We can help you make everything I ve talked about here a reality. How E-Myth Can Help You For more than 30 years, we ve coached, trained and educated business owners all over the world. Whether you re a sole proprietor just starting a home-based business, or a corporation with more than 200 employees and revenues over $100M; we can help you. We have worked with every type and size of business you can imagine. The common thread among our client s is a desire to improve.

11 In other words, our programs aren t the product of some academic s ivory tower imagination. The E-Myth approach to business success is about practical, real-world knowledge that any business owner regardless of industry or location can implement real-time into their business for immediate results. We continue to innovate and advance our programs to meet the real-life demands of building and sustaining a small business. Better Business. Better Life. That s what E-Myth is all about: helping you create a better business so that you can have a better life. For more information about E-Myth, please visit http:// or contact an E-Myth Program Advisor at 800.221.0266 (US & Canada) +1.707.569.5757 (International). Here s to your success!