The E-Myth

00:00 - Introduction
We open with coffee talk today–and sugar intake, including some beverage shortcuts. Tyler calls it cheaping out; Eddie calls it hillbilly lemonade. We also reminisce about our favorite waitress, 4’10” Miss Connie with the beehive haircut. Oh yeah, also pickle races. Poor Miss Connie.

08:05 - Entrepreneurship: A Good Idea?
A few weeks ago, guest Matt Aston recommended the book The E-Myth Revisited (now available in an updated version). Tyler shares that this book hit him in the teeth when he picked it up recently. We’re discussing this book today because it’s filled with great content for construction-related entrepreneurs.

Business is hard. Each year, 627,000 businesses are started and 595,000 businesses fail. Many of those may have been active for several years, but still, it’s clear that starting and running a business successfully is tough work.

Author Michael E. Gerber shares his insights by telling the story of Sara, a fictional pie maker.

12:46 - Initial E-Myth Takeaways
Eddie shares the first bits of insight that he took from this book. Gerber distinguishes between the technician,  the manager, and the entrepreneur. These are three roles may exist in

A technician is the person who can do something well. A manager the person who is good at logistics and task completion. An entrepreneur is the person who works not so much in the business and on the business.

Tyler explains that many businesses are started by technicians who quickly find themselves needing to now fill all three of these roles. And since they may not have management strengths or entrepreneur strengths, their businesses often fail.

Tyler and Eddie both share examples of how this pattern played out in their respective businesses, ABSI and Storybuilder. The pattern is one that will sound familiar to you if you’ve started your own business. As a company grows, team members are added in a less-than-strategic manner, resulting in confusion and frustration. The next step is often a soft collapse back to the point where the business owner is once again handling almost everything.  

22:55 - Systems
Tyler shares that his entrepreneurial journey has gone through the first part of this cycle. Tyler and Eddie discuss the smoothness of the system that makes this podcast operate and Tyler contrasts that with his business.

Eddie discusses Gerbers references to Ray Kroc and what he did with McDonald’s. Kroc bought a system. Gerber makes the argument that even owners of small businesses need to approach their business like a franchise in regard to team-building, systems, and training.

Tyler refers to the movie Founder, which tells Kroc’s story. This leads to some talk about the turn-key revolution pioneered by McDonald’s. Tyler encourages business owners to check out Loom as a means of creating operational guides.

32:12 - Training and More 
Eddie shares that one of the lessons from the book that most resonated with him was the importance of determining your primary aim. In other words, what is your life goal? If this business cannot generate that reality, then don’t pursue the business.

Tyler critiques this a bit, saying that the process needs to be considered as much as the primary aim. He said that the path to that end is just as important. Structuring a desired lifestyle now is as important as an entrepreneurial endgame.

Eddie discusses the book’s 4 tenets of strategy: organization, management, people, and marketing. Then there’s a 5th-systems–that was more than we could discuss today.

36:12 - The Hotel
Tyler and Eddie discuss Gerber’s hotel storyline. Gerber recounts his experience learning about the systems that enabled this hotel to operate on such a high level.

Then Gerber contrasts this hotel experience with a barbershop that provides high-quality service up front but was unable to repeat the quality of that experience over time.

Tyler discusses the importance of not just first but also second, third, and fourth impressions. It’s about consistently focusing on the things that are essential.  

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