The E Myth Revisited or The Little Book That Builds Wealth

The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do about It

Author: Michael E Gerber

In this first new and totally revised edition of the over two million copy bestseller, The E-Myth, Michael Gerber dispels the myths surrounding starting your own business and shows how commonplace assumptions can get in the way of running a business. Next, he walks you through the steps in the life of a business -- from entrepreneurial infancy through adolescent growing pains to the mature entrepreneurial perspective: the guiding light of all businesses that succeed -- and shows how to apply the lessons of franchising to any business, whether it is a franchise or not. Finally, Gerber draws the vital, often overlooked distinction between working on your business and working in your business. After you have read The E-Myth Revisited, you will truly be able to grow your business in a predictable and productive way.

Library Journal

Indicating that 40 percent of small businesses fail within their first year, Gerber, a small business expert, talks about how to be successful. In this revision of his 1986 book, he describes the "E-Myth," which basically states that a person with technical but few management skills can do well in business. Gerber describes developing a precise business system that produces consistent results because it has been tested and refined. He says that businesses thrive because of innovation, quantification, and orchestration. Visualize what is true success to you as a person, Gerber advises, and work from the ideal to the specific. While the author is a consumate salesman who reads his material in soothing tones, he offers too many abstract ideas and too few concrete plans. There is little useful content here.
-- Mark Guyer, Stark City District Library, Canton, Ohio

Table of Contents:

	Acknowledgments
	Foreword
	Introduction	1
Pt. I	The E-Myth and American Small Business	7
Ch. 1	The Entrepreneurial Myth	9
Ch. 2	The Entrepreneur, the Manager, and the Technician	19
Ch. 3	Infancy: The Technician's Phase	34
Ch. 4	Adolescence: Getting Some Help	43
Ch. 5	Beyond the Comfort Zone	51
Ch. 6	Maturity and the Entrepreneurial Perspective	68
Pt. II	The Turn-Key Revolution: A New View of Business	77
Ch. 7	The Turn-Key Revolution	79
Ch. 8	The Franchise Prototype	91
Ch. 9	Working On Your Business, Not In It	97
Pt. III	Building a Small Business That Works!	115
Ch. 10	The Business Development Process	117
Ch. 11	Your Business Development Program	134
Ch. 12	Your Primary Aim	136
Ch. 13	Your Strategic Objective	149
Ch. 14	Your Organizational Strategy	166
Ch. 15	Your Management Strategy	187
Ch. 16	Your People Strategy	197
Ch. 17	Your Marketing Strategy	218
Ch. 18	Your Systems Strategy	234
Ch. 19	A Letter to Sarah	253
	Epilogue: Bringing the Dream Back to American Small Business	259
	Afterword: Taking the First Step	267

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The Little Book That Builds Wealth: The Knockout Formula for Finding Great Investments

Author: Pat Dorsey

To make money in today's dynamic market environment, you need to invest in companies that will perform in the face of sustained competitive pressure. But how can you accurately identify companies that are great today and likely to remain great for many years to come?

The answer to this question lies in competitive advantages, or economic moats. Just as moats were dug around medieval castles to keep the opposition at bay, economic moats protect the high returns on capital enjoyed by the world’s best companies. If you can identify companies that have moats, and you can purchase their shares at reasonable prices, you’ll begin to build a portfolio of solid businesses that will improve your odds of doing well in the stock market.

In The Little Book That Builds Wealth, author Pat Dorsey—the Director of Equity Research for leading independent investment research provider Morningstar, Inc.—outlines this proven approach and reveals how you can effectively apply it to your own investments. Step by step, Dorsey discusses why economic moats are such strong indicators of great long-term investments and examines four of their most common sources: intangible assets, cost advantages, customer-switching costs, and network economics. After establishing a firm understanding of moats, Dorsey shows you how to recognize moats that are eroding, the key role that industry structure plays in creating competitive advantage, and how management can create (as well as destroy) moats.

Along the way, Dorsey provides an informative overview of valuation—because even a wide-moat company will be a poor investment if you pay too much forits shares—and illustrates the issues addressed through case studies that apply competitive analysis to some well-known companies.

Although the moat concept is not a new one—it was made famous by Warren Buffett—the modern-day investor can benefit from what it has to offer. With The Little Book That Builds Wealth as your guide, you’ll quickly discover why moats should be an integral part of your analytical investment toolkit and learn how to leverage this approach to build a portfolio of high-performance stocks.

Pat Dorsey, CFA (Chicago, IL) is Director of Equity Research at Morningstar, Inc. He played an integral part in the development of the Morningstar Rating™ for stocks, as well as Morningstar’s economic moat ratings. Dorsey is also the author of The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing: Morningstar's Guide to Building Wealth and Winning in the Market (Wiley). He holds a master’s degree in political science from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree in government from Wesleyan University. Please visit findingmoats.com.