Friends and colleagues have been recommending I read “The E-Myth” for about a year and half. Perhaps you have read it. If not, when you do, you will be reading the story of my life. The characters are different and the object of their business is different, but the plot line is the same. I was the consummate technician, the master craftsman, if you will, who loved the work, hated to manage, and all the while there was an entrepreneur struggling to be free. Since my days in the military, and even before that, now that I sit back and think about it, that wild eyed visionary has always been there. I find it interesting that every once in a while I read something or hear someone speak and a door within the halls of my mind previously unnoticed is flung open and a burst of fresh air and new light come rushing in. I just need to be more mindful of those hints and clues the Universe puts before me. I love it when that happens!
For those of you who’ve prompted me to read this book, I apologize for not taking the hint, and I thank you. And to the very special person who gave me a copy the other day, there aren’t words to express my gratitude.
Back to the “you and your business” part. When I meet with people who own a business, I always ask, “What business are you really in?” Micheal E. Gerber, author of “The E-Myth” says that your business isn’t the commodity you sell. It’s what you give people over and above that product or service. What’s that you ask? It’s you. People buy from you, for the most part, not because your product is the best or least expensive. They buy because you bring something extra to the deal. When I was a masonry contractor my business was functional beauty. I sold beauty, not all of the time mind you, because who would consider an irrigation box, other than the craftsman who built it, beautiful? In that instance I was in the business of function. Either way, people hired me because I designed and built useful structures that added beauty to peoples’ homes. But it was never the concrete, brick or tile, it was my knowledge and eye for aesthetics that people bought. It was my friendly and conversational manner, it was my penchant for giving people what I told them I would give them, and it was my ability to create something they couldn’t or didn’t want to create themselves. All of it added up to my business.
This is one of the most important elements of a business because it gives you the frame to which you’ll attach all the little things you do. If you are a hair dresser, but actually in the business of self confidence, what are elements that create that consistently? If you own an art gallery, but you’re in the business of rejuvenating the soul, what do you have to do to create that for every customer, every single time? If you move peoples’ furniture, but really you’re in the “your stuff is sacred” business, what do you have to do to create that perception? Every single time. No matter what commodity you provide, figure out these elements, and you’ll be that much closer to building a business rather than being an employee of the business you happen to own.
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