E-myth Revisited

You can get all the information from email if you even buy his tapes.

But there is only really four steps for any business

Find a huge market
Find a product and or a service for this huge market
Find a sales system to Reach this market
Find Back up Products and or services for this market.


The hardest for anyone is the sales system. Yes there are many ways to reach a market but it takes money don't think you can do it all for free, you can't

[Ankesh]

Thanks Joe.

But I'm not looking for info on how to grow my biz... but looking for how to structure my biz so that it grows without me.

Originally Posted by Ankesh

Thanks Joe.

But I'm not looking for info on how to grow my biz... but looking for how to structure my biz so that it grows without me.

Hey Ankesh.

I think the reason that there's not much written on this is because there's no one-size-fit-s all "system" that can really be written about and duplicated.

Each business is unique and needs to do things in different ways. There are concepts behind developing systems that should probably be written about. I've even attempted to write about it before but even the concepts are difficult to put on paper.

You mentioned something that I think is really important.......

There's a huge difference between building something that 'runs" without you and something that "grows" without you.

Building something that "runs" without you can sometimes be as simple as hiring someone that can do things as good as yourself and walking away.

Growth is a whole other issue and a far more important one.

A few ways I do things......

Out of over a dozen employees now in my cabinet shop, only two of them are paid hourly. That would be the two office gals.

Everyone else's pay is incentive based.

My manager, for example is paid minimum wage as his base salary plus a variety of bonuses including....

bonus on total monthly sales
bonus on total monthly profit
bonus for growth over last month
bonus for growth over last year (for same month)
and a few others

His minimum wage job paid him $165K last year

The guys in the shop are paid on piece work meaning that they are paid a specific amount per job.

They can make as low as $400 per week or as much as $1500 per week depending on how fast they work.

Installers - same thing. They are paid a commission. The faster they get things done, the more they make.

On top of that, both the shop guys and the installers are paid an "on-time" bonus, meaning that when a job is sent to the shop, there is a deadline (usually a week before the scheduled install date) that in must be completed by. Their pay can go up or down depending on when they complete the job. The installer also has a timeframe that the job has to be completed in.

A lot of good things happen when you set something like this up. While they all have schedules, we pretty much let them do as they want. If they need to come in a couple hours late or leave a couple hours early it's never a problem. They know what needs to get done and what they need to make.

They control their own paychecks. (and they all want to make a lot!)

The more they make - the more I make

Our salespeople/designers are all paid on commission. They have a set commission for any jobs they sell that we provide the leads for.

They also have a huge incentive to get their own leads - an extra 2% commission. Doesn't sound like much but when the jobs they sell are usually in the 10-30K range, it really adds up and gives them a reason to grow my business.

I should note that we only deal with contractors so once they've got them signed up, that extra 2% is theirs for as long as they stay with us, even if that contractor calls us directly instead of them.

So, there in a nutshell is my secret to "growth"

Give employees a reason to grow your business, make them want to come into work, and reward them handsomly for it.

Now, with all that said, there is still the issue of systemizing.

None of that stuff can happen without systems running in the background to hold it all together and make the entire process streamlined and efficient for everybody involved.

What kind of business are you trying to build?

If you want to share the details here, it might be fun for everyone here to put our heads together and come up with systems that will work for you.

If not, email me privately and I'll take a crack at it.

Jim

Even if you have a shopping Cart on the net you need a system and someone running it. Nothing runs completely by itself. Someone has to write copy product the product etc. You can outsource all this, what you can't do. But you need people for things. You or someone else.

Originally Posted by Joetrevison

Even if you have a shopping Cart on the net you need a system and someone running it. Nothing runs completely by itself. Someone has to write copy product the product etc. You can outsource all this, what you can't do. But you need people for things. You or someone else.

Joe, I think you are missing the entire point of systemizing.

Sure, you need people, those people just shouldn't be you.

The book that Ankesh mentioned here, "The E-myth revisited" would be a really good read for you since it doesn't seem like you are even familiar with the concept of systemizing.

Jim

You just insulted me Jim I know what a system is. But nothing runs it self. You either outsource or have employees. Even if you use the net with autoresponse and a shopping cart. What do you do what a Customer writes or email you? Nothing operates without people. I have all of the books I think Michael Gerber wrote and one of his audio programs. It is all the same. I know what he is talking about. Someone has to run the business. I once worked for a school. He was the president. No he was not in at times. But he had people running for him. Sales people, teachers, secretary and accounting to name a few. And I have a MBA so please do insult me telling me I don't know something so damn simple. Don't forget empoyees have payroll taxes that you have the match social Security and Medica Care. That has put more business out of business that anything think else.

I have a lawyer client that I do typing and pdf files for. He knows nothing about the computer. So I run this for him amount other people that help him. He once had a Construction Business with his now deceased brother.

He told me why is company went out of business in 1990 after starting in 1989. 1. Under capitalization, 2. employment taxes, and 3. under bidding jobs.

My paper in Graduate school is "Why Small Business Failed" I only found two things. No Marketing knowledge and experience. Others have found 10 things.

Including the 3 my client failed with. Even as a lawyer he only makes about $20,000. He will not listen to me about marketing. You go figure. He like the clients that don't have money to pay a good fee.

Joe,

My post was not meant as an insult.

It was very clear from your post and has been made even clearer from your reply that you DO NOT understand what we are talking about here.

Jim

I explained I know systems with clients and reading all those books. No you don't have to do all work or any of it. You can have employees or outsource.

Here is how I outsources one of my public domain books. I found out I have to have pages not the book for a company to make a pdf for $20 for me to put in my shopping cart. I had my printer company them for $10 and make the book pages gave them to the company to make a pdf file for me the sell that book. I have to travel around the city. I could have hired someone to do that to I guess. But I don't want a payroll. I do payroll for clients and they hate payroll but need like bars and things that must have them.

[Ankesh]

Originally Posted by Joetrevison

I know what a system is. But nothing runs it self.

Thanks Joe. I don't think Jim is trying to insult anyone here. The whole topic is about how to make the systems and the business work "Without" you. Its ok if other people run it.

In fact,

The ideal thing would be to have a system as well as a meta-system in place (a system that creates systems.) Both run by "other" people.

[Glenn]

Dear Ankesh,

Thanks for the question.

One of my favorite books of "Grow the biz with Systems"

is Bob Morrisons book.

"Why SOB's Succeed and Nice Guys/Gals Fail in Business"

I used to buy cases of books from bob at 10.00 a book. Resell box after box of his books to small business owners for 25.00 to 30.00 each.

Bob has a system for borrowing money from greedy bankers.
When you have no moolah.

Bob has a system for negotiating with new sales employees. So they talk themselves into working on a %age - instead of a salary.

Bob has bought or built scores of small businesses.

So his book is full of Case Studies, anecdotes and even some clever drawings to illustrate key points.

Glenn