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

It's more suited to traditional businesses. Startups are somewhat different though some principles are universal.

This book was the subject of an episode of the cortex podcast: https://www.relay.fm/cortex/21 I'm curious if you think think their take on the book was fair? (I realize that that's a lot to ask). Their basic take was that the book had some good ideas but was bizarrely written and much too long. I haven't felt the need to read it myself since they summarized what they believe to be the valuable parts of the book in the episode.

I think "The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It" is a good book for the mindset and some of the processes around how to build the engine that is your business.

As a small business owner I'd have to say E-Myth Revisited and Work the system. Because once you learn systems thinking, you see the world totally differently and from a business point of view, understanding how their systems work is like getting to have a look at the source code of that business.

The E-Myth (the E stands for Entrepreneur): http://www.amazon.com/E-Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-Abou... (http://www.amazon.com/E-Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-About/dp/0887307280/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258509013&sr=8-1) Derek Sivers has a good collection of his notes (and many other biz-centric books) here: http://sivers.org/book/EMythRevisited His opening line nails it: "Everything needs to be a system. Think of your business as a franchise prototype. You should be able to hand the "how-to" manual to just anyone, to do it as good as you."