Happy Sunday everyone!

Welcome back to another edition of the newsletter. This week’s video, Systems Create Successful Businesses, adapted information from Michael Gerber’s The E-Myth Revisited, discussed the foundational blocks of starting a business that could scale. As you know, we are champions of entrepreneurial spirit, so whenever I find something that can make that journey a little easier, I must share. A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from a reader asking why I do all this. My response is simple, I want to give back to the community that has given me so much. Going back to the Show Your Work video and newsletter, sharing a work in progress and sharing how you learned something may be more valuable to people than the expert sharing, as the small challenges may be forgotten.

I write this newsletter so at least one person can get something from it, and you are the person… Thank you for reading. Today I’ll cover the tips from the video and more information from the book that didn’t make the video.

There are links throughout the email to the books and creators that shared this information with me, and at this point, nothing is sponsored or affiliate links, so just sharing because I thought the content was worth sharing.

📖The E-Myth Revisited

The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber is written for people that want to start businesses, people that have failed at starting businesses, and people that are interested in building businesses. I will extrapolate some of the topics for more general appeal but still be very much business focused. There are three sections of the book, explaining the [Entrepreneurial] Myth, the Turn-Key Revolution, and how to make small businesses successful.

⚙️Great technical skill does not mean you know how to run a business!

Truer words have never been written. I hope you have not had the fortune to work for someone that is technically brilliant but cannot lead or manage a business unit or organization. The skills required to create a widget, fly aircraft, or write a book are not the same as creating and running an organization. As with any skill, it can be learned, but people that start without understanding there is a skill set that is needed to build an organization are bound to fail. The longer you are in business and the more successful your business is, the amount of time used to do the technical work reduces more and more because you need to focus on all the operations of the business (hiring, firing, taxes, permitting, licensing, intellectual property concerns) and the list goes on.

I am an advocate for you to go and create a new space, a new business, or a creative outlet. I want you to know that everything is not instantly perfect; there are a lot of things that are behind the scenes that people can take for granted when starting out. Take the leap! Just take a little time to plan.

🏪Think of your business as a national franchise, then start with a store.

I’m unsure if this still happens, but in 2015, on the first day at Starbucks, each partner received a copy of Howard Schultz Onward. This book details how the company matured and how the organization grew in the right way. This gesture has multiple meanings; it shares the history of the organization, it shares the business philosophy and shows demonstrates to the new partner that they are part of an organization that wants to grow the people. Starbucks takes a person that may have zero coffee experience and makes them the gatekeeper for your Pumpkin Spice Latte in the fall or your Pink Drink in the summer.

We use checklists to fly airplanes, create YouTube videos, or book travel for our customers. We create checklists to make sure we do not forget steps or to put thought into steps that may be second nature. Checklists are examples of processes that are used to support a system. Building a system allows the business owner to hand processes over to others and ensure a similar quality result is delivered. Standard work procedures are a staple of lean organizations, focusing on reducing variation to deliver consistent results.

When creating your organization, build repeatable processes that are not dependent on key personnel. Make your one store the model to be repeated, such the 100th or 1000th copy of the store produces the same quality as the first.

🤒Build systems of systems that do not rely on a critical person’s skills.

When typically growing a business, entrepreneurs start with the technical ability of the service or produce a product. From there, hire people with experience to grow other critical areas allowing them to run each of their areas without too much oversight. The hired personnel are focused on growing the organization and building their areas, which is great until they leave, or you need to redirect them. More and more of your attention is turned toward those aspects of the business rather than the technical work.

By focusing early on building the systems of the business rather than the technical work, you can mitigate some of the growing pains, continue to deliver a quality product to your customers, and add value to your employees. There are fundamentally three types of systems hard, soft, and information systems. Hard systems are physical inanimate objects (tools, computers, offices). Soft systems are people, ideas (people, video scripts). Information systems handle the interaction of the two (instructional manuals, policies, and checklists). Developing systems to handle each of the critical processes within the organization reduces the cycles used to think about “what’s next” or How do I do this thing? Using your time early defining and refining the processes assists people in delivering your vision.

Leverage the systems and their connections to build repeatable units. How you scale the organization is up to you; if you want to be a solopreneur or a multi-site conglomerate, systems reduce the challenges of growing your organization and providing consistent customer results.

⏰What’s Next?

Next week, I’ll be reviewing Grant Cardone’s The 10X Rule. If there is something you want me to review, or if you have any questions or comments, please shoot me an email.

Until next time, keep creating, keep sharing, and stay inspired. Thanks!

- Cyle H.

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