Starting a business forces you to learn new skills and to reach out for new learning sources. I enjoyed Guy Kawasaki’s “The Art of the Start” even though the second half was better suited for a company making product. And yesterday at a friend’s recommendation I bought “The E-Myth Revisited” by Michael Gerber*. Thanks to Paul Giezekamp at Property Secrets for turning me onto this gem.

The first half is rubbish and could have been edited to a chapter - but then I wouldn’t have felt right paying $34.99 for the paperback (did I mention books are expensive in Australia?). But the second half takes it up a notch and provides exceptional value.

Here’s the gist - Entrepreneurs have a “fit” and come up with a great idea. That one moment justifies their being. Taking that idea and turning it into a successful business requires different skills. Enter the Manager and the Technician. This trio of personalities will get a business running.

Better yet - treat your new business like a franchise. How can you capture the processes and eliminate the variability? Plan business #1 like it’s a model for office #5,000 and suddenly you have a successful model.

At Ford Motor Company I became a Six Sigma Green Belt - basically an apprentice who knows the tools and has completed a project. What Gerber recommends is a “DMAIC” approach to any small business - Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve and Control. Treat this as a never ending cycle and you have a model you can replicate.

“It is literally impossible to produce consistent result in a business that depends on extraordinary people,” writes Gerber.

This for me was an “Aha” moment (or is that “Eureka”?). What I disliked about my time in major agencies was the lack of process or systems. In my 25 year career I’ve worked for Hill & Knowlton, Edelman Worldwide, Gavin Anderson & Company and Burson-Marsteller. Each had some level of process most usually confined to administration, reporting and finance. There was no well understood process for taking a client brief - or developing a communications solution. There were some courses meant for the junior levels but little consistency across offices - or even practises in the same office.

The challenge is to stop criticising and start developing processes that can be repeated, defined, measured and improved.

Suddenly this new business is looking a lot more interesting!

*Footnote: “The World’s #1 Small Business Guru” the cover proclaims - and here I thought that noodle shoppe guy in Kyoto held the title. Why do Americans crave to be World’s #1 all the time? Baseball’s “World Series” only has teams from the USA - oh, does the token Canadian team really portray the globe? Segue to Freddy Mercury…(click below)…