The E-Myth Revisited

Michael Gerber's 1995 business book arguing that most small businesses fail because the technician who starts them (the E-Myth) lacks systems thinking — and that the solution is to build the business as if franchising it, creating systems that work without the founder.

Identified the central failure mode of small business — the technician who is good at the technical work but bad at building a system — and provided the franchise model as the conceptual solution: build every process as if it will be replicated, making the business owner-independent.