Technician to Entrepreneur

2009 | Jan 7 in Home Page News , Leadership

E-Myth Definied

For decades we've worked with small business owners who epitomize the E-Myth as defined above. Granted, not all our clients fall into that category. But the majority of our clients are indeed Technicians who find themselves in the role of Business Owner without the knowledge or skills necessary to run a successful business.

Take physicians for example. Doctors go through extensive schooling and give years of their lives toward perfecting their technical craft. But medical schools don't teach the business of medicine; they only teach the practice of medicine. No matter how much a physician knows about the work of doctoring, that expertise in itself is typically not sufficient to build a successful practice, business or enterprise.

The reality is that most skilled medical practitioners enjoy what they do and really want to be doctors. They want to see patients, they want to provide care and improve the health of their clients. But as an owner of a business, they have to deal with hiring and managing employees, budgeting, taxes, payroll, administrative tasks... All the things that make a business run, and all the things a doctor typically doesn't have the training (or desire) to do.

The truth is that Technicians often don't think of themselves as businesspeople - and that can be a problem.

Change Your Approach

An Entrepreneur does the work of envisioning the business as something apart from you, the owner.
--Michael E. Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited

One of the most radical changes you experience when you work with E-Myth is a shift in thinking; a change in how you approach your business.

Central to this approach, the E-Myth approach, is that you must learn to view your business as separate from you. We say this all the time, but it warrants repeating: you are not your business. Even if you are the one who actually drills the teeth or performs the exam, you must view your business as your end product. You can be a Technician and not be the business. If you don't figure that out, you'll never be able to get free of the business, to retire or — and this is where it gets good — only work when you want to.

When you realize that your business is your product, you can step outside of it and reinvent it. And this holds true for any Technician, from a chiropractor to a contractor, hair stylist to a baker... It all starts with a change in the way you think about your business; it starts with entrepreneurial thinking.

The Technician thinks: Time = Work = Money. I spend the time, I work hard and I earn money. To get more money, I work harder.

The Entrepreneur thinks: Time = Equity = Freedom. I spend the time, I build the equity of my business and I get free of the business. To get more freedom, I build more equity.

The Technician thinks: I do the work.

The Entrepreneur thinks: Someone else does the work.

Getting your Roles Right

When a business owner is also the primary technician in the business, either out of necessity or because they really like to do the work; it's critical that the business is set up to support that structure. You have to work on the business to the point where it can support you to work in the business.

Take, for example, a Mastery Impact! client of mine. He's a Physical Therapist and our first few sessions revolved around defining his Primary Aim and discovering what it was that he really wanted from his business. Fresh out of school and eager to perfect his craft, he really wanted to focus on being "the doctor." In order to allow him to fill that position, we set out to build a business that supported his goals. We began this process by creating and utilizing an Organization Chart. Once completed, we then focused on removing him from the role of "President," and getting him out of that box on the Organization Chart. He wanted to be in the role of "Physical Therapist," so he found someone else to take on the role of "President." No longer responsible for the day-to-day activities that he didn't enjoy and wasn't skilled at; he now occupies the positions of Chairman of the Board and Physical Therapist. He couldn't be happier.

The lesson here is that you don't have to give up the technical work if you have the knowledge to build a business that supports that technical work. You have to develop your business so that the systems run the business, and let people run the systems... whether it is the systems associated with being a doctor, or the systems of being the president of the company. The systems work so you don't have to.

Tell Us About It

Have you been able to create a business or practice that allows you to do the technical work you love? How did you structure your business to allow you the freedom to practice your craft?