Technician vs Manager vs Entrepreneur
Think of a brilliant baker who learned the secrets of pie-making with her grandmother. After seeing how much people love her pies, the baker opens a small shop in town. Who opened the store? The entrepreneur.
A person starting a business is immediately seen as an entrepreneur. And well, it’s usually a pretty accurate description, as it takes courage, a vision, and an idea to start something new.
As the business is only starting to grow, the owner is the only one employed and has to do the cooking, the cleaning, and the serving. Who is working? The technician.
At the end of the day, it is necessary to evaluate how many customers were served and how was the overall service. Who is supervising? The manager.
Michael Gerber, the author of E-myth Revisited, describes the entrepreneur, the technician, and the manager, as a single person. The three are important, and they’re all inside each one of us. But, the conflict between the three, explains why most small businesses fail.
In any business, the owner starts with an entrepreneurial spirit but immediately switches to the technician personality: performing every small aspect of the business operation and forgetting other crucial aspects of running it. Instead of owning a business, the owner works in a business, that by mere chance, belongs to her/him.
The problem? Mastering the art of painting, cooking, writing, investing, or taking photos, doesn’t make you a master of running a business in any of these industries. It makes you a great technician.
“If your business depends on you, you don’t own a business—you have a job. And it’s the worst job in the world because you’re working for a lunatic!”
Instead, you need to create a business that works without you. For this, the author recommends applying the Franchise Prototype to any business, so it works independently of who bakes the pies.
If you visit a McDonald’s in 10 countries, the differences between them are very subtle, even though the owners are not the same. McDonald’s mastered the art of creating a successful system that is being replicated in thousands of restaurants around the world.
Turns out the model followed by McDonald’s can be followed by any small business with just one store. The key is to design each small part of the process – The Operations Manual - as if it was going to be replicated in another location, by another person.
Grab a notebook and detail every step of your business process. You will have a successful formula for running it, which will allow you to hire people to replace you. Then, ask yourself this question:
“How can I own my business, and still be free of it?”
You expect your Big Mac to taste the same in every single McDonalds’ restaurant. So, why does your product depend solely on your skills?