Announcing the launch of Embark Community Connection, an online community for business owners

We are very proud to announce that the Embark Community Connection; an online community that offers a forum for busy business owners to learn about and discuss the principles of Michael Gerber and E-myth Worldwide; is now live!

The introduction of the Embark Community Connection marks a new era of opportunities and possibilities for business owners. The Embark Community Connection is meant to showcase the entrepreneurial successes that many millions of small to medium businesses have achieved, and to report on the important next steps they have taken to implement systems-directed processes and organizational-wide accountability. The Community promises to attract business owners from all walks of life, and all corners of the world, who will come together in a Web-based community to "meet" and interact with one another.

The Embark Community Connection will present articles that will bring E-Myth’s philosophy to life in a fresh and engaging manner, and Community members will gain timely access to relevant material illustrating the integrative nature of key business concepts, as detailed in E-Myth’s "Seven Centers of Management Attention" model. The Embark Community Connection will additionally present related case studies to highlight lessons learned, as well as interviews with subject matter experts to foster dialogue and debate. The goal is to not only construct a platform to impart core E-Myth lessons, tools and techniques, but to also create a supportive and inspirational forum where Community members will be encouraged to respond to all content, and to share their own personal opinions, experiences, insights and best practices with other members, both in real time and in archived materials.

Meeting today’s business challenges together

As a leader of a small to medium sized business yourself, you know what it’s like to face today’s unique set of challenges; especially when your personal financial well being is on the line, other people are relying on your business for their livelihoods, and customers and competitors are constantly challenging you to innovate, deliver, and adapt to changing needs and market realities. The list of challenges facing a business owner in 2005 can seem incredibly daunting, but it is just these various challenges that we hope to meaningfully, and successfully, address at the Embark Community Connection.

Here at E-Myth Worldwide we are very excited to be able to better share information about the successes and explosive growth of the small businesses we serve. We are even more excited about the transformative impact that occurs at the individual human level when business owners, managers and technical staff embrace the challenge of Leadership with a driving passion in order to gain control of their lives. This passion, which we understand and share, is what drives us to improve our coaching programs, to revise and streamline our content, and to develop new products; such as the Embark Community Connection; that can reach wider and more dispersed audiences of business owners and help them take their business to the next level.

At this critical stage of development, the Embark Community Connection team is actively seeking input and feedback from community members on how we can best deliver a meaningful, member-centric environment for strategic business development and entrepreneurial leadership. Your feedback will serve as a guiding light to the ECC team in this initial launch, as well as in the future as we continuously strive to implement advanced functionality and features to deliver a world-class business owner community.

For a guided multimedia tour of the features and benefits of Embark Community Connection click on the "Features and Benefits" section on the left hand navigation of the home page. We cordially invite you to become a member of our global community. From all of us at E-Myth Worldwide, Welcome to Embark Community Connection!

Thank you for the article, I am intrigued. I am a plumbing contractor needing to hire a plumber. In our state a person is required to have a license to perform this work. It is a 4 year process of OJT and school to obtain a license. I can see using these recruiting methods to hire someone who may train and eventually become licensed. If I want to skip the 4 year wait process and go directly to hiring a licensed guy, how do I do this without recruiting based on positions.

Any Ideas?

Greg Fort

Pro Drain and Rooter Service,

Portland, OR

Great article - and absolutely true. As MD of a recruitment company (beITrecruitment Limited) - our biggest challenge by far is to get clients to open their minds enough to realise they should be recruiting on competencies (ie what someone can do and is capable of doing) rather than on pure time served in a specific job.

If you can identify the things that will make someone successful in a specific role - in YOUR environment (which may be very different from what would make them successful doing the "same" job title in another company),, and if you build your recruitment around that - you will rarely go wrong.

Well done on a great article - now go take the advice!

Carole Fossey

beITrecruitment.com

If your quantification shows you that there is resistance to a group type of presentation because of multi-level marketing, it doesn't mean you have to stop that process. It does mean, however, that you need to create a script that effectively & proactively addresses how the seminar will be, so they know what to expect. This has been proven to be a very effective process over many years now.

You also have to consider what other factors might contribute to a low turnout or a lesser quality level you are looking for, like: ad placement channel, timing around placement (near a holiday, etc..), time lapse between the ad placement and ad response - ad response to presentation/interview, and the content of the ad itself. What is it about your ad that is drawing the people who responded to it?

I think this is a great diolauge to have because Employee Acquisition is a big issue for many of us.

Okay, Angel, now I have to say I agree with you. None of the candidates who did attend my seminars (6 out of 28 invited) were acceptable. I went back to the list of those invited who did not attend, called them all and now have eight to interview. Most apologized for not attending the seminar but said things like "I was too intimidated to attend with all those other people" or "I thought it was a multi level marketing thing." If I ever organize another hiring seminar I will spend much more time on the phone fully describing what the position is all about. It may be that some positions are simply not suited for this process. Of course emyth teaches us to innovate and quantify and that is what we are doing. No? --Mike

I agree with everything Jayne & Mike said. I have used this E-Myth type of group preesentations for many years and it works awesome. I believe that being straight forward is the best way, and I would let a potential candidate know why you are doing it that way. For example, "A Group Presentation allows you to see if this is a fit for you, outside the spotlight of a private interview. Doing it this way provides us leverage to communicate in a consistent way to all candidates, which makes it more fair for everyone...."

The other thing to consider is the source or channel you are using to place your ads. How do you know it is the best source for this type of group interview? Are you keeping stats? By measuring the outcome of your efforts, you will be ablel to see which ads do the best, where you place them, and when you place them.

Quanitfying these results and then making improvements to our hiring system provided us with a highly turn-key process, so much so that we knew the end result before we even turned the system on. It defientely works. Please let meknow if there are any other specific questions you have.

Hi Angelina -- Mike has some really good observations and ideas. I agree with him that being upfront with people could help your response rate; after all, not very many businesses do this kind of thing (yet), and people can be wary of the unexpected. In place of the E-Myth script, you might start with some benchmarks:

1. explain that you are hiring for a salaried position, and that the person's resume indicates they possess many of the skills that you're looking for.

2. explain that you are inviting several candidates to come in to hear more about the company, to see if they are interested in progressing through the interview process. You could say that it's as important to you that the person is enthusiastic about the company as it is that they have the right skills.

3. Invite the person to ask questions about the process -- maybe even tell them you are aware this is a somewhat out of the ordinary approach for a company to take, and you're more than happy to answer questions about why you're taking this approach. Then be prepared to be completely honest! You could even tell the person what you don't like about typical interviewing, and what different results you want from this process.

4. Ask the person to make a commitment to the specific date and time, and also ask them to call and cancel if they change their mind, so someone else can have an opportunity to attend.

Mike makes a good point, that people who commit to attending and then don't show up might not be your ideal candidates anyway -- and among those who do show up, even if it's not a lot, there may be just the person you are looking for!

Hope that helps --

Jayne

I held two hiring seminars on the past two Saturdays for an admin assistant and had pretty good success. I agree that the emyth script could use some revising. I started reading the script, but it sounded like I was reading and so shifted to paraphrasing. On the phone call inviting the candidates I emphasized that this was a full time position I was recruiting for, that "several other candidates" would also be attending, and that the reason for the holding the seminar was to save the candidates time if the position was not a good fit for them. I also said that if they felt it was a good fit, they would be given a short individual interview before they left. My turnout was about 45% of those who said they would attend. I think it is likely that those individuals who did not attend would have stood me up if I had scheduled individual interviews; a significant waste of time.

I am thrilled to use E-Myth Principles to start looking at my business in a new light. I own an African Import Business and want to venture into other parts of the nation. In other words, franchise!
Esi Fassi

Okay. This is simple. Here is a small step that will work. It's proven. Follow Nap Hill's process from Think and Grow Rich(simplified): what do you want? What are you willing to do in exchange for what you want? When do you want it? Read or say this twice a day - fired with emotion.

Napoleon Hill wrote a lot of good stuff. However the little known truth is that he ended up broke because he did not live the lessons he wrote about.

That is a lesson for us all I beleive. In that we must put teh ideas into action

Gavin Allinson

Assuming this dentist has internet access (if he doesn't, he needs to!), have him try:

www.quickbooks.co.uk

Here can be found information about the different Quickbooks products available in the UK, along with contact information for professional Quickbooks Advisors to help him select, install, set up, and use the software.

I would advise him to find the best dental practice around...the one he wants his to look like the most...and ask them what they use and how they were setup & trained on it. I am always amazed at how much information great business people are happy to help you with.

WOW!!! Congradulations, I am a proud supportor and would agree with the Stevie Award judges. I have really enjoyed this platform for like-minds to gather and discuss hot topics. I raise my glass to a job well done!
~Esi Fassi

I am not sure what the leagalities are but I own a residential construction company and we offer 8 hours holiday that does not count towards hours worked. I don't particularly want employees using ever holday week to make costly overtime when they are already receiving the holiday benefit.

whoops...I meant legalities

What I would check in to is what the laws are around this. Many states are different in how they look at things like this and I would want to be in accordance with that. I am sure a simple call to your labor board would clear that up--so you can be assured you are following law.

Then I would ask what supports the culture of your business more? Who cares what these employees are used to in other places they work, you are different and your business is different. So, what decision would support your culture, your essence, the flavor of how you run and operate your organization?

Rachel

My suggestion is two-part: 1. Use a survey compilation service with templates or a custom-designed survey form. I have used Infopoll extensively (see their website at www.infopoll.com). This will allow you to pose exactly the questions you want answered to compile the precise customer demographics you seek. Infopoll also enables the survey(s) to be performed online anonymously by your customers, at a time convenient for them, and does not take up time during the day to ask endless questions. 2. Use a professional phone marketer like me to contact your customers about participating in the survey. This gives third party credibility. If you wish to discuss this in detail, pls feel free to call me at my toll-free number: Brandon Rigney Dallas, TX 877-861-4366

New phone number: 866-364-4732

Hello, We do a lot of market research and use an online survey product called Zoomerang to gather customer insights, feedback and perform satisfaction surveys. We create the surveys ourselves but they have an excellent system for deploying the surveys, and reviewing the feedback. Check it out at: http://www.zoomerang.com If you want a quick example f what the surveys look like, click on the Owners Opinion section of this site. Thanks, Hasan

Thanks for your replies. We do use zoomerang and surveymonkey for post-event surveys all the time. The problem is, out of thousands of names that surveys go out to, we are lucky to get 10-100 replies or any statistically accurate data on a per-question basis. Four replies of "<$500 million" or the like just doesn't give you enough to base a marketing plan on. We do offer free conference passes and similar incentives for filling the brief survey out, but the response is minimally accurate in statistical terms given the scope of thousands and wide-ranging needs of the marketplace.

So, it sounds like you havent quite found a compelling reason for them to complete your survey. Looking at it objectively there hasnt been a good quid pro quo - or the right incentive for the audience you want information from.

It could be the incentive isnt an incentive in their mind. it could be the framing of the value of completing of the survey doesnt grab them. Put yourself in their shoes - why would you take the time to fill out a post-event survey? What's in it for you as an attendee?

Not to say it's easy.

But, perhaps there's a way of preparing people or somehow setting them up with the expectation that you're going to be in touch following the event. What could you deliver to them as a valuable report, or some kind of key piece of information in exchange for their time? I'm not sure what you're currently using as an incentive, but that's generally where I'd look for the answer.

The value of what you give them has to exceed their perceived value of their time.

I've just read the post on Client Re-Conversion and it's "put lights on" in my mind. I'm just about starting on the Lead Conversion section of the Embark Learning Course but find this post very interesting as I've never thought of re-converting my clients only of getting new customers. Now my question is this. How can I re-convert some of my clients e.g. the Medical Doctors, Journalists, and some government officials? The light in my mind concerning those I term Executive Students (i.e. those in employment and also in the University) is to offer to do literary searches for them. I do this on a personal level for a cousin of mine who owns a High School and is doing her Masters program in Education and never thought of doing it for anyone else until now that I've read this post. I know many like her who pay for someone to search for materials on the net for their projects or thesis because they don't have the time or discipline to do it themselves. I know this will be a good revenue generating arm for my business.

I'll appreciate suggestions please.

Arit

Ben,

I have had the experience of buying a watch at a well known expensive store. They sent in the post 2 weeks later a membership to their club which consisted of a series of coupons for 20% off my next purchase, cleaning etc. You could even send out a wedding ring cleaning reminder every year. I went back to the store to get a ring resized and whilst I was in there I was looking at my next watch. I know they are on the more expensive side but the feeling I get when I am in the store is quality and class not cheap so I like to shop there. You could even set up a survey to find what the wife likes, ie silver/gold/pearls and target the gentleman for the wifes birthday, wedding anniversiry, etc. You could even set up a marketing plan to help genltement buy for their wifes, a reminder call is made, the wifes taste is on file from the survey and offer an exchange service so the wife can swap for equal value if she doesn't like it. The men may have trouble with the purchase, you help, they pay. It been done in large department store with success.

What about the list of wedding years, and the elements that go with them, I only know the silver & gold years. Brett

Thanks Jim,
I read your blog and I realised that I only "occasionally" keep in touch with them and I do not persuade them to re-visit my store.

I already have all my existing clients' information in a database, but I have not utilised them to their fullest potential. I have been focusing on getting new customers while I've been ignoring my existing clients. Thanks for this realisation.

Jayne - Thanks too, about the comment on building relationships. My next issue is about value adding through business systems. My jewelry store offers many value added services that no other jewelry store offers. However, price has a direct impact on purchasing decisions, and by value-adding, my costs have been going up dramatically.

The jewelry market is so price competitive that it seems that customers focus on that while gem shopping.

Client re-conversion sounds like a great conecpt, but is it only applicable to low priced items? How could it be applied to mid-high end jewellery? Only 15% of our clients are repeat customers. Anyone has any idea how to use this concept for the remaining 85%? How do you get repeat business for high priced items?

Hi Benjamin -- I would invite you to think about client re-conversion not just in terms of getting a client to buy more things more often, but also about the relationship with that client that encourages them to refer you to their friends and family. Our client John thought about seeing his customers twice a year instead of once. For you, maybe it would be about seeing your customers once or twice, and then also seeing their friends and relatives. The potential target market growth is just as exponential, either way, and it all begins with your existing satisfied customers. Jim blogged some great ideas for building ongoing customer relationships that could be adapted to referrals too.

Benjamin

It's all about an ongoing relationship with your customers. If you don't have one - start one.

When you sell them your high-value jewelry make sure you get their details so you can keep in touch with them and let them know about items that may take their interest, or sales, or other offers.

After all people who buy jewelery don't just buy one piece.

By keeping a relationship going you're at the top of their mind when they think jewelry.

How do you keep the relationship going? Well check out my blog where I've got quite a few tips on sending out stuff in a variety of ways to maintain your customers interest.

In fact this post has got me going so much I think I'll brainstorm a few ideas about it a little later!

Check out www.acornservice.blogspot.com

Jim

Wow. I very much appreciate the thoughtful answer to my question. Okay, I don't wish to reinvent administrative systems that have been already been developed and tinkered with and work well. I admit it. I absolutely plan on using the systems with which I start up and operate my company. And, more criticalliy, I plan on investing in continuing employee training and retraining so our system based company is understandable and real to them.

I have to believe that someone has fine tuned a system for accounts receivable, for instance, that I can use as a starting point. Of course my employees and I will practice innovation, quantification, orchestraton constantly on all of our systems. A system is almost a living thing, yes?

Certainly documented systems are not the whole answer, but the answer does include the need for documented systems at. It is my responsiblity to create a culture of being systematic in everything we do in our business. It's a way of seeing all of our actions as steps in a system; if it's not documented, document it!

To the questions in your fifth paragragh; how indeed? Here's how: through my real passion and enthusiasm for this sytematic company that generates passion and enthusiasm in my employees for our shared mission--consistent quality, superior value and uncompromising integrity

Thanks lots. Muy amable. Mike

When I hear people ask if they can buy systems I start to question what they plan to do with the system? Is it like a hard asset that they purchase and it sits in the office being valuable or is it used in a different way?

What is a system and why do you want it? Yes, E-Myth teaches the power of systems and how it set the business owner free from being the key person who knows all the answers. But this can only happen if people use the systems.

When I see business go out and have consultants design and document the systems there is a fine line between abdicating and delegating this process. The idea of abdicating would be, “I know I need systems so I’ll just tell someone else to do it and get free from doing it.” But what if that person doesn’t have any guidelines and positioning about why they are writing the systems. Then it just becomes a document that is really beautiful and sits on the shelf collecting dust. What if the task was delegated and the designer knew exactly the result the system is to produce? That is to produce CONSISTENT predictable result every time!!! The trick is if the employees don’t fully embrace systems and buy into the idea of why they’re important, the systems are set up for sabotage and failure! If the employees are involved in the process, they have a more invested interested and it becomes part of the company culture. Having consultants can be really good and really bad depending how you use them. It’s the difference between delegation and abdication!!!

So many people I talk to have a company/operations manual and the employees have only read the first couple pages of it. WHY? Because it’s sitting on the shelf, just sitting there! The employees complain it’s boring, it’s too long, and if they have a question they’ll read it later. Why not have these systems with them as they are going through the procedures? Because systems haven’t become part of the company culture. Documented systems are not the answer. It’s a company culture that embraces documented systems and enjoys innovating them, is what sets the SUCCESSFUL businesses apart from everyone else!

So my question back to you is once you’ve bought those systems, how does it become a living identity in the business? How will it change overtime to meet the demands of your employees, the demands of your customers? How will you get your employees involved so they enjoy being free from having to reinvent the wheel of what they do everyday?

I’ve heard a good friend once say that systems are like a laundry basket full of dirty laundry that’s never done. Everyday there’s more to work on and more to do to make your business even better! I hope this helps you in your search for the best solution for your business.

With warm regards from a SYSTEMS fanatic,
Carrie

Hi,
Well, their is no quick fix to the creation of systems, as what I have discovered is every organization is different--and therefore no one system truly fits everyone. Yet, the good news is that it sounds like you are clear about what type of organiation you are creating, which is always the first step.

When creating a systems strategy for any business, you want to focus on a few things: The business as a whole, and then, each major "center of management attention." The definition of the systems that "go" in the Management function are (the systems that focus on) "the way you manage people and other resources in your business."

So there are essentially people management systems, and resources management systems. So what systems in your business manage the people? You have HR systems, which can, by the definition of their result, be "management systems" - some clients put payroll in the money systems area, but we have seen it each way. Other people systems may include "training", "hiring/firing", "employee reviews", "company / individual meetings", etc.

You have "technology systems and facilities management systems" and those are great areas of focus. Is there any kind of equipment maintenance, vehicle upkeep, janitorial, to focus on? Then look at how your office needs to function to support your ops system, create systems that support each other.

Systems should be as simple as possible. Also, as with any system, this listing will grow and change as you move through your business development....so we encourage you to look at this "stage of development" as the initial stage, and know that it will only get better defined as you work forward.

REMEMBER THAT SHARING IDEAS AND PHILOSOPHY IS GOOD.ALSO REMEMBER THAT IN BUSINESS IT IS NOT A ONE SIZE FITS ALL WORLD.I OWN THREE FRANCHISES,A MARKETING IDEA OR PRODUCT THAT WORKS IN ONE PART OF NEW YORK DOES NOT WORK IN OTHER PARTS.THE FOUNDATION OR PRINCIPLES OF BUSINESS ARE MOST IMPORTANT.

Very good words, but it seems a litte superficial to me. Everybody wants to be known as caring, easy to do business with, etc. Of course you need to be those things or you simply wont survice. However, branding is much more than that. I am starting a real estate and mortgage business and have used E-Myth strategies to help guide me in many areas of the business, especially marketing and branding.

Because, especially in mortgages, our services and products are essentially a commodity, branding is going to be the only way to differentiate ourselves from the pack. We have come up with a few specific areas that we believe set us apart and will focus on those areas to start creating our branding efforts. But I would argue that trying to build a brand around "outstanding service" is not targeting your branding effort enough. At this point we still have more questions than answers, but we are having a great time getting there.

Richard R

It seems to me that a lot of businesses are branding themselves along the personalised service line such as:
listens and understands clients
cares about clients
approachable
available

How do you brand to be different to what a lot of businesses are saying?

Mike

FANTASTIC OVERVIEW. My lady and I are a start up enterprise in NZ. We give thanks for the many tools and educative guidance you and your posts provide. We are working toward securing the capital necessary to afford an Emyth Business Advisor/Coach to walk with us through the prototype design into establishing 32 franchises throughout NZ in five years. We are 'E-Scape' - the total business, study and coffee escape!
We look forward to hosting you and your NZ counterparts in the near future. Warm regards Justyn & Kay

We own and operate an art/jewelry gallery in Green Bay, WI, called "The Gift Itself". We are very interested in supporting the arts and arts education. We create the types of experiences for young artists that we wish we had been available to us. We have:
Created and sponsored a High School Art Jewelry Competition for 10 area school districts.
Sponsored two awards for high school students in the State Fair Art Comptition, participated in by students from all over our state.
Host field trips for student and scout troups
Serve on the Studio Art Tour Committee
Jury art shows as often as possible
Create classes at our store to build an understanding of jewelry and art, these classes are attended by all ages, and we have a sliding or free component for low income students
We also serve on many committees with our Main Street Business Association, created over ten years ago to help rejuvinate our west downtown.
It all works together to create a full and fulfilling life. Michelle Zjala Winter

Meeting today’s business challenges together

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