Chamber Seminar a Success!

The Fort Dodge Area Chamber of Commerce’s Membership/Public Relations Committee works hard to put together valuable seminars for our members as another benefit of membership. On January 12th, 2010 the Fort Dodge Chamber sponsored a seminar presented by E-Myth Coaching entitled, “How to Make Your Organization Work”. Bob Clements with E-Myth spoke to local employees at a wide variety of Chamber Member businesses on the importance of creating and implementing a sustainable business plan and how thinking differently will begin to change and improve their results.

Mr. Clements began his presentation by mentioning that out of the 1,000,000+ businesses that will be created this year, only 4% of those will survive over a 5-year period. He then pointed out that most business owners start their own business with the idea that it will give them more freedom and flexibility in their personal lives, with the ultimate goal of someday selling it. The initial idea of “owning my own business” does not develop out of a desire to work 12 hour days because you are so consumed and overwhelmed by personally taking on the “day to day” operations of the business. Instead, owning a business should be about looking at the product from the outside in, working ON it, not IN it.

A sustainable business plan is one in which the plan is hard to replicate. In order to be considered “sustainable”, the business needs to do one or all of the following:
Compete on pricing (similar to Wal Mart’s strategy)
Create Product Superiority (similar to DELL computers’ strategy), or,
Develop Customer Intimacy (owning your relationships with customers; customers promote your business without asking them to)

The 5 Core Principles of the E-Myth Point of View are:

The Principle of Life: Your business is a tool/vehicle to be used to get more out of your life. It is more than just a job you’ve created for yourself, but rather, it is there to serve you.

The Law of Objectivization: View your business as separate from you – as a product of you – and you will be able to reinvent it. It’s about taking a step outside of your business, and looking at it objectively. Productive Time = Time spent on things that will get you closer and closer to your objective.

Working ON it not IN it: The business as a whole is the product, not the things or the services the business produces. You need to be focused on building your business, not merely cranking out products or services.

Systemization: View your business as an integrated system. The system does the work, and people run the system. Make sure your system is clear so, essentially, anyone would be able to do the job. One goal is to create a series of systems for all aspects of the business, which can be replicated over and over again (similar to McDonald’s).

Business Development: The task of the owner is continuous development of the business through the ongoing process of innovation, quantification, and orchestration.

By following these simple, yet very effective guidelines, E-Myth’s many years of experience shows that business owners will be successful in reaching their objectives. For more help on putting the pieces together, you may contact E-Myth Benchmark by calling (515) 288-6984 or by visiting their website at http://www.e-mythbenchmark.com.

Chamber Seminar a Success!
January 14th, 2010
by Lindsay Nevins, Program Director of the Fort Dodge Area Chamber of Commerce