document.write('<p><b><font class="heading">How to Profitably Grow Your Business With Less Stress</font></p><p><font class="text">DO Y');
document.write('OU HAVE A BUSINESS OR A JOB?</b></p><p>Michael Gerber is a business consulting &quot;guru&quot; whose observations con');
document.write('cerning small businesses have had a profound impact on how his students see their businesses and their role as a busines');
document.write('s owner.</p><p>Gerber observed that most people go into business for the wrong reason. They are skilled technicians. T');
document.write('hey do a good job of what the business provides to the customer. They believe they can earn more by doing it in their ow');
document.write('n business than for someone else. They leave and open their own shop. This is what Gerber calls an &quot;<i>entrepreneur');
document.write('ial seizure</i>.&quot;</p><p>These technicians believe they will find more freedom in their business but they discover');
document.write(' it is the hardest job in the world. There is no escape. They are the ones who are doing the work! <i>They are the &quot');
document.write(';business!&quot;</i> But if they are the business, they haven\'t really created a business at all. They have only created');
document.write(' a job for themselves!</p><p>According to Gerber, the role of the owner is quite different. The role of the business o');
document.write('wner is <i>to create a business that works</i> <b>independently of him or herself</b>. There is an &quot;end point&quot;');
document.write(' where the business functions independently of the owner. At this point, the business owner may choose to sell it or not');
document.write('. By then, he or she will have created a ready-to-sell &quot;money making machine&quot; and may choose whether to devote');
document.write(' effort to it or not. The business can also be duplicated from place to place.</p><p>The model for this effort is the ');
document.write('&quot;turnkey franchise,&quot; such as McDonalds. The franchise creator, by establishing, documenting, and testing detai');
document.write('led systems, Ray Kroc made a uniform business with a certain look, providing a consistent experience to the customer. Ra');
document.write('y controlled the design of the restaurant, sold uniformly made food and equipment, and provided the &quot;scripts&quot; ');
document.write('for the service people. These scripts contained detailed procedures for preparing the food.</p><p>Likewise, the busine');
document.write('ss owner should start with an idea of what this business should look like. This includes an organizational chart that co');
document.write('uld start with the business owner in each box. The chart documents the organization with responsibilities for chief exec');
document.write('utive, marketing, accounting, finance, and production employees. Gradually, the business owner tests, measures, and docu');
document.write('ments procedures for each position then replaces them with others until he or she isn\'t needed at all.</p><p>The short');
document.write('hand phrase for the business systems could be &quot;Here\'s how we do it here.&quot;</p><p>The business becomes a learn');
document.write('ing place where each person finds satisfaction in performing their parts to the best of their abilities.</p><p>Small b');
document.write('usiness owners should be grateful to Michael Gerber for his profound observations and the challenge he has presented to ');
document.write('us. Each morning, we should ask ourselves: &quot;Am I going to a business, or am I going to a job?&quot; If we are going');
document.write(' to a job, we have Gerber\'s model for change.</p><p>Employees must think in order to provide outstanding service. Gerb');
document.write('er\'s approach can sometimes be inflexible when dealing with changes we deal with today.</p><p>More important than &quo');
document.write('t;Here\'s how we do it here,&quot; we need to know &quot;What\'s important here.&quot; We need to define the values of our');
document.write(' business. People need to be more important than the systems that are supposed to serve them. Systems shouldn\'t override');
document.write(' common sense.</p>');