Insights into Digital Marketing
Insight 1
The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Fail and What to Do About It
If you’ve ever felt like your business owns you instead of the other way around, you’re not alone. In his bestselling book, The E-Myth Revisited, Michael E. Gerber tackles one of the biggest misconceptions in entrepreneurship—and lays out a roadmap to help small business owners reclaim their freedom.
Whether you’re a solopreneur, a local business owner, or scaling your team, this book is a must-read. Here’s a summary of the key insights and how you can apply them to your business starting today.
What Is the “E-Myth”?
The Entrepreneurial Myth—or E-Myth—is the belief that most small businesses are started by entrepreneurs who understand business. In reality, most are started by technicians—skilled professionals (like bakers, designers, mechanics) who assume that being good at their trade means they can run a business around it.
Spoiler: it’s not that simple.
The 3 Personas of Every Business Owner
Gerber explains that every business owner wears three hats:
- The Technician – Loves Doing the Work (Baking, Selling, Designing, etc.)
- The Manager – Maintains Order, Systems, and Operations
- The Entrepreneur – Thinks Big Picture, Future, and Growth
The problem? Most people are 70% Technician, 20% Manager, and 10% Entrepreneur. This imbalance often leads to burnout and stagnation.
The Fatal Assumption
“If you understand the technical work of a business, you understand a business that does that technical work.”
This false belief leads many skilled professionals to start businesses—only to realize they’re now trapped doing more work with less reward.
Work on Your Business, Not In It
The big idea here: build a business that doesn’t rely on you.
Gerber teaches that your business should be designed like a franchise prototype—even if you never intend to franchise. That means:
- Creating Step-by-Step Systems
- Documenting How Things are Done
- Ensuring the Business Can Run without You
When you shift from technician to architect, you unlock real scalability and freedom.
Gerber, M. E., & Michael, E. G. (1985). The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It
Insight 2
10 Deadly Marketing Sins
Focused on their day-to-day activities, many marketers ignore the big picture: designing, communicating, and delivering offerings that create superior market value for their customers, collaborators, and stakeholders.
#1 The company is not sufficiently market-focused and customer-driven.
Signs: There are no employees who think it is the job of marketing and sales to serve customers. There is no training to create a customer culture, and no incentives to treat a customer especially well.
#2 The company does not fully understand its target customers.
Signs: Products are not selling like they were three years ago. The company did not evolve to meet customers’ needs, and there is a higher level of complaints.
#3 The company needs to better define and monitor its competitors.
Signs: The company is focused on competitors close by, misses distant competitors and disruptive technologies, and has no system for gathering and distributing competitive intelligence.
#4 The company does not properly manage relationships with stakeholders.
Signs: Current employees, vendors, and investors are not happy, and new suppliers are reluctant to partner with the company.
#5 The company is not good at finding new opportunities.
Signs: The company has not identified any new and exciting opportunities, and the new ideas the company has launched have largely failed.
#6 The company’s marketing planning process is deficient.
Signs: The marketing plan format does not have the right components, there is no way to estimate the financial implications of different strategies, and there is no contingency planning.
#7 Product and service policies need tightening.
Signs: There are too many products, and many are losing money; the company is giving away too many services, and the company is poor at cross-selling products and services.
#8 The company’s brand-building and communication skills are weak.
Signs: The target market does not know much about the company, the brand is not seen as distinctive, the company allocates its budget to the same marketing tools in much the same proportion each year, and there is little evaluation of the ROI impact on marketing communications and activities.
#9 The company is not organized for effective marketing.
Signs: Staff lacks 21st century marketing skills, and there are bad vibes between marketing/sales and other departments.
#10 The company has not made maximum use of technology.
There is minimal use of the internet. The sales automation system is outdated, and there is no longer market automation, no decision-support models, and no marketing dashboards.
Kotler, P., Keller, K. L., & Chernev, A. (2022). Marketing management. Pearson Education Limited.
