Okay, here’s the test. What do franchising, The E-Myth Revisited and innovation all have in common? (And, no, they’re not an answer to a Johnny Carson riddle.) Well, The E-Myth Revisited is a business book by Michael E. Gerber and its specific focus is helping small businesses survive and thrive. As for franchising and innovation, they’re just two of the magical secrets Gerber states will allow you to grow your business beyond the riches of your wildest dreams. Unless, of course, your dream is to purchase Pluto or some other planetary object with your business assets. That may be beyond even the E-Myth.

Okay, so I know you’re probably asking yourself, what’s so special about The E-Myth Revisited? Well, sit yourself down and I’ll tell you. The first question that probably comes to mind when you look at this book is, just what IS this "E-Myth" thing? Well, it’s Gerber’s opinion that most small businesses are not started by entrepreneurs as we largely believe, but by "technicians" or skilled workers who are having "an entrepreneurial seizure." (I understand this is a painful and uncomfortable affliction that can cost thousands of dollars and incessant business plans to cure.) Seriously, though, Gerber redefines the term entrepreneur not simply as somebody who launches into a business of their own, as we tend to define the word, but as someone who is "the innovator, the grand strategist, the creator of new methods for penetrating or creating new markets, the world-bending giants—like Sears Roebuck, Henry Ford, Tom Watson of IBM, and Ray Kroc of McDonald’s. The entrepreneur is our creative personality—always at its best dealing with the unknown, prodding the future, creating probabilities out of possibilities, engineering chaos into harmony."

So, does that sound like anyone you know? Can you see yourself falling into that category? No? According to Gerber, the true entrepreneur is very rare indeed. But, there’s hope for all the rest of us shmucks because Gerber feels that there’s an entrepreneur inside all of us, we just have to figure out how to set them free. It’s kinda like that whole inner child thing... only not.

So, how do we free our inner entrepreneur, you ask? Well, according to Gerber we have to envision our business as if we were marketing it as a franchise. We must step back and pretend that we have a buyer coming in and we’re going to show them just exactly how they can reproduce the product we’re making in their own franchise. To do that, we must have a system. A system that works each and every time and is completely foolproof.

Gerber uses McDonald’s as the ultimate example of the foolproof system. McDonald’s first developed the idea of the franchise that sold a system of doing business, not just a name or a logo. McDonald’s was also the first to parlay a franchising system into a multi-billion dollar corporation. Impressive, huh? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. The REALLY cool thing about the McDonald’s corporation is that it’s built on a foundation of the lowest skill level of employee known to man, the teenager. If you think about it, Ray Kroc, the innovator of McDonald’s, managed to create a business empire that spans the globe on the backs of the teenage workforce in a weird sort of pharaoh/peasant parallel. You gotta love it! Now, let me say right here, I don’t want to be inundated with nasty letters from burger flipping high school students. I mean no disrespect. In fact, I myself, served my time under the golden arches. But, you see the point. Walk into any McDonald’s and most of the employees haven’t even started shaving yet, but you can get the exact same hamburger from the McDonald’s on Union Deposit Road as you can from the one in the East Mall Food Court, and the one in Cairns, Australia (and believe me, I know, I’ve been to all three and they taste just the same). That’s because Ray Kroc developed a system that even the most unskilled worker can follow with a little training. And that, sweet friends, is what Monsieur Gerber feels you should do as well.

Easier said than done, you say. Well, of course it is. Nothing worth having is ever easy. The most difficult path is the path to sure success. A rolling stone gathers no moss. Look both ways before you cross the street, etc, etc, etc. Just remember that there are two other steps needed besides systemization or "innovation" as Gerber calls it. There is also quantification and orchestration. I think we can all figure out what quantification means: studies, statistics and numbers. They’re essential to discover if your innovation was a good one or a poor one. There’s only one way to find out and that’s to measure the durn thing. Measure everything you can think of, from how many phone calls you get daily, to foot traffic, impulse buys, even what difference it makes if you wear green or if you wear blue. Some experts contend that you’ll increase your sales if you wear a blue suit, white shirt and a tie with red in it, hence the "power tie" phenomenon. Orchestration is the implementation of your fabulous innovation system and quantification rituals. Orchestration is the essence of "Just Do It."

And that, as they say, is that. Or as my mother would put it, "That’s it, Fort Pitt!" Whatever that means. Just remember Innovation, Quantification and Orchestration and you’ll do just fine. If any of this has struck a chord with you and you feel like your business could benefit from some organization and systemization, run out and get yourself a copy of The E-Myth Revisited. If none of this has caused a lightbulb to form over your head, then go to McDonald’s and have a hamburger. Then go to another McDonald’s and have another hamburger. Then, ruminate (which is only appropriate since you’re eating beef) about it again. Think about what being able to produce the exact same product every single time would do for your business. For a business, like a good science experiment, should be able to produce the same measurable results every single time or it’s not a good experiment. And that, my friends, is it, Fort Pitt!