Quotes from Michael E. Gerber

4. All Work in the Model Will Be Documented in Operations Manuals

Once you fully understand the relationship every owner must have with his or her business if it is to work, I can assure you that your business and your life will take on new vitality and new meaning.

offer at the price at which he offers it. To The Entrepreneur, however, the customer is always an opportunity. Because The Entrepreneur knows that within the customer is a continuing parade of changing wants begging to be satisfied. All The Entrepreneur has to do is find out what those wants are and what they will be in the future.

He was running the business for him, not for me.

Your Income Statement tells you (1) how much money you're spending and where; and(2) how much money you're receiving and from where. Flow gives you the same information as the Income Statement, plus it tells you when you're spending and receiving money—that is, Flow is an Income Statement moving through time.

it's not the commodity or the work itself that is important. What's important is the business: how it looks, how it acts, how it does what it is intended to do.

As a result, the world is a continuing surprise, a treasure hunt to The Entrepreneur.

To The Entrepreneur, however, the customer is always an opportunity. Because The Entrepreneur knows that within the customer is a continuing parade of changing wants begging to be satisfied. All The Entrepreneur has to do is find out what those wants are and what they will be in the future. As a result, the world is a continuing surprise, a treasure hunt to The Entrepreneur.

What you do in your model is not nearly as important as doing what you do the same way, each and every time.

You must be able to forecast the Flow. You must have a Flow Plan that helps you gain a clear vision of what's out there next month and the month after that.

How can I get my business to work, but without me? • How can I get my people to work, but without my constant interference? • How can I systematize my business in such a way that it could be replicated 5,000 times, so the 5,000th unit would run as smoothly as the first? • How can I own my business, and still be free of it? • How can I spend my time doing the work I love to do rather than the work I have to do? If

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

By identifying the money sources inside and outside of your business, and then applying these methods, you are better able to control the Flow in your business. But what are these sources? They include how you: Plan a project Buy materials Compensate your people Plan people's time Estimate a job Sell a job Manage a job Collect receivables

if you understand the technical work of a business, you understand a business that does that technical work.

The purpose of going into business is to get free of a job so you can create jobs for other people. "The purpose of going into business is to expand beyond your existing horizons.

But before you can determine what that role will be, you must ask yourself

the difference between creativity and Innovation is the difference between thinking about getting things done in the world and getting things done.

these questions: What do I value most? What kind of life do I want? What do I want my life to look like, to feel like? Who do I wish to be?

The Entrepreneur has to do is find out what those wants are and what they will be in the future. As a result, the world is a continuing surprise, a treasure hunt to The Entrepreneur. To The Technician, however, the world is a place that never seems to let him do what he wants to do; it rarely applauds his efforts; it rarely appreciates his work; it rarely, if ever, appreciates him. To The Technician, the world always wants something he doesn't know how to give it.

If The Entrepreneur lives in the future, The Manager lives in the past. Where The Entrepreneur craves control, The Manager craves order. Where The Entrepreneur thrives on change, The Manager compulsively clings to the status quo.

Hi, have you been in here before?" The customer will respond with either a "yes" or a "no." In either case, you are then free to pursue the conversation.

Anthony Greenbank, who said in The Book of Survival, "To live through an impossible situation, you don't need the reflexes of a Grand Prix driver, the muscles of a Hercules, the mind of an Einstein. You simply need to know what to do.

Life becomes easier. Life becomes a dream. You begin to take a little longer lunch: thirty minutes instead of fifteen. You leave a little earlier at the end of the day: eight o'clock instead of nine. Harry comes to you occasionally to tell you what he needs, and you, busy as usual, simply tell him to handle it. How doesn't matter as long as he doesn't bother you with the details. You've got other fish to fry.

Your Business Strategy and Plan are a way of communicating to anyone you must communicate to the direction your business is going, how it intends to get there, and the specific benchmarks it will need to hit in order for the Strategy and Plan to work.