Sugar Land, TX - This year marks four decades since Michael Gerber published The E-Myth: Why Most Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It in 1986. To mark the anniversary, Glenn Smith Executive Coaching has published a guide to Gerber's 7-step business development program, written for owners whose companies still depend on them to function day to day.
Glenn Smith, founder of Glenn Smith Executive Coaching, first read The E-Myth the year it was published and later met Gerber in person. His career includes starting and selling a business, launching a consultancy, and coaching more than 100 companies.
The technician trap, four decades later
The E-Myth argues that most small businesses are started by skilled technicians, not entrepreneurs. An accountant opens a firm. A plumber starts a plumbing company. Trade skills do not translate into building a business that can grow, stabilize, or run without the owner present.
The book's answer is to work on the business, not just in it, by designing the company as a system that produces consistent results without the owner in every room.
The 7-step business development program
The guide walks through each step of Gerber's program and how it applies in client work:
Step 1: Primary aim: decide what kind of life the business is meant to support.
Step 2: Strategic objective: define what the business must deliver, whether income, freedom, or a clean exit.
Step 3: Organizational chart: map every role so the structure does not depend on who fills each seat.
Step 4: Management system: trace every function and outcome back to a system, not a person.
Step 5: People development: document the system first, then train to it.
Step 6: Marketing system: replace occasional referrals with a repeatable process for winning customers.
Step 7: Systems strategy: treat the whole business as a system so the owner can step back, bring in leadership, or sell.
The guide closes with a test for owners: what the business would look like if the owner stepped away tomorrow. A business that cannot answer that question cannot easily be handed off, grown, or sold.
Glenn Smith's full breakdown of the seven steps is available on his website: The E-Myth's 7-Step Business Development Program.
About Glenn Smith Executive Coaching:
Glenn Smith Executive Coaching helps business owners and executives build the structure, systems, and leadership capacity to create companies that run, grow, and transfer on their terms. Based in Sugar Land, Texas, the firm offers business coaching, executive coaching, leadership development, management training, succession planning, and Fractional Integrator services for companies running on EOS. Glenn Smith has worked with more than 100 businesses, is a certified Working Genius facilitator, and is a member of the Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce. Learn more at glennsmithcoaching.com.
The E-Myth is a registered trademark of its owner. Glenn Smith Executive Coaching is not affiliated with or endorsed by Michael E. Gerber or Michael E. Gerber Companies.
Media Contact
Name
Glenn Smith Executive Coaching
Contact name
Glenn Smith
Contact phone
281-635-5224
Contact address
4655 Sweetwater Blvd, Suite 375
City
Sugar Land
State
Texas
Zip
77479
Country
US
Url
https://glennsmithcoaching.com/
COMTEX_494530662/2888/2026-10-19T12:07:14
