The e-Myth Accountant: Why Most Accounting Practices Don't Work and What to Do About it (E-Myth Vertical) [Hardcover]

This concoction, half marketing pamphlet, half Accounting for Dummies, is another sorry addition to Michael Gerber's so-called "vertical" E-Myth series that offers watered-down replicas of what Gerber thinks is the root cause of small business failures: that business owners act as domain specialists ("technicians") rather than dream the dream of true "entrepreneurs." Sounds catchy, but is all wrong. While it's clearly not enough to be a great cook to run a successful restaurant, the bigger problems have always been: (1) lack of sufficient money, and (2) lack of thorough planning. Many surveys have shown this for years. And by the way, some of the greatest companies were founded by "technicians": HP, Microsoft, Apple, Google - even the company man Gerber seems to like, junk-food king Ray Kroc of McDonald's, began by making, as a ground meat technician, his fatty burgers. After making those, just like after building i-Phones, you need of course more: marketing, selling, distribution, service, financial control, lawyers - you name it. And to orchestrate this motley of responsibilities you need, above all, a business plan and money to implement it.

According to Gerber, all you need is sing the ditty "work on your company, not in your company", and all will be well. Ah yes: AND you must hire him or attend his outrageously expensive seminars (ludicrous "dreaming rooms"), or at least: Buy His Books! And soon you'll be successful and rich. But beware: As Christopher Buckley once observed: "The only way to get rich from a self-help book is to write one."

As for the tone, structure & content, and pretensions of this book, it follows by and large the recipe of earlier Gerber works:

TONE: Gerber knows everything, and you are hopeless, if you don't agree. He's the master, he has consulted with 60,000 businesses, he's been "successful." (He has long ago abandoned his struggling company E-Myth Worldwide.) In the tradition of the naïve baker Sue and similar hapless characters in his earlier books), he introduces the fake couple of Steve and Peggy, and leads them through the same shallow waters he has waded through in his earlier books, often using the same words, almost identical sentences from his recent book, replacing "attorney" with "accountant".

STRUCTURE & CONTENT: A sequence of short, thin chapters mostly filled with clichés - again, exactly like his earlier vertical pamphlets: About money, people, clients, growth, time, all very generic and yet blustery. Often in bullet points, as lists, with lots of white space to fill 170 meager pages. It must be said that the sections written by co-author M. Darren Root contain a bit more meat, but it's also not very high-grade - lots of fatty tissue and generalities, like "Our clients enable us to grow and move forward. They are our greatest assets. The client-accountant relationship is special - one built on an immense level of trust. Clients depend on us to be their trusted advisor, providing so much more than delivery of financial statements or tax returns. Clients look to their accountant for sage business advice to ensure business and personal success ..." and on and on. Similar words about trust and sage advice and special relationship and greatest assets can be said about physicians and car mechanics. This book is just generic business babble with a little accountant-coloring.

PRETENSIONS: This book, like all of Gerber's products, assume that you are not far removed from being a moron, and that He is the Moses coming down the mountain with the Tablet of Truth. Never mind that most of his "truth" is reheated E-Myth rehash or spiritual nonsense. In order to give the book a veneer of respectability, the weirdest and the wildest quotes are again sprinkled in, from George Washington to Henry Ford and Oliver Wendell Holmes. One of my favorites is supposed to illuminate the chapter on "Estimating:" Gerber's choice of spiritual guidance is here: "The way a Chihuahua goes about eating a dead elephant is to take a bite and be very present with that bite. In spiritual growth, the definite act is to take one step and let tomorrow's step take care of itself."

For fuller disclosure I will add that I mentor small business owners myself, teach QuickBooks as well as half-day courses on business planning (for SCORE and for free). In this capacity as a coach and mentor I have followed the miserable decline of Gerber's books, from the acceptable "E-Myth Revisited" to the later books, which are, like this one here, not much more than shameless self-promotions. All hat, no cattle, and certainly no meat.

I think this book is excellent. It offers the core philosophies and concepts that Darren Root implemented to transition his own firm. I also love that Darren offers his personal story, complete with all the headaches and struggles. As someone who owns a small accounting firm, I have a lot going on at all times, but I am dedicated to keeping my firm moving forward with new technologies and processes that will allow my firm to maximize profit and growth potential, all while achieving a work/life balance. I was smiling as I read this book. It affirmed my decision to implement changes in my own firm. I felt even more motivated and excited about my firm's future and where it is headed after reading this book.

I think this is the book for small and even mid-sized firms who want to break out of the traditional mold and, as Darren says, become a Next Generation Accounting Firm. I'm very happy that Darren put this all down in the book and shared it with the rest of the profession. A job well done.

I enjoyed this book. Yes, sometimes I was left wanting more substance. Yes, some of it is a rehash of Gerber's other books, but I truly believe that having the subject relate only to the field of accounting and having Darren's input to each area was great. He was speaking to me on several levels.

I could truly see myself when I first started my practise, and also judge myself against how far we have come. I was reminded of areas we still need to work on, and was pleased when I realized that some of their suggestions we are already implementing well.

For me, the book came at a great time, as I just bought back 100% of my company, and am going back to our original roots, which was a true accounting and teaching firm. We will definitely be doing some of the excercises that are in the book, and since the book is not long, I will also ask my employees to read it so that everyone is involved and taking responsibility to make the business run best.

I believe you need to constantly review where you are in the scheme of things, and this book helps you take that step and analyze how far you have come, and what you need to do next. That technology is truly our friend, and having systems in place is key to our capability to move towards having a true 'business'that runs well. Even if you already know the basics of this book, it always help to read and review.

I will be giving this book to several of my CPA friends, who I think could use this as a reference point to start moving away from technician. I believe this book would help the accountant who is realizing he started a company to have freedom, and doesn't have any.

T. Santore
Quicksilver Business Solutions LLC