The Turn-Key Revolution

Michael Gerber, in The E-Myth Revisited; Why Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It. New York: Harper Business, 1995, on pp. 79-80,points to the "turn-key revolution" as a "way of doing business that has the power to dramatically transform any small business--indeed, any business, no matter what it's size--from a condition of chaos and disease to a condition of order, excitement, and continual growth."

Gerber writes about Ray Kroc, who expanded McDonald's from one hamburger joint to an economic power house by not caring about selling hamburgers. He cared about selling businesses.

He touts what he calls the "Business Format Franchise," which goes beyond mere franchising. In franchising, "the franchisor licenses the right to small companies to market its nationally known products nationally. But the Business Format Franchise moves a step beyond the trade name franchise. The key he says, is this "provides the franchisee with an entire system of doing business." And in that difference lies the true significance of the Turn-Key Revolution and its phenomenal success. The Turn-Key Revolution and the Business Format Franchise were born of a belief that runs counter to what most business founders in this country believe. Most business founders believe that the success of a business resides in the success of the product that it sells...[Rather,] the true product of a business is the business itself. (See p. 83)"

If you want to read more about this, get the book and read pp. 83-90.

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Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. Entrepreneurial ideas are their life's blood. For my ideas on entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for my ideas on writing and publishing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com