An Amazing Book I'm Reading Now (which you can get - for a short time - free)...

[Dien Rice]

I'm currently reading a pretty amazing book... The book is called "Work the System", by Sam Carpenter.

Sam Carpenter tells his story in the book. He worked at his business for 15 years, often barely breaking even, and at one stage even working 100 hours a week at it! He kept going because he refused to give up, and had no desire to rejoin the "work force" as an employee...

It took a long time, but one day - when the "straw" had almost broken the proverbial "camel's back" - he had an epiphany...

This specific insight was enough to help him to begin to turn his business around... In the end, he stopped working 100-hour weeks - and reduced his workload to just *2 hours a week*! At the same time, his business grew in success - as did his income...

Anyway, it's a really eye-opening book. I highly recommend it!

I've emailed Sam Carpenter, and he's currently got a special "deal" going... That "deal" is... for a very limited time... You can get the whole book - for free! (PDF format only.)

Just follow these instructions...

Go to http://www.workthesystem.com , and follow the instructions in the "Special Book Promotion" box on the left. The "passcode" you need to use is "seedsofwisdom" - put that in the "subject" line of your email...

If you do this, you'll get a free copy of the book (in PDF format) via email.

I don't get anything from this, and it's 100% free.

Here's the Amazon.com link too, by the way, in case you want the "hard copy", or want to read some other people's reviews of it, or wish to search within the book...

http://www.amazon.com/Work-System-Si...dp/1929774877/

(You can also leave a good review if you liked it...)

I have to thank Sam for letting me offer this to "Sowpubbers" for free. I *really, really* like this book, and highly recommend it! I hope you have the same kind of "epiphany" I've had...

You have around 2 weeks before the special offer expires (but even getting it at Amazon is an amazing deal - given that it could completely revolutionize your business life).

I'm about halfway through the book now, and have already started implementing some of the teachings... And I can already begin to see improvement in some of my business efficiency!

Best wishes,

Dien

[Dien Rice]

I hope some have been able to download the book, and are reading it...

I just want to say, first, that Sam didn't ask me to say some of the things I did (such as providing the Amazon link, for instance)... They are all on my own initiative. I rarely do this kind of thing, I wanted to do it in this case because I think the book is "revolutionary", and because it's such a great deal for everyone...

Here's how I think it is different from what else is "out there"...

Some who have read "The E-Myth Revisited" may notice a superficial similarity. Both books talk about setting up "operational procedures" (in the E-Myth) or "working procedures" (in Work the System)...

I read the E-Myth quite a while ago. Here's an article I wrote a few years ago, based on my experience putting it into practice...

http://www.biztactics.com/blog/2005/...iness-more.php

In that article, I understood only a "glimmer" of what is truly possible with this approach. Sam Carpenter, author of "Work the System", is the one who made me finally realize the full potential...

In the "E-Myth", the focus is more on being able to create "operations manuals" for your various functions you do in your business. The benefit of this is that, at some point in the future, you can easily outsource those functions. You don't have to do them all yourself!

That's great... But there's much, much more that is possible. That's what Sam Carpenter brings to the table.

These "operations" are "systems"... And you can work on them, to make them more efficient...

Why is this important?

Think of this...

Imagine you are someone who writes books for hire (e.g. you write people's memoirs for them). Let's say that each "job" you do pays you $2,000.

Each "job" of writing a personal memoir has a lot of tasks to do - for example, you have to interview the person, collate and rearrange the information, write the chapters, proofread and edit the book, put in and modify any graphics, and so on.

Now, let's say that doing this work takes you 100 hours. That means you're making $20 an hour...

However, now let's say you write down the various "systems" you use to do all these tasks... Then you work "on" them, to make them more efficient.

By doing this, you discover faster, more efficient ways to do certain things. You may even discover that some of the things you were doing are not really necessary, and removing them doesn't reduce the quality of the final memoir.

By applying this process to your many "procedures" you use, you can probably whittle down your hours.

Let's say you have 10 different "procedures" you use in working to write a personal memoir. And let's say you are able to improve on each one, so that now, each procedure reduces the total time you take for the memoir by 5% (that is, each procedure-reduction means the total time you take is now just 95% of what it was before).

How much time will you save in the end?

When you calculate it, in this case, it will overall take you just 60% of the time it took you before, with all the reductions.*

That means that you've just increased your pay from $20 an hour, to around $33 an hour.

See the importance?

By continuing this process (and perhaps adding some outsourcing), you can increase your pay rate higher and higher.

This process can also be used to increase quality and consistency.

Another amazing thing is that Sam points out that, you can also apply this to other things in your life, too. It's not just limited to your business!

I'm at the very beginning of this process right now, however, one place I've applied it to is sorting my physical mail. Before, I had an "ad hoc" process to sort the various bills and other mail. I wrote down a "working procedure" of what I did - and immediately saw how I could improve it. Now, I have a much better, faster, and more organized procedure for sorting my mail.

I'm sure how you can see how many incremental improvements like this can, overall, change your life for the better...

It will take a while for some to read it, but if you have some improvements you've made, please share your experiences and thoughts here...

Best wishes,

Dien

* The calculation is that, if each improvement reduces the time by 5%, then the time after all the 10 procedure improvements is (0.95)^10 = 0.6 . That is, in the end, it will take you just 60% of the time it took before.

This is the first time I've been able to read a book of this size on screen. It's very well written, making it easy to read.

I agree with Dien's comments all the way. This book takes the eMyth principles and lays them out in great detail.

I've participated in a business that used similar rules of operation and I can attest that they work. Any business would benefit from this process.

Hi Dien, Sam has decided to give away his book in both PDF and a audio version for free without having to use a password.
Thanks for introducing me and other SOW readers to this!

My little ebay store was starting to drive me crazy because on some days I get over 20 sales. Before reading Sam's "Work The System" book I would pull my hair out burning CD's, addressing envelopes, filling out custom declaration forms, driving across town to stand in line at the Post Office for half an hour and rushing back home to answer emails.

One week after reading Sam's book all I do is check my bank balance because I took Sam's advice and applied it first to my ebay store. Now I don't have to do a thing whether I make one sale a day or hundreds because of the system I've put into place!

When someone clicks on the buy it now button they are taken to my paypal check out page. As soon as they make their payment my system shoots them an email with a download link for the product and Kunaki.com prints and drop ships them a backup CD and my Aweber autoresponder follows up with each customer who opts in to my loyalty club with special offers only available to them!

Now I can spend more time snorkeling around the Great Barrier Reef and less time working and enjoy the peace of mind knowing that the week I spent setting this system up will pay me for years to come without me having to put in more than a couple of hours each month to maintain the system!

Sam's book picks up where "The E-Myth Revisited" left off. Reading it gave me the concepts and nuts & bolts I needed to work smarter instead of harder!

Everyone can benefit from reading Sam's Amazing book. It even helped me kick my caffeine habit and motivated me to fix my sleeping system so I feel much better now than just a month ago!

I can't say enough good things about Sam's book!

Cheers,

Steve Shulenski
www.MoneyMakingPhotography.com

Sam Carpenter is giving away free PDF copies of his book again until
March 31st and there are 3 video's of him being interviewed by two
sharp 24 year olds. Below is a quote from their website....

"If you…
have to show up somewhere to earn your income
consider yourself invaluable or irreplaceable (and view that as a good thing)
rely on people instead of systems
have little or no cashflow
are working day and night to invent the next big thing
think service-based businesses can’t be automated and provide passive income
…then you need to listen with keen ear and open mind to this interview series".

You can watch the videos at:
http://www.muselife.com/2010/02/work...e-copy-of-wts/

Cheers,
Steve Shulenski