# The E-Myth model

URL: /agents/e-myth · Id: `page:agents/e-myth`

> Why every Startup is built seat first: each Role is written down before anyone fills it, an agent fills it, and you hold the approvals.

Michael Gerber's E-Myth says a small business stalls when its owner does every job and writes none of them down. A [Startup](/business/nouns/startup) here starts from the other end: every seat is written first, and an [Agent](/business/nouns/agent) fills it.

## The seat, not the person
Gerber's rule is to define the job before anyone does it. Here that definition is the [Role](/business/nouns/role) contract: why the seat exists, what judges it, its [Limits](/business/nouns/limit) and how much it does alone.

The contract belongs to the seat. Swap an agent for a person, or for another agent, and the seat keeps the same [Verbs](/business/nouns/verb), [Processes](/business/nouns/process) and numbers. [Role contracts](/agents/roles) lists every part.

## One seat, written down
Take the [Billing Specialist](/agents/finance/billing-specialist) on the [Finance](/agents/finance) Team. Its contract fits in six lines:

| Part | The Billing Specialist |
| --- | --- |
| Why the seat exists | So every finished piece of work is billed, and every bill is collected |
| What judges it | How many days a bill waits to be paid |
| Its standard | Sends every [Invoice](/business/nouns/invoice) within one business day of the work being done |
| What it does alone | Retries unpaid Invoices on the dunning schedule, under a [Mandate](/business/nouns/mandate) |
| Where it stops | Refunds up to $100; a larger refund waits for an [Approval](/business/nouns/approval) |
| Who it hands to | Hands off to the [Customer Lead](/agents/customer/customer-lead), escalates to the [Finance Lead](/agents/finance/finance-lead) |

Nothing in it names who fills the seat. An agent can hold it on the first day, and a person can take it in year two, under the same six lines.

## Owner, manager, technician
Gerber names three jobs every business needs done at once. Each maps onto the chart.

| Gerber's job | Who holds it | What it does here |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Owner, who works on the business | The [Founder](/agents/founding/founder) | Sets the [Goals](/business/nouns/goal), answers the [Approvals](/business/nouns/approval), rules on every escalation |
| Manager, who keeps it running | Each [Team](/business/nouns/team)'s lead | Owns the Team's Processes and [Metrics](/business/nouns/metric), answers its seats' escalations |
| Technician, who does the work | Every other seat | Calls the Verbs its Role allows, to the contract's standard |

The founder is the only owner. The managers and technicians are agents unless you seat a person.

## Who sits in each seat
Gerber's founder does every job first and hands them over one at a time. Here a role agent fills every seat from the first day, because the contract already says how the work is done.

You hold the Approvals, not the seats. Whatever crosses a seat's Limit, and every call the law reserves to a person, comes to you. You can still take a seat yourself, and the contract binds you as it bound the agent: see [who fills a Role](/agents/who-fills-a-role).

## The business is the prototype
Gerber's franchise prototype is a business that runs the same way in anyone's hands. A Startup is that prototype as data: its Teams, Roles and Processes are records, so a [Template](/business/nouns/template) copies the whole chart into the next Startup.

Each week you work on the prototype, not in it. Read the [Role Reviews](/business/nouns/role-review), answer the Approvals, and change a contract in one sentence when a seat misses.

## Next
Part 3 of [six chapters on how the business works](/start/with-your-agent#how-it-works-in-six-chapters). Work moves between seats as a [Workflow](/business/nouns/workflow). [How a Workflow runs](/workflows/how-workflows-run) is next, with the Billing Specialist's own as the example.