Michael E. Gerber’s small business classic has recently been updated as The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It, with Kindle and Audiobook versions available as well.

Gerber’s book is one of the few that I consider “must-reads” for new small business owners and executives, either extant or aspiring. Originally written in the 1980s, the titular “E” doesn’t stand for electronic, as we’ve come to expect (as in email, e-commerce, etc.); it stands for “Entrepreneur Myth,” which is the often disastrous assumption that people who are experts regarding the technical details of a product or service will also be expert at running that sort of business.

One of the book’s most important lessons is that an entrepreneur can’t be content to simply do the work of their business; they also have to build a system for their business. A business can still survive if these internal systems are neglected, but it’s a lot less likely to thrive. The E-Myth Revisited explains how to build a company in a sustainable way while avoiding the pitfall of the Entrepreneur Myth.

This week’s tasty tidbits from the business and technology front, as well as other recommended links:

• Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable — An obituary for the newspaper industry, by the indispensable Clay Shirky. It’s especially relevant this week as the Seattle PI’s print edition passes away…
• Finally, A Use for Twitter — Shaq uses Twitter. Yes, that Shaq. So what happens when Shaq tweets his location at a local diner, and some fans go to see if it’s really him?
• Will the iPhone Remain The Fairest of Them All? — Apple announced that the iPhone 3.0 operating system will soon be available, with over 100 new features. Is it enough to keep it atop the mobile handset market?
• Wall Street on the Tundra — If you read only one long article about the financial crisis in Iceland—and how can you not?—this gem by Michael Lewis is wonderful. Like everything by Lewis, it’s equal parts informative, shocking, and funny.
• Android App Scans DVD Bar Codes, Starts BitTorrent Download — I predict that this application will be popular for exactly one day, at which point it will be sued into orbit. Still, it’s a neat demonstration of coming mobile technology.
• First Principles of Interaction Design — A great usability overview for software developers, for both traditional and web-based programs.
• Worst designed logos — Some of these are inappropriate, to say the least (unless you take them as originally intended!).

WordPress is a free blogging software package used by millions of individual bloggers, small businesses, and multinational corporations—including media titans like CNN, Fox, and the New York Times.

While its basic function as a blogging tool is well-known, WordPress is actually a powerful website content management system (CMS), too. With its rich text content editor, site navigation tools, and thousands of third party plug-ins, it’s a perfect fit for a small businesses looking to establish an inexpensive but professional Web presence.¹

In this recent USA Today profile, WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg noted:

People might start with LiveJournal or Blogger, but if they get serious, they’ll graduate to WordPress. We try to cater to the more powerful users.

This is certainly true. I’m a big fan of Google’s Blogger, and I use it for a variety of personal projects. But when it came time to choose the software platform for Bits & Bytes 2.0, I knew I wanted something more powerful, polished, and professional, so I chose WordPress.

An entrepreneur looking to set up a basic Web site with WordPress has two options:

1. WordPress.com — It’s free to sign up for a Website in the format (YOURNAME).WordPress.com, which includes an impressive amount of basic features.
2. Your Domain (.com) — The WordPress server software is open source, which among other things means that it’s free to download and use. As well as offering this as a premium feature at WordPress.com, many Web hosting providers are happy to support WordPress, too, and make the setup process very simple.

As ever, hosting your own Website or blog is the more professional option, but has relatively minor upfront and ongoing costs.² There’s no reason to take the plunge sight unseen, though—since WordPress.com blogs are free, why not head over and set one up to see what you think? In less than two minutes, you can set up a new blog and start poking around under the hood.

If/when you decide you’re ready to host your own WordPress website or blog, and don’t already have a Web host, check out this earlier rave review for my own hosting provider, Dreamhost—and be sure to use this exclusive coupon to save some money. Happy blogging!

1. In many contexts, “website” and “blog” are largely interchangeable terms. Technically speaking, a blog is a subset of the more general website classification; all blogs are websites, but not all websites are blogs. The technical differences between the two are trivial, but a blog is usually organized around regular content updates listed in reverse-chronological order. [↩]
2. Costs will include domain name registration ($15) and monthly Web hosting (from $5.95/mo to $10.95/mo at Dreamhost, for example. If you already have a Web host, and they support WordPress, then there’s no additional fee for the WordPress software.). [↩]