I now have more books to review than time to read them, they just keep rolling in. As I know that you guys enjoy the reviews and giveaways, I will make sure to chug through them as fast as possible.

The book to be reviewed this time is called “Work the System – The Simple Mechanics of Working Less and Making More.” It’s about how a struggling business owner working 80-100 hrs/week who overcame adversity to turn his business into the top business of it’s niche. Even with a super successful business, Sam Carpenter now only spends 2 hrs / week working in it.

How did he do it? First, lets start with the formalities.

About the Author:

The author Sam Carpenter is an entrepreneur who has dug himself out a small business mess by implementing simple clearly defined systems which has resulted in simplying both his work and life. Here is more info about Sam on workthesystem.com

A telecommunications professional, Sam has been a business owner for over 20 years and is the author of the book Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less, published by North Sister Publishing, Inc. in April 2008. Originally from upstate New York, Sam lives in Oregon with his wife, Linda. He is majority owner and president of Centratel, the highest-quality telephone answering service in the United States. He also founded and operates Kashmir Family Aid, an international charitable organization to aid earthquake victims in Pakistan and Azad Kashmir. He and Linda are also in the process of launching a major Internet startup site.

What is this book about:

Work the System is about a business owner, Sam Carpenter, who turned his failing small business into a huge success using clearly defined “systems”. What is a business system? To put it in basic terms, it’s documenting procedures for every position in a company to avoid confusion about their roles and responsibilities. If the positions are defined properly, all the company complexities should be covered without “the boss” even being present!

The book is well organized and separated into three parts. Part one of the book describes Mr. Carpenters business life and how he worked 20 hour days to keep up with his business and family life. Despite all of his hard work, the business was still slowly going under. It was basically the night before he would have to close up shop when he decided to take a leap and run his business with a different philosophy. That is, with systems.

Part two gets into more detail of his systems and how to implement them with specific examples from Centratel. It details that business’s need 3 types of paperwork, the stategic objective, general operating principles and the working procedures. I enjoyed this section as I personally learn best from example.

Part three is called “further considerations” and basically goes over tips and tricks to make a system run better in your business.

After implementing and improving his “system” over the years, Sam Carpenter now only works 2 hours a week on his business with annual growth increasing every year. That’s the business dream isn’t it? For a business to be able to sustain itself and continue to grow?

Final Thoughts

This book has a similar flavor as E-Myth but builds on it with specific examples. For those of you who are business owners (or considering it), I would highly suggest that you give this book a read.

Want a Free Copy?

• Simply leave a comment and you’ll automatically be entered in the draw for a free copy.
• Please only 1 comment entry / person (please enter a valid email address).
• Only those with a North American mailing address may enter (publisher rules, sorry).
• Contest will end Friday 5pm EST Sept 5, 2008 and the winner announced shortly afterwards!

Update: Contest had ended!