Empowering Entrepreneurial Success: Insights from Jackie Ware of EOS

In this episode, we're joined by Jackie Ware, a seasoned expert from EOS (The Entrepreneurial Operating System). EOS isn't just a business management system; it's a transformative approach that empowers entrepreneurs to achieve their goals while enhancing the lives of everyone involved in the business ecosystem. Jackie shares invaluable insights into how EOS equips business owners to step away from day-to-day operations or prepare for a successful sale, providing a roadmap for sustainable growth and long-term success. Whether you're an entrepreneur seeking to streamline your operations or preparing for the next stage of your business journey, this conversation offers practical wisdom to guide you towards your goals. Tune in and discover how EOS can revolutionize your approach to business management and leadership.

Transcript

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What's up guys, Chris Bowen here with Level Up the Podcast. I am joined today by Jackie Ware of EOS. Jackie is pretty much fantastic at what she does. You know, she really goes hard on social media. So if you follow her there, she's got great content. She's teaching small business owners how to scale their business properly. Jackie, why don't you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself. Thank you, Chris. So my name is Jackie Ware. I am an EOS implementer. So what I do is I come in and I implement a business framework into your operations, help you guys with growth and scalability, and help you clean up all your systems and organize your business. is if anybody's ever grown a business and scaled a business before, you know how important those steps are that, you know, you can only grow to a certain point without having those systems in place. Otherwise you fail. So walk us through a little bit about what, if somebody reached out to you, what kind of that looks like and what are the first steps in that process. So my target client, let's start there, is gonna be an entrepreneurial organization that's privately held. I'm looking for people who have two to 500 employees. Technically EOS doesn't look at revenue, but I like to try to find companies that... or doing about a million dollars in revenue and then I want them on a growth and scaling trajectory. They want to grow and scale. My niche has kind of become that burnt out owner, right? The one who's grown and done this and nothing's really working and they're frustrated and they just want their life back and I can help it. I can help there. So... where, you know, you feel like you're spending your entire life inside of your business. So I think that's huge. We are working seven days a week, right? 10, 12 hour plus days. You have no days off. You're trying to multitask and take care of your family or your marriage or your kids and do all of the things and run a business that's consuming all of your time. And what I learned, cause I was a client first for EOS. So what I learned is, you know, there's a better way to do that. You don't have to do it that way. You can get your life back. And I did. And so that's why I actually went into EOS is because it was so life saving for me. I wanted to share this with everyone else. Like these owners need it. You need it. You don't realize it maybe, or some of you do, but you need some sort of system. It doesn't work without. absolutely agree with you. I think that especially in those guys, you know, at the million dollar mark, that's kind of where it starts, especially when you're primarily working with construction businesses and things of that nature. You know, that million dollar mark is kind of that entry barrier to that. But once you get going above that, it's easy to burn yourself out. It really is. You know, you spend a lot of time within your business, working on your business, working in your business. You know, and I think it's important to learn how to work on your business, not necessarily in it, which is what you do. That is our goal with EOS, right? So when I come into your company and I'm working with you, my goal by the time we're finished is to have that owner out of the day to day. That's not where your best use is, right? Your best use is sitting in that visionary seat, managing all of your large important relationships, you know, managing your large sales relationships and... carrying the vision for the company, staying on pulse with your industry, making sure that you're doing the new right things that you need to be doing. That's where we want the visionary. I don't want the visionary in the day to day. I don't want you managing the people and working in the ops and fumbling with the finances because that's not where you're best suited. And that's where we want to get other people where they're doing the day to day. So. I help the visionary if they don't already have one, we help find an integrator. Your integrator is the person that manages all of the day -to -day operations, and that's what we want them to have. think that's huge. You know, as somebody who is more visionary, you know, when it comes to running a business, that was by far the hardest part when I ran my construction business. And we were only doing, you know, five, five and a half million dollars in business. And even then without having that integrator in the business, it was hard for me to be able to implement things and to grow to the point where... I was no longer the one in charge and running everything. I think ultimately that was a big reason for why I ended up closing my business and going out of business. I think that was a huge reason behind that is as a visionary, you don't necessarily have that ability to do the things that you need to do all the time. You know, you have this big broad picture of what you want and you know where you want to be, but you need somebody who to help you get you there. Yeah, absolutely. So one of the great things people, the people component of EOS is my favorite. I love people. I love, love the personality assessments. I jumped so far into those and got all of the training and certification that I could possibly get because it is so amazing to me. And I look at an organization like it's a puzzle. Okay. And every puzzle has pieces that go in a certain place. And I like to help the owners put that puzzle together and the people are their pieces, right? And everyone has their own natural strengths. And so I use the personality assessments to find out what those people's strengths are and then make sure they're sitting in a position or a seat that is playing into their strengths. And so this was one of the things that we found when running our own companies. Naturally, because I'm a woman, I got to sit in the operations role, right? Oh, you must be an integrator because you're female. What I learned is I'm actually a visionary. I'm not an integrator. I don't really possess those skills. I've managed to make it work to some level of success, but it's not my favorite thing to do. I'm not really qualified for it. I'm much better sitting in that visionary seat. And once we learned this, it was amazing for our companies because I don't allow myself in that seat anymore. I don't allow that to be my role because I know that's not where I'm best suited. And so EOS does have assessments that people can take to determine whether they lean more on the visionary or integrator scale, as well as the other assessments that I use and like and am certified in where I help them. survey all of their people, let's make sure they're all sitting in the right seat with your current team. And then when we're hiring, we're looking for a very specific person and I use those assessments to help find those people. I think that if people haven't done that, they need to jump on that immediately because it does make a big difference in knowing if you have somebody in the right position or not. And, you know, ultimately it's going to save you a lot of heartache and a lot of headache by knowing whether or not you need to move that person or if they're even right for your company to begin with. And I think that, yeah. you know? the hardest part of being a business owner is the turnover and the constant hiring and firing and quitting. And if you can eliminate even 20 % of that, think of the cost savings. It probably pays for you. Oh my gosh. So I had a client that hired me to do like a team strategy for their current team. And his complaint was he had this one particular employee that was very, very, very knowledgeable in what they did. He was very good at what he did, but he was not in the right seat potentially. Right. And so that was kind of what they were looking at and he told me, I'm gonna have to let this guy go and I'm so heartbroken over it because he's so knowledgeable and he's so good at what he does. So I'm like, let's just look at what his personality survey comes back as. So this guy is, there's 19 profiles in the assessments that I use, right? So out of all of the different types of people, there's 19 different personality types, okay? a very small handful, three to five of them are really actually sales profiles, okay? This guy was a hardcore salesperson, I mean, to the extreme, but he is sitting at a desk all day long writing exactimate reports, okay? That was his job. And I'm like, no wonder this guy is losing his mind, right? He is angry, he is perfect, he's in a bad mood. because he is chained to this desk working on Xactimate for eight hours a day, five days a week. He's miserable. So what we did, yes, so that's what we did. We outsourced the Xactimate writing and we put him in a sales role. So he started doing business development and it made a massive change. He was so happy. He was so much more enjoyable. He loved his job. And my owner was very satisfied at that point, right? Like, help him find his role, was able to see. You know, but you help the business as well because now the business can be more successful now that it has the correct people in the correct roles. That's huge. Yes. And my owner that I was working with did not have to let the guy go. Now he found a spot where he was playing in his strengths and then he was able to retain him as an employee. And so that's huge. I mean, that's, and a lot of times it's just a little bit of a change in what their role is within your company. And then you have a, it's almost like having a totally different person. huge in business. It really is. And it really just goes to kind of, you know, that family mentality in a business as well, and you know, how you treat your employees. And when you put them in a position to flourish, you have happy employees, you know, that love what they do. And they will support the business however they can that way, you know. So that's awesome. That's a cool story. I like that one. And so one of the things that we talked about kind of off camera is that you help implement SOPs. What kind of goes into that when you're working with various businesses? Yes, okay, so with EOS, and I'll just kind of go through the whole system real quick, and I'll get to that question. What I do is I run through six key components of business, okay? So processes is one of the components. This is where I help document the process of each department of your company, okay? So initially when we set up, we run off of an accountability chart where we're filling out. your ops, your finance and your sales and marketing. These are kind of our departments, if you will. And so we're going to build out processes for each seat in each department. But and I help guide you in writing your SOPs. I don't write those for you. But we're we run off of the 80 20 rule to where we're just capturing the high level process. We're not writing a 500 page SOP. No one's going to read that. scalable. members are going to need that. No, it's not. No, it's not. And it's hard to find what you need. If you have to go refer back to it, like you're not finding what you need in there. So we try to keep everything on a high level that's easy and simple to understand. And then obviously there's going to be caveats and extra questions and like, oh no, what about this? And so when that comes up, rather than adding to our SOP, What we do is we throw that on what we call an issues list. And so that's another component that we work through in EOS is our issues component. And this is where we train your team on how to identify issues, what they are, how to discuss those and get to the actual root. Because most issues we see are just simply a symptom. And we want to get down into the root of what that problem is. we come up with a solve for it, and then we assign accountability. So there is a literal person in your organization that is accountable for that solution. So when it comes back up, then you can just say, hey, that's Karen in accounting's position. She will take care of that for you. She knows exactly what to do. And then you document that with your processes and it's trainable. You stop having these issues. And then when you're hiring new people or having... turnover with your staff, it's all documented. Like you can plug them right back into that position. that ultimately is what helps you scale a business as well. When you have all these things in place to be able to continue to grow, your business isn't going to fail without one single person that way. That person's, you know, replaceable, you know, in the nicest of ways. You know, that's the end goal is that everybody is including the owner. Absolutely, absolutely. Yes. And so, um, one of my favorite things about utilizing EOS is, um, the industry that we're in. I see all of these contractors that want to sell their company in three to five years. They want an exit. Well, they probably want an exit today if they, if it was really possible. Um, but the problem with that is, is they are the key of their business, right? And private equity doesn't want to buy you as the owner. They don't want you. They want your people and your processes. That's what you have to have to have that real true enterprise value. And that's what EOS gives you. So the goal, the whole goal for EOS by the time you fully implemented is we're working you as the owner out of that day to day, right? And so then you have a business of value. You have an actual business. It's not just you out there driving everything. And so that's why, that's why if you're not using EOS as a system, you need to use something as a system. You have to have something. Otherwise you have no value. And so, you know. you know, 99 % of business owners, especially in construction, I would say, you know, exit is the goal. You know, I don't know many people anymore that want to pass their business down to their grandkids. You know, occasionally you'll get it, but at some point everybody wants that, you know, how am I going to retire or what am I going to do next? Yeah, I want to meet and do something different or live off or whatever it is. And on the flip side of that, if you do want to pass your company down to your grandkids, isn't it so much better to hand them an organization that's already running smoothly where they just step into that owner bar versus them having to try to reinvent the wheel and fix this mess that you've given them, you know? That's exactly right. I mean, and then it's, you know, it's more passive income than it is active income, you know, and really at the end of the day, that's the goal. That's how you build wealth is through that passive income. So if you can do it in one company, you can do it in multiple. your. Absolutely, and most entrepreneurs, most visionaries, they're dabbling in a bunch of things anyways. They constantly have new business ideas. They constantly see ways to make things better, and they probably have their hands in three or four businesses or more at any given time on a regular basis. EOS, having that system there, allows you to dabble with all of the different things that you enjoy. without becoming overwhelmed and overworked. And it lets you do the parts of those companies that you're good at and that you should be doing without being overwhelmed with the operations. So we call it the EOS life, right? So that's when you're really seeing your business run and operate fully on EOS and you get your life back and you get to do the things you enjoy, which is, you know, it should be reality, but it's all fantasy to most business owners. realistically for the average business, let's say that's, you know, doing that, you know, minimum million dollar mark to let's say $20 million mark. How long does it take to implement EOS? So EOS takes about two years to implement. And so think in your mind, EOS runs on its own calendar. It doesn't necessarily line up with your yearly calendar. So we call it an EOS year. The first year that I meet with your team, it's going to take six meeting times that we're going to meet over the course of the first year. The second year is five. So when I initially onboard a new client, I meet with them once a month. for the first 90 days. So we'll have three meetings in 90 days that I come and spend a full day with your team. And then after the first 90 days, we move to quarterly. So we'll meet on a quarterly basis from there. And then we do a two -year annual planning at the end of, usually at the end of the year. It can really happen anywhere you want, whatever works out for your calendar. But then we do the two -day annual planning and this just sets the tone for next year. So the second year for EOS, we're only meeting quarterly and doing the annual planning. There's no contracts with EOS, we don't do contracts. We want to provide value to you, to where you're happy and you want to bring us back the next time, right? That's the goal. I don't want to have to force you to pay me. That's not a good deal for any of us. But some clients stay on, especially my clients that want to exit, right? So their plan is to stay on longer. than two years and for me to keep running their annual planning sessions. That way they're making sure they're on target for an exit when they're ready. I think you just broke up, I can't hear you. Okay, so I was going to say, did I lose you? a really weak signal, I think. My internet may not be great, I don't know. Sorry, I think we're back maybe. you're good. Now I can hear you again. Just start where you are. You're good. I don't even, I don't know where it was. Well, I was just talking about the client at two years to fully implement EOS. And then some clients want to retain me longer to help them with like their annual planning each year. So that way they can stay on target for a, for an exit when they want to exit the company. acquisition process or whatever their next step goal is at that point. That makes absolute sense to me. So in an ideal world, what is your ideal client? You said kind of that million dollar mark up to win. No max on revenue. They just have to be privately held. Once they go public, you have a board. It's a lot harder to implement. And by the time you're at that point, usually you have systems and processes right in place because you're not going to go public without that. So yeah, a million dollar in revenue. And it's all kind of flexible. So like I had a client, it was a husband and wife team. They had no other employees. Like he did all of the cells and she did all of the office. They hired me knowing they were quickly going to have to grow in scale. So in our first session, we built out the accountability chart and immediately started hiring and filling those seats. And they had, you know, they had the cash reserves to do that. They knew that's what was coming, but I, you know, I could take them as a client because we knew by the time we're done with our first session. you're where you need to be. But ideally, I'm looking for someone with at least two employees, preferably five. That's what your leadership team usually consists of. And they have to want to grow and scale. That's one thing that EOS is going to do is give you the ability to grow and scale your company. So I want someone who's wanting to keep moving forward. I think one thing that you touched on was having people get away from going directly to the boss when they have a problem and teaching how to problem solve. I think that's one of the biggest issues that small businesses in general face is that everybody wants to go to the boss or the owner or the manager about every little issue. And I think teaching those people how to problem solve and not only will it help further the company, but it'll help further them in life as well. Absolutely. And so what we do in EOS is we're constantly populating an issues list. And so they're going to learn, especially when you're redirecting them, the management level employees are redirecting everyone, like come to me with a fire. And I tell you, okay, let's throw that on the issues list. We're going to cover it next week's meeting. If it's an immediate, immediate issue, obviously you may want to deal with it, right? But most things are not an immediate issue. Most things can wait. So we're gonna put it on that list and then we're gonna solve it together where everyone has some input on what this is gonna look like. And then it has a solution with accountability attached to it. So this better not come back to my desk, right? I love that. So I'm going to go ahead and wrap it up here if that's okay with you. We try to keep this about 20 minutes around there. But I would love for you to give us something that, you know, what's your greatest takeaway in business that you can pass along to our listeners? I would say that your people are your most valuable asset within your organization. Culture and hiring and building out a good strategic team is a key to success absolutely hands down. one. And for those who want to get a hold of you, what's the best way for them to do that? You can either find me on social media, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn, or you can email me and maybe we can just drop my email in the link or in the comments or something. Yeah, it's just exactly where EOS worldwide, but we can drop it in there. sounds great. Thank you so much, Jackie, for your time today. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and good luck to you. Thanks.