St. Louis EOS® Implementer
EOS® Turns Any Business in Any Industry into a Scalable Business Machine
Rick Cottrell is a Certified EOS® Implementer in St. Louis, with more than 30 years of the entrepreneurial business ownership experience. If you are implementing EOS®, Rick will ensure that your company will achieve its’ maximum potential.
Organizations I've worked with:
What Is EOS®?
EOS®, the Entrepreneurial Operating System®, is a complete set of simple concepts and practical tools that has helped thousands of entrepreneurs get what they want from their businesses. Implementing EOS® will help you and your leadership team get better at three things:
EOS® Tools & Implementation
Thousands of entrepreneurial companies around the world are running on The Entrepreneurial Operating System®. Their owners and leaders are getting more of what they want from the business, and you can too. What is it about EOS® that makes it work so well in a small, growing business?
Why EOS® Works
EOS® works in any entrepreneurial company – across all industries and business models. If you’ve got people in your business, EOS® can help you clarify, simplify and achieve your vision.
Why Choose a Certified EOS® Implementer?
Implementing the Entrepreneurial Operating System
Should You DIY or Work with a Professional?
The Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS®) has been used by over 8,500 business owners to “get a grip” on their businesses. It’s a proven system that offers numerous benefits to organizations looking to achieve next-level success, including more profitability, scalable and predictable growth, and increased value. It also provides entrepreneurial business owners and their leadership teams achieve three important things: Vision, Traction and Healthy.
Assuming you’re already familiar with EOS and have decided it will be the “one and only” business operating system you’ll use to help your organization achieve more of everything, the only question remaining is this: How should I implement and integrate EOS into our organization — should we do it ourselves or seek out professional help?
Implementing the Entrepreneurial Operating System
Should You DIY or Work with a Professional?
The Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS®) has been used by over 8,500 business owners to “get a grip” on their businesses. It’s a proven system that offers numerous benefits to organizations looking to achieve next-level success, including more profitability, scalable and predictable growth, and increased value. It also provides entrepreneurial business owners and their leadership teams achieve three important things: Vision, Traction and Healthy.
Assuming you’re already familiar with EOS and have decided it will be the “one and only” business operating system you’ll use to help your organization achieve more of everything, the only question remaining is this: How should I implement and integrate EOS into our organization — should we do it ourselves or seek out professional help?
DIY vs Using a Professional
Why would a company try to DIY or self-implement EOS? The predominant response we hear relates to cost. One of the first questions frequently asked by companies that come to us for EOS implementation is, “How much do you charge?”
Certainly, using a third party to help implement EOS, regardless of credentials, has a real hard dollar cost. If you Google “EOS implementer cost,” you’ll find a range of $3,000 – $10,000 per session day and that was posted in 2016. That range is now higher and accurately reflects the cost of using a Professional or Certified EOS Implementer.
For clarity purposes, the EOS implementation journey averages a minimum of 10 full session days over a two-year window in order for companies to achieve “traction” in their businesses. Regardless of the per session fee, if you have an operating expense (OpEx) mindset, it will discount EOS’ true, long-term value. Focusing on the expense alone may cloud your ability to come to grips with the fact that EOS is an enduring, culture-shifting, results-driven process that will absolutely take your business to the next level of success.
Frankly, looking at the economics of EOS and making it analogous to a line-item expense is definitely a short-sighted mistake. Any “hand-wringing” over its cost will delay the significant economic and non-economic benefits a company will experience from an effective implementation, which include:
• Total organizational alignment — Getting everyone in an organization rowing in the same direction to increase efficiency, effectiveness and performance
• Getting the right people into the company and putting them in the right seats — Cleaning up people issues to create the opportunity for growth and saving resources
• Running the business with a scorecard that uses real, hard, predictable numbers — Delivering immediate accountability and bottom-line performance improvement
• Process definition and ongoing improvement — Making things more efficient and consistent company-wide, saving time and money
• A root cause analysis and quick solve culture — Bringing issues to the forefront, fixing things fast the first time at all levels of the organization
• An enviable work/life balance — Having more time to spend personally and working “on” the business instead of “in” it
• Creating a bulletproof business — Knowing it will withstand adversity and scale predictably, forever
It just doesn’t make sense to think about EOS as an expense or burden on your organization with zero consideration for the immediate and/or longer-term ROI. The value of all these benefits — and others not stated — is priceless to any organization.
Let’s take a look at ASR Commercial Roofing Systems, a company suffering from flat growth, thin margins and a meh culture. Its owners were tired of the status quo and wanted to make a change for the better. They looked at EOS and wanted to implement it, but their expense mindset caused them to lose six months of valuable time when their DIY process failed to gain traction. ASR asked us to help, and 16 months later the company was seeing 40 percent year- over-year growth, increased profitability, and lower staff turnover — and the owners had more time for family and working on their business.
“Trying to DIY implement EOS was like trying to play tennis against yourself — you just can’t facilitate the implementation and be part of the leadership team,” said owner Rachel Busche. “We quickly forgot about the cost of using a professional to help because the ROI, both economic and non-economic, was significant. I don’t understand how companies can implement EOS themselves and experience all the benefits, I really don’t.”
Cost vs Results
When asked about the cost of an EOS implementation, I share my experiences and basic logic. If you have chosen a professional EOS Implementer wisely, you’ll be adding another member to your leadership team — a seasoned and proven entrepreneur who’s in the trenches with you “day in and day out” helping you navigate your EOS journey and your business. In my case, our EOS implementation cost was less than our monthly line item for facility cleaning in one of our buildings — and the results gave us significantly more than a spotless bathroom.
About three or four times a month, I talk to entrepreneurs who are self-implementing EOS and hear a variety of responses. One out of 10 will typically say everything is fabulous — “we’re doing great”— and the rest will respond with something like “I don’t know,” “something is missing” or “I’m not sure we’re doing it right.” I just don’t sense the confidence and excitement that an effective EOS implementation should be generating. EOS should truly be the gift that keeps on giving in your business, if it’s done right.
As Bruce Sheridan, a member of the professional EOS Implementer community in St. Louis, puts it, “If you’ve ever played a sport, you may relate to this analogy. It could be tennis, golf, swimming, running, squash, etc. I like to play golf. The best round of golf I played was when I hired a golf pro to teach me how to play. I would be on the tee box with the pro and hitting the ball 300 yards, in a straight line, where before I was hitting the ball maybe 230 yards and all over the place. The pro would observe me swinging from all angles and provide feedback. The pro would say things like, ‘move your right foot one inch’ or ‘loosen your grip on your left hand just slightly.’ I’d heed the advice and every time my shot would improve. Sometimes, it’s difficult to see for yourself how you’re hurting your game. You can have all the tools and resources to be successful, but without that outside perspective, it could take longer and you could develop bad habits that will negatively impact where you want to go, whether it’s your golf game or your business.”
Dan Zawacki, a member of Chicago’s professional EOS Implementer community, looks at it this way: “I recently had an EOS session day with a client that had been self-implementing for about five months. They told me EOS was not working. It turned out they were focusing on the easy things and had created their own hybrid EOS process. They were actually doing more damage than good to their company, wasting precious time and resources. It’s very difficult for a member of the leadership team to facilitate the implementation of EOS and be an active participant. I mean, would you do a root canal on yourself? It’s impossible to gain traction with this approach. This company wasted over five months of precious time, cash and growth opportunities.”
An Investment in the Future
If you think about it, EOS is not just about today; it is also about tomorrow and forever. If you’re effectively implementing EOS, you’re doing it for all the reasons previously stated, but also to create a predictably scalable and successful “bulletproof” business that can optimize opportunities and withstand any economy, competitive pressure or adversity.
One final thought about the quality and fit of an EOS Implementer. For the most part, if you choose one who has successfully completed the Professional EOS Implementer™ Boot Camp and is an active part of the EOS Implementer community, you’ll be ahead of the game. You can find a list of them at www.eosworldwide.com.
If you’re like me, you’ll want someone who not only has significant business dynamics and ownership experience, but also has skin in the game with EOS. The EOS Implementer I chose was someone who had paid for the best training available and was being held accountable for maintaining a high quality of implementation performance while constantly “sharpening his saw,” increasing his knowledge and developing his expertise. Some additional thoughts about selecting an EOS Implementer can be found here.
At the end of the day, for entrepreneurial business owners who are truly tired of the status quo and seriously want to achieve next-level success with their business, implementing EOS is a great first step. If you’re considering EOS and are undecided regarding a DIY implementation versus using a pro, you owe it to yourself to at least talk to someone who has deep understanding and the experience to help you consider the true benefits of EOS as well as the pitfalls of not doing it right. Everyone in the professional EOS Implementer community is qualified to have that conversation.
To learn more about EOS and see if it’s right for you, visit their website.
St. Louis EOS® Implementer
Testimonials
When you're ready to take your business to the next level, we have the tools and experience you need to achieve success quickly. Listen to the business owners tell you first hand describes the value behind our system.
STOP SPINNING YOUR WHEELS
How Can Your Business Benefit from EOS®
EOS® is for serious entrepreneurs who are not satisfied with the status quo and are willing to do what it takes to achieve Next Level Success.