How EOS Can Fuel Growing Property Management Companies

Over the last eight years, we’ve helped more than 500 property management companies grow their business by helping them develop a sound and effective marketing strategy. We’ve also been busy growing Fourandhalf. Once we hit around $2 million in revenue, the systems we had in place ceased to meet the demands of our clients and our business. Our initial instinct was to throw people at problems. Things began to spiral, and we realized we needed to do something that would protect what we had worked so hard to grow and to help us scale for the future. We got lucky and found EOS, which stands for Entrepreneurial Operating System. This was popularized by a book written by Gino Wickman called Traction. After implementing EOS, we have a quality control and a scalability we only dreamt of a year ago. Today’s guest on The Property Management Show podcast is an EOS implementer. He’s also a successful property manager and is the CEO of Gulf Coast Property Management. Andy Moore is here to help us define EOS and talk about what it solves. Hitting the Ceiling – Solving Growing Pains with EOS Growing companies will eventually hit a wall (or a ceiling, as EOS calls it). The systems you create in the beginning don’t necessary translate as your business scales. When you hit a wall, you tend to do what Fourandhalf did. You throw people or you throw money at the problem, and you expect immediate solutions. That’s easy for companies to do. The EOS system can provide clarity and a roadmap for implementation. Instead of looking for a quick fix, you get an idea of where you are and where you’re going. And, your entire team is on the same page. Whether you hire an implementer like Andy or you decide to self-implement, the EOS can help you organize and systemize your company for the future. Andy works with companies to deploy this system and provide support as changes are made. He wants the companies he works with to become self-sufficient as soon as possible. It’s not meant to be a lifetime commitment. Some companies self-implement if they have the right structure and the ideal personalities in place. Others have a lot of help. It can work either way, and if you want to fulfill the vision of your company with the help of EOS, have someone take a look at your organization and help you establish whether you’re capable of taking this on. This is a necessity for property management companies in particular. Why? Because not all property management businesses realize that they’re a business. This is a huge mind shift for a lot of property management company owners. Work Chart Definitions: Visionaries and Integrators Andy and Alex are both filling the visionary role in their respective organizations. That’s not as lofty as it sounds, according to Andy, It’s more an admission that he doesn’t follow through with everything. He likes ideas. He likes coming up with new ideas, but then he gets bored with the implementation process, and he starts looking for newer ideas. Does that sound like you? Companies need a ying and a yang. They need one strong leader to bring the ideas, and they need one strong leader to be a perfect integrator of those ideas. Your integrator is process-driven and thinks in black and white terms. If you are the person bringing in new ideas, you also need someone who can take those ideas and put them into place while keeping all the other trains running. That’s the main difference between a visionary and an integrator.  Identifying the integrator should be easy. In Andy’s case, he began working with Jodi about 10 years ago and because they were a small business, she got to sit in a lot of seats.