JoBen Barkey, visionary for four Soccer Shots franchises in Orange County, California, and two franchises on Oahu, Hawaii, knew he needed help long before he’d heard of the Entrepreneurial Operating System®.
His Soccer Shots franchise in Orange County had grown bigger than he could handle on his own. Before Running on EOS™, JoBen and a former partner also ran another Soccer Shots franchise in Miami, Florida.
Soccer Shots franchises teach kids ages 2–8 the beautiful game while focusing on character development.
JoBen said he could do everything himself when he first started. He felt confident that families would get the quality training Soccer Shots was known for. But as their franchises grew, he got stretched too thin and needed to rely more on others.
It wasn’t long before he realized things were slipping. Although the program grew exponentially because of the reputation his brand was building, his franchises weren’t consistently delivering on what they promised at every new location. But he couldn’t be everywhere at once, which caused him even more stress.
“I was flying between our franchises at the time in Miami and Orange County,” JoBen said. “Whenever I wasn’t local, I lost control and didn’t know what was happening. I didn’t have any say in how we were executing stuff, and there were no real check-ins.”
As a first-time business owner, JoBen knew there had to be more to running a business than simply relying on his own limited experience and willingness to work seven days a week to keep up. One day a friend gave him a copy of Traction. He read it cover to cover – twice – in 11 days.
Vision
JoBen said he knew right away that EOS® would change their business and lives.
Unfortunately, his business partner at the time hadn’t bought in. They parted ways and divided up the franchises. JoBen took the Orange County franchises, and the former partner took the Miami locations. JoBen said the consolidation helped him focus on what he needed to do to be more successful.
As Soccer Shots progressed on their EOS journey, JoBen saw his limitations as a Visionary. He was great at coming up with innovative ideas, as well as getting people excited about the opportunities in front of them, but execution and follow-through were always challenging for him.
He also realized they’d outgrown the utility players initially supporting their franchise. Instead, Soccer Shots Orange County needed people who specialized in particular skills.
So their first strategic hire was Integrator™ Nancy Orozco. That’s when things started to change.
Traction
“Right away, Nancy helped us get and stay organized,” JoBen said. “We set big goals, and she helped us achieve them by holding us accountable.”
As a result, during their first year of Running on EOS in 2018, they put up their highest revenue numbers at $1 million, despite JoBen and his wife spending all of December out of the country finalizing the adoption of their oldest son. Soccer Shots grew again in 2019; however, when the pandemic hit, they brought in just 2% of that 2018 total in 2020.
But JoBen credits EOS with helping them see past the dire situation at the time. Looking ahead to when children’s programming would reopen one day in California, they started hiring and training new coaches for their program based on what they saw other parts of the country doing.
When California lifted its lockdowns in August 2021, their program exploded because they’d prepared for the onslaught of interest. By December 31 of that year, after experiencing near-zero revenue, they ended the year at seven figures again. And by the end of 2022, they’d doubled their 2018 revenue totals. Today their programs host more than 10,000 players a year. For reference, they started with just 63 players.
“It was proof that when we set a specific goal, and we’re uncompromising in pursuing it, we can hit it,” JoBen said. “We can do things as a team that we didn’t think were possible. EOS opened our eyes to setting and pursuing the goals, and having checklists, timelines, vision boards… whatever’s necessary to get there.”
Healthy
More importantly, JoBen has been able to give back to soccer in myriad ways.
From building a soccer complex in South America to starting schools and digging wells in West Africa to funding programs for homeless children on the Hawaiian islands, Soccer Shots finds ways to share their love and generosity with others.
“There’s a link between generosity, employee retention, and profit,” JoBen said. “People sign up to work with you because of who you say you are. And when you continue to show up in a consistent way, people will stay. Great people desire and choose to spend their time contributing to the wellbeing of others, and we only want to work with great people.”
EOS helped them hone their hiring practices as well, by teaching them how to articulate their core values better and use them in a way that reinforces how important they are to the organization.
“We learned very quickly that if our core values aren’t a part of our hiring and training process, then they aren’t actually core values,” JoBen said. “Instead, they’re just core aspirations with very little real impact on our business.”
In an industry with a typical turnover of six to nine months, Soccer Shots Orange County and Oahu have some coaches who’ve been with them for a decade and many who’ve been part of the programming for two to five years.
JoBen said part of that retention success came from realizing they didn’t need to hire people with a high soccer IQ. Although soccer is obviously an important part of what they do, they needed people who reminded them of the best preschool teachers, with endless patience. Those people fit Soccer Shots’ core values. From there, they could easily train their new hires to teach soccer because of their strong curriculum.
Now they have the right structure and the right people to positively impact thousands of kids every day. Meanwhile, they understand that Soccer Shots likely won’t be a forever job for most of their staff. So they help them with proofing college papers, preparing for job interviews, and anything else they need for life beyond Soccer Shots.
“We’re here for the people; we just happen to do soccer,” JoBen said. “And by doing soccer really well, it enables us to positively impact underserved communities in developing countries. That connection between our growing success here and the growing impact overseas is what drives us to run the best possible business that we can. For us, the significant impact we are having both locally and abroad was never possible until we started Running on EOS.”
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