Trav’s Outfitter is a family-owned independent retailer, located in Watertown, South Dakota since 2003, specializing in work and western shoes and apparel.The company’s unique business model includes both a storefront and a fleet of mobile boot trucks.
Mike Fairchild, General Manager and Integrator for Trav’s Outfitter, has worked alongside Founder and Visionary, Travas Uthe, for the last 13 years. Mike has grown to understand that Travas will always be primarily focused on the future instead of immediate details. But it took him a while to appreciate that.
For example, one day, EOS Implementer® Kyle Kangas, who’s a regular customer, stopped by the store. He asked Mike how they were enjoying their Prairie Family Business Association (PFBA) membership. As a family business, Kyle thought they could benefit from the PFBA and gifted them a year’s membership. But Travas never told Mike about it.
“That’s classic Travas,” Mike said. “Looking back, Travas and I had Rocket Fuel™ before we knew what it meant. Travas is a pure entrepreneurial Visionary, and I’m 100% Integrator. But that’s also how the conversation with Kyle turned to EOS®.”
Vision
Shortly after that conversation, Mike sat Travas down and insisted that Kyle come in and explain how EOS worked. Mike knew he needed someone like Kyle to explain EOS to Travas because the two leaders thought about things differently. While Mike understood the importance of structure, processes, and systems for scalability, he knew Travas was future-oriented, always looking to grow and expand.
“I told Travas if we wanted to grow the way we were planning, we had to find a systematic way to do it,” Mike said. “I said we can’t be all over the board and create whiplash.”
Mike was excited by the challenge of bringing Travas’ visions to life. That challenge is what attracted him to the organization in the first place. However, he knew they needed the discipline of Running on EOS™ to achieve their big goals.
Trav’s Outfitter began its journey to Running on EOS in December 2021 when they started working with Kyle.
Traction
Trav’s Outfitter started with a young leadership team. Within the first few months, the leadership team experienced a noticeable amount of turnover as it became apparent many weren’t ready to lead.
So, they condensed the leadership team and started looking for more seasoned professionals to lead. Travas and Mike knew they had to stabilize the leadership team and get the new members on board with using EOS. Only then would they be able to run the entire company on EOS.
It was slow going at first. When they got to their first annual meeting, Mike said it felt like the leadership team hadn’t accomplished much. But after reviewing the year, they saw how much they’d actually done and that they’d already started changing things that didn’t work.
For example, the leadership team kept getting hung up on Followed By All and what that should look like throughout the company. With different tenured and skilled employees, it didn’t make sense for everyone to do something 100% the same way. They had to adjust their all-or-nothing thinking to make their processes less restrictive.
“I think their expectations were way higher than mine,” Mike said of the other leaders. “We shifted to focus on progress, not perfection, and allowing people to make decisions on the fly. Now we’ve adopted the mindset that as long as our employees are making decisions based on our Core Values, we can’t lose.”
The leadership team created a 10-Year Target™ that included boosting sales by 500%, adding new locations and boot trucks, and entering markets in neighboring states. Mike said they’ve put the pieces in place and have a roadmap to achieve their goals in half that time. Trav’s Outfitter has already grown its headcount by 25% and revenue by nearly 30%.
“Our store growth increased faster than we thought, which is good,” Mike said. “We hit our 10-year projected numbers in less than five years. Now it’s time to expand into other markets and add more locations in other states.”
As most business leaders know, success rarely happens overnight.
Healthy
“The first year was tedious without a doubt; it took some time to really get momentum going,” Mike said. “I think people were a little apprehensive, but looking back, we saw we actually made good progress toward what we call the Trav’s Outfitter Way.”
The “Trav’s Outfitter Way” is possibly one of the biggest differences in the organization. The Trav’s Outfitter team now has a level of consistency in doing things, which helps keep Travas and Mike out of the weeds of daily operations.
“The Level 10 Meetings are an effective structure that helps us communicate better,” Mike said. “We follow up on Rocks and keep our eyes on the right metrics.”
Mike added that their hiring process has drastically changed since Running on EOS. Now, he said they make all personnel decisions based on the company’s vision and Core Values. Plus, the team does most of the hiring instead of involving Mike and Travas.
“We have a great team in the retail store,” Mike said. “We don’t have any drama or trouble with people not showing up. Even part-time high school and community college students follow the same processes. Trav’s Outfitter is the go-to place for part-time work, and I’m really proud of the reputation we’ve gotten as a good place to work. EOS helped us do that.”
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