A Fractional COO gives you the leverage you need to grow.

Rapid growth is exciting, but it can create problems when your business’s infrastructure isn’t strong enough to carry the additional weight. As a business owner, you’re busy enough focusing on managing the business you already have. It can be overwhelming to add the extra responsibility of optimizing processes, upgrading tools, and providing training and support for your team to create a more productive work environment. Now is the time to expand your leadership leverage.

What is a Fractional COO?

In the corporate world, the Chief Operating Officer is the executive responsible for ensuring the business is efficient and effective, and supports the CEO in developing and implementing growth strategies across every department in the company. The person in this role needs to have knowledge and experience in a wide variety of areas, from sales and marketing to business technology and human resources. The COO is constantly looking for ways to make the business better and more profitable. During times of growth, your COO is a key asset as they guide the business through necessary upgrades and expansions, and ensures company culture remains positive by providing the tools and training team members need to grow with the business.

It’s great to have an executive team to fuel growth, but what if you don’t have the big corporate budget? That’s where a fractional executive team member can help. A Fractional COO is a Chief Operating Officer that works with your business on an as-needed or part-time basis. You benefit by having the same guidance and leadership, the same strategic capabilities, and the same hard-driven work ethic, but for a fraction of the cost. An experienced Fractional COO will work with your business for a predetermined number of hours per month, but has the ability to help you accomplish your goals as if they were full time.

How does a Fractional COO save you money?

Bringing a Fractional COO onto your team will improve your bottom line in many ways. You’ll now have access to someone dedicated to improving budget inefficiencies, developing tools and teams to be more productive, and cleaning up processes that can create cash flow leaks. You will also have a sidekick to help you create and implement strategies to use those savings to fuel more growth. And to make this even better, you don’t need to add anyone to your payroll.

Hiring someone with executive experience will not only increase your payroll expense but also increase your tax payouts. In addition, you would probably be expected to provide various employment benefits like health insurance, performance bonuses, company vehicle, etc. Needless to say, this can get expensive. Working with a Fractional COO eliminates these extra costs because 1) you’re only paying a part-time fee instead of a full-time salary; 2) since the executive isn’t an employee, you aren’t taxed for what you pay them; 3) you aren’t required to provide employment benefits; and 4) whatever you pay out for this person is included on your Schedule C business operating expenses, which can further reduce your tax expense.

Is hiring a Fractional COO worth it for your business?

Simply put, YES. Whether you’re just starting out or carrying on a generational business, enjoying revenues in the millions or just breaking even, it’s good to have a growth partner you can rely on to help you manage the workload (and stress) that is inherent to operating your business. If you:

• Feel overworked or over stressed
• Are having trouble moving past a plateau in revenue
• Have been thinking of expanding your business into other areas
• Can’t find the time to search for and implement the business tools you need
• Are experiencing problems with lead drop-off throughout your sales flow process
• Need to expand your marketing efforts but aren’t sure where the additional funds will come from
• Are having trouble getting your employees “on the same page”
• Are dealing with cash flow issues and feeling overwhelmed by rolling debt
• Have a broad idea to expand your business but have difficulty figuring out the details
• Have realized that operating your business regularly feels chaotic
• Are currently in crisis, or you see your business headed that way
• Need operating management support but can’t afford the expense of another full time senior level employee

Then bringing a Fractional COO onto your team is well worth the effort and investment.

Hiring Process and Pricing

The first step in determining any new partnership is having a meaningful conversation. We’ll talk in depth about your current business and where you want to go. After that, we’ll discuss some of the obstacles to growth that you see (and some you may not have noticed) and talk about potential solutions. Once we both decide that we’ll work well together, we will figure out deliverables — what you expect from me as far as time spent, services provided, etc., and what I’ll need from you to provide excellent service. We’ll start working as soon as you’re ready, and meet on a regular basis to monitor progress.

When it comes to pricing, I believe in meeting you where you are. There’s no point in hiring me to help you increase your profits if you just have to pay them back out to me. My goal is to bring value to your business, not create another expense. I want to see your business grow as much as you do, and see this partnership as an investment in that growth. When we agree to work together, we’ll determine pricing by adjusting deliverables, time, and hands-on involvement. I’m committed to finding pricing options that work for you to help you reach your business’s full potential.