A Fractional COO can be the saving grace to growing companies and business owners that often find themselves drowning in a sea of to-do lists and the minutiae of daily operations. They allow the CEO to leverage their experience and insight to spearhead business operations while ensuring vision and processes are in alignment without sacrificing the CEO’s own precious time to make it happen.
When it comes to helping your growing business prosper, a fractional chief operating officer can propel your business forward by helping you refine your strategic planning and ensuring your initiatives are properly and effectively executed.
And they do it all at a fraction of the cost that a typical full-time COO would demand.
What is a Fractional COO, exactly?
It’s a partnership. A Fractional COO, or part-time chief operating officer, is the yin to the CEO’s yang. They are an executive-level business professional, bringing all of their experience to bear to help growing companies build systems and processes for scale through tested insight and sharpened strategic planning. When and where you need it
They help you run your business so you can stay focused on the visionary work — not the fires and constant demands of daily operations.
How does a Fractional COO benefit my business?
From big-picture project management down to the nitty-gritty of optimizing cash flow, a Fractional COO will lighten your workload and give you the room you need to breathe and focus on the direction and initiatives that matter most to your growing business.
Not only are they fixers and finishers that you bring in on your own terms without messy contracts or salaried payouts, but their fresh perspective and experience allow them to easily act as a personal advisor you can safely bounce ideas off. Or, you can seamlessly insert them into the hottest fires that are currently threatening the stability of your company.
Best of all?
They keep the CEO free to focus on the visionary work
Say goodbye to the most productive hours of the day being wasted on unnecessary meetings and constant troubleshooting. Yin to the CEO’s yang, a Fractional COO just “gets it.” Their whole purpose is to understand your vision and how to help accelerate your growth in a more manageable and predictable way.
They can take over the daily operations and project management, allowing the stress of being pulled too thin and in too many directions to finally melt away—they free your mind to be as creative and innovative as possible.
How?
Fractional COOs are more flexible than a Cirque du Soleil acrobat
Fractional chief operating officers often wear more hats than you can find in a haberdashery. They are uniquely equipped to handle all of the day-to-day issues that plague growing companies — the issues you see and the ones you don’t — and have the insight and experience to get businesses across these hurdles as effectively and efficiently as possible.
The truth is, the challenges your business is currently facing aren’t unique—they’ve seen it before while working with other companies just like yours. A Fractional COO will save you the time — and money — of having to learn from these growing pains on your own as they have likely already been through it many times before.
Here’s an idea of the expertise you can expect:
- Strategic Planning: they help you bring your vision into reality and map out efficient action steps for the team to effectively execute.
- Process Improvement: Fractional COOs analyze and refine key processes and procedures.
- Operational Assessment: they will meticulously familiarize themselves with your business and its people, identifying where and what needs improvement.
- Financial Management: they can crunch the numbers, strengthening cash flow and optimizing revenue.
- Sales & Marketing Strategy: a Fractional coo can help identify your target audience and the best steps to put your product in their hands.
- Organizational Development: they will help prepare you for the future by developing the people executing initiatives.
- Supply Chain Management: they help identify your best suppliers, refine logistics channels, and ensure inventory investments are at their best.
- Tech Solutions: they can help identify available technologies that can scale your productivity.
- Exit Planning: when it’s time to take your leave from it all, they can help plan for succession so you may freely exit on your own terms.
So, what can you expect to pay for all of this?
You get all the insight & experience at a fraction of the cost
Here’s something you won’t hear every day: it’s on the Fractional COO to add value. If they aren’t adding value then you simply shouldn’t pay them. Period.
At KPI we live by that statement. We don’t have any long-term contracts and we need to continually earn the right to deliver service to our clients.
We hold firm to that belief and we expect anyone calling themselves a Fractional chief operating officer to do the same.
But enough about us.
When it comes to “how much?” the answer is really up to you. A Fractional chief operating officer can be hired full-time, part-time, and anywhere in between — bringing on a Fractional COO empowers you to choose exactly how much of their time you want.
More than that? You’re eliminating a lot of risk by not committing to a traditional and expensive resource with employment agreements, bonus targets, equity, vacations, benefits and all the other things that come with an in-house employee.
You’re hiring a truly flexible decision-maker that often boasts over ten years of experience and a proven track record doing the exact same thing for a list of other growing businesses without paying the COO’s salary — or their supporting staff.
What types of businesses benefit most from a Fractional COO?
If you’re growing but are lacking in execution on your initiatives, unable to round out departments and carry out key pieces of business, or you’re so busy delivering that you can’t find the time to develop strategic plans for the future, then you may want to look into hiring a fractional chief operating officer to help you execute the vision of your company.
Here are some other signs you may need a Fractional COO:
- As the CEO you feel overwhelmed and stretched too thin.
- You know your leadership needs more solidarity and strength to safely scale.
- You’re spending too much time and effort putting out fires or troubleshooting.
- Operational processes need to be fine-tuned, but you and your team lack the time and energy to fix the hang-ups.
- Your vision is clear, but you can’t get your team to execute it properly.
- You have great people, but you can’t spend all your time telling them exactly what they’re supposed to do every day.
Learn more about the fractional COO process and what to expect.
Free your mind to be the innovative & creative visionary that you are and tighten up your ship without the financial commitment of a full-time COO. Connect with Key Performance Integrators today, and let us execute your vision for pennies on the dollar while you sit back and finally take that well-deserved breath.
