Fractional COO for owner-led companies
Executive-level operating help, at the fraction of the week you actually need.
There is a stage where the owner is genuinely the constraint. The company is too big to run out of one head and too small to justify a six-figure operations executive. That gap is where most businesses stall for years.
A fractional COO arrangement fills it. I take operating responsibility for the parts of the business you should not be carrying — cadence, accountability, hiring standards, numbers review, project follow-through — so you can work on the things only the owner can do.
This is heavier than coaching. I am in the operating rhythm with your team, not just advising you between sessions.
You are probably here because
- You are running the company and also still doing the work
- You have managers who manage nothing
- Decisions wait on you and the business waits with them
- Initiatives get started, then quietly abandoned
- You need a second set of hands at the leadership level, not another technician
- You are not ready to pay a full-time executive and should not be
What the work covers
Operating cadence
Weekly leadership rhythm, a scoreboard of numbers that matter, and follow-through between meetings.
Accountability structure
Clear ownership per function, expectations in writing, and consequences that exist.
Management development
Turning senior employees into actual managers, or being honest that they will not be.
Execution oversight
Projects and initiatives tracked to done, including the ones you have restarted three times.
Hiring and onboarding standards
Who to hire, in what order, how to evaluate them, and what week one looks like.
Owner handoff plan
A written list of what leaves your plate, by when, and to whom.
The engagement
Assessment
Where the company sits operationally and what only you are currently able to do.
Scope the week
Which functions I take, which stay with you, and what the cadence looks like.
Install the rhythm
Meetings, numbers, ownership and follow-through.
Build your replacement
The goal is that your team, not I, holds this permanently.
Investment
Scale Advisory, from $4,500/month, is the tier this lives in. Scope is set after the Growth Assessment and stays month to month.
What this is not
This is not interim CEO work, and I do not sign contracts or manage your payroll. I run operating cadence and hold your team to it alongside you.
Run the numbers
Run your own numbers first
Business Health Score
Score your business 0–100 across profit, margin, labor, cash, growth, customer risk and owner load.
Net Profit Margin Calculator
What the business actually keeps after everything — including paying you properly.
Straight answers
How much time does a fractional COO need?
For most companies under $10M, meaningful change needs a consistent weekly presence, not full-time hours. We scope it against the functions you are handing over.
Will you manage my employees directly?
I work with your leadership and hold the operating rhythm. Employment decisions stay yours — I make sure they get made instead of postponed.
When should I hire a real COO instead?
When the operating load is genuinely full-time and the company can absorb the salary without gutting margin. Part of this work is telling you when you have hit that point.
Related services
Operations Consulting
When the work gets sold and then falls apart on the way to being delivered.
Business Coaching
For owners already doing real revenue who are working harder for less of it.
Employee & Management Training
Your culture is whatever your longest-tenured employee is allowed to get away with.
Thirty minutes. No pitch deck. Bring your numbers.
Or call (737) 888-0415