Fractional COO and general manager for owner-led companies

There's a size where a company needs a chief operating officer and can't yet justify one. Past a few million in revenue the owner is still making every operational decision, the managers are capable but were never handed real authority, and a full-time operations executive costs more than the business can carry.

A fractional engagement closes that gap without the payroll line.

How much of it, and how it starts

The scope depends on what you actually need. Some engagements are a day a week and a standing place in the operating meetings. Others run most of a week through a stretch that matters, then taper once things hold. It gets built around the problem, not around a retainer size.

Handing real authority to somebody from outside is a big ask. Plenty of owners aren't ready for that on day one, and that's a reasonable place to start from. A good number of these engagements begin advisory. We sit alongside you, work the problem together, and every decision stays yours. Authority moves across later if you decide we've earned it. If it never does, the work still gets done.

What the work is

• Run the operating cadence. A weekly rhythm the team can count on, the same numbers reviewed by the same people, and decisions made in the room instead of deferred to you.
• Take the escalations. The problems that currently land on your desk land on ours. That's most of what you're buying.
• Hold the managers to what they own. Clear expectations and the hard conversations owners usually postpone, because in a company this size the relationships are personal.
• Own a number. We take responsibility for outcomes, not for hours logged, and you should hold us to them.

Where it ends

It isn't permanent and it shouldn't be. If the engagement is working, your dependence on it drops every quarter. Sometimes it turns into a search, and we'll help you hire the person who replaces us and hand them a functioning operation instead of a mess.

Who it fits

Owner-led companies where the owner has quietly become the operating system. Manufacturing, distribution, field service, trades, professional services, restaurants, real estate. The stage matters far more than the industry.

It works best when there's a capable second layer of people who've never been given room to lead. That's the most common situation we walk into, and it's where the results come fastest.