Are you the CEO of a small business spending too much time working in your business and not on your business? Do you feel overwhelmed by trying to manage your team on your own? Does your company need a COO, but you aren’t ready to hire one full time?
It might be time to consider working with a Fractional COO.
What does a COO do? A Chief Operating Officer (COO) is a business professional who provides COO services to oversee business operations within a company. A Fractional Chief Operating Officer (COO) performs these COO services part time for a company. This individual supports the CEO/President/Owner by providing CEO coaching and implementing a strategic plan to ensure the owner’s, employees’ and customers' expectations are met.
A part-time chief operating officer might work for you anywhere from 2-20 hours a week. And a good one becomes your “CEO whisperer” whom you trust and can turn to for operations support and solutions.
By working with a Fractional COO, you gain knowledge and benefits of an experienced executive who can get things off your plate and done, so you can spend your time on the parts of your business you want to.
Here are 10 benefits of working with a Fractional COO or with a team that provides Fractional COO services:
1. Offers Impartial Insight & Support
Fractional COOs strengthen and solidify you and your team by acting as a leader, motivator and business owner coach. The right Fractional COO team can give you the professional support you need for your small business operations. They will do this after first assessing your business without being biased.
2. Provides Constructive Feedback
Fractional COOs should begin by performing a detailed assessment of your business to gain a deeper understanding of your company’s goals and operating processes. This allows them to deliver actionable steps for improvement and suggest changes that enable you to move forward toward better practices and greater profit.
3. Helps You Develop Long-Term Vision
A Fractional COO can free up your schedule so that together he/she, your key team members and you can determine the long-term Vision you want for your company. A strong Fractional Chief Operating Officer can then help determine the best ways to achieve this Vision through strategic planning, process creation and improvement, management and other operations-related methods and projects. They can execute your Vision by inspiring and holding the team accountable to ensure company values are understood and lived out by all team members.
4. Implements an Operating System
The right Fractional COO can discuss with you how you want your business to run in the long term so that it is scalable and you can be less involved in the day-to-day aspects you likely don’t want to be involved in. They can bring to your business and implement what is called an Operating System such as the Entrepreneurial Operating System which helps you have better control over your business.
5. Improves Team Morale & Productivity
A Fractional COO team can create job descriptions, comp structure, incentives and bonuses. They can also conduct team and one-on-one meetings. This, in turn, provides support, structure, accountability and reward for your team — especially when you are too busy or would prefer not to oversee the day-to-day, this makes your critical team feel valued, perform better and increase the quality and output of your business.
6. Performs Talent Acquisition
A seasoned Part-Time COO can bring method and process to your staff hiring efforts. Most small business owners/CEOs are frustrated at their efforts to find and hire key talent especially now. A strong outsourced COO can help achieve those employee search efforts.
7. Increases Company Profit
Fractional COOs analyze compensation, conduct annual reviews, and review employment policies to help you determine the right priorities and structural changes needed to support your revenue goals. These professionals also manage risk and spending by driving bottom-line small business profit and loss profitability and profit margin percentages. A fractional COO can research and renegotiate vendor contracts improving your vendor services and saving tens of thousands of dollars.
8. Frees You, the CEO, Up to Do What You Want
A Fractional COO can build scaffolding, processes and a team around you. They can handle certain operating matters, as well as free you from much of the day-to-day fires you likely don’t excel at and don’t like doing. Instead, properly staffed, you can turn to do what you want to — product, marketing, strategy, big picture, selling — whatever reason you started or decided to run your business for. Over time, a proper Fractional COO team may even help build what is necessary so you can get some of your critical personal and family time back.
9. Allows for Flexibility
Since Fractional COOs typically work at least partly remotely for your company, they are highly flexible and are able to work around your schedule. An ideal virtual COO may have Associates on their team, so they can flex up or down their time and efforts in providing small business operations improvement.
10. Is Less Expensive and Less Complicated than a Full-Time COO
Fractional COO rates give you access to senior leadership services at a lower cost than a full-time COO, without the time and cost of a search and without costly employer taxes and benefits. Since many small businesses lack the ability to offer salaries and benefits packages that attract top talent, a part-time Chief Operating Officer allows you to spend based on your company’s budget so you only pay for what you need. COO outsourcing also gives you flexibility as you don’t have to worry about the costs and legal issues of letting go of senior leadership if you were to hire a full-time COO and it does not work out.
Fractional COO service providers provide the right tools at the right time. They have the expertise, experience, and operating knowledge that you need for smooth daily operations. Fractional COOs are pivotal strategists and expert communicators who work to make your company a scalable business.