Fractionals United Blog

Being a fractional isn't easy. I already blogged about the challenges to consider before going this route so I won't repeat them, but there are others I wanted to address: context switching not being able to coast required experience and expertise personal limitations Context Switching It is challenging having more than one client, whether fractional or otherwise, but if you're a fractional, you need to focus on a regular basis to get results. As a Fractional COO, since I run companies, I have to be available daily and the only way I've been able to do this is with strict time blocking.  This means that I literally have blocks on my calendar per each cilent/type of work I do, and I have synched my SavvyCal scheduling links per time block. So Client A can only schedule a meeting during the Client A time block, Client B during the Client B time block, etc.  I actually discussed this in detail with Shadi Yazdan on her podcast, The Raw Founder, which you can listen to here

In the world of high-growth business, where demand for scale and efficiency reigns supreme, there is a nuanced layer that often goes unnoticed: emotions. Beyond the spreadsheets and workflows, emotions play a profound role, influencing everything from employee engagement to customer loyalty. In fact, this emotional attachment is often what can deter a company from bringing in fractional operators - how could an “outsider” possibly understand their intricacies. Consider the common paths leveraged to scale a company:  Full-time resources are often too deep in the weeds and/or too embedded in interpersonal dynamics to effectively build for scale. External consultants can build countless workflows and process optimization playbooks, but they often don’t have the context or connection to influence how those plans land. In contrast, a great fractional operator strikes the right balance of efficiently diagnosing process gaps while addressing emotional attachment and resistance to change. Frac

Want the short answer? It depends. You hate that answer, I know.  “What does it depend on?” …that’s a better question, and one I can try to help answer! Like with any good recipe, it’s a mix of ingredients that will determine whether you’re baking a dessert pie or a savory pie. Or, in this case, a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) or a full-time, in-house CMO. Why “It Depends” When triaging with a company, I look at a few different business attributes and situational details to help evaluate if Fractional makes sense: Business type (offering format, size, stage, industry, etc.) Budget (marketing, overhead, in-market, company-wide, etc.) Revenue (total, growth goal + time frame, growth legacy, etc.) State-of-marketing (status, maturity, gaps, opportunities, competitive landscape, etc.) Marketing team (composition, skill mix, gaps, maturity, efficiency, growth potential, etc.) The reason “it depends” is because it’s not just a simple answer for any of these, and the decision lie

Escaping the Donut Hole In my last post, I introduced the concept of the design leadership “donut hole.” The donut hole is the period between a company’s beginnings as an early-stage startup and its evolution to late stage or growth. Typically, as a startup climbs the maturity curve from the early-stage scramble to the finish line into a mature, growth-stage company, it goes through a period where it has hired product and engineering leadership, but little or no design leadership. You can get more information regarding the risks and challenges associated with the donut hole in my previous post ; in this post, I will discuss how to tell if you are in the donut hole and how to escape it. Are you in the “donut hole”? The simplest answer to this question is, if your company has more than 3 designers reporting to a Product leader, then you are in the donut hole. Very few product leaders have the skills and experience to lead a design team; in fact, having to oversee design is likely a sourc

This case study explores a situation at a small software product development company with 6 sales staff, preparing to launch a brand new product offering to market,  and how their GTM Sales Strategy was improved and amplified by engaging with a Fractional Sales Leader.   Context Not uncommon to many small businesses, the company did not have dedicated sales leadership or expertise, so those duties defaulted to the VP of Technology, who implemented and administered the company's CRM system. Despite having no experience or training in sales, he was enthusiastic to learn. Motivated by a recent seminar on cold calling, he devised his own approach for their new campaign. Original Campaign Goal: Book live product demo meeting with prospects  Audience: A purchased list, comprised of potential target contacts Behaviors: 200 new contacts called per day, by each sales rep Follow-Up: Daily follow-up calls for a week to try to reach a live contact or get a callback Demos: Sales reps to admini

Saturday, June 3, 2023 It started as a typical warm sunny day in Austin as Jane woke up with the sun to start the day. Jane is an entrepreneur CEO who started her consumer product goods company right here in this kitchen where she is brewing her coffee. She has fought hard over the past few years through all of the changes in the pandemic and is now on track to beat every sales forecast the company has set, and this is for the third quarter in a row. "That coffee smells amazing," Jasmine says, entering the kitchen. "I am going to need some of that before I even think about opening this laptop." Jasmine is Jane's partner and has recently left MEGA CORP after a 13-year career in finance and operations and is on an entrepreneurial journey of her own as a Fractional CFO. "Just pouring us both a cup," says Jane. "I know you like to start posting your content on socials early to get your name out there for your consulting stuff."  "

When I started my business five years ago, I relied on my network of professional relationships to bring me clients. It worked and I built up a roster of 20 companies. But, like many entrepreneurs, I realized that I can’t exclusively rely on my network forever. I needed to promote myself.  If you’re like me, when you think about self-promotion, the general feeling is cringe . And to make matters worse, I’m a marketing consultant, so I felt like this should be easy for me! But self-promotion is not easy because it’s so personal. I can create product marketing programs for B2B SaaS startups all day long, but I am not a B2B SaaS platform.   Self-promotion is as hard for marketers as much as anyone else, but there are some marketing best practices that we can apply to sell ourselves as fractional executives. I’m going to share a few foundational tips to get you started in a way that feels more strategic and less cringey.  Know Your Ideal Audience. Understanding the audience you’re trying t