Fractional COO support when the founder is still holding the business together.
You know what needs to improve. The difficult part is making it happen across the team while you keep running the business.
I work alongside founders and managers to turn priorities into owned decisions, reliable handovers and a management rhythm the team can sustain. Scope and time are agreed around the work.
What a fractional COO does
A fractional Chief Operating Officer provides senior operating leadership for an agreed part of the working week or month. The role connects priorities with the people, decisions and information needed to deliver them.
In a founder-led business, the work may span sales-to-delivery handovers, customer exceptions, capacity, operating measures and management accountability.
We agree which outcomes I own, what authority comes with them, which decisions stay with you and how progress is reviewed. A job title alone does not settle those questions.
When this support may fit
Your management team needs senior coordination across functions, and the founder is currently doing that alongside sales, customers and strategy.
Priorities are clear enough to act on, but commitments slip between teams or decisions wait for you. You want someone to work with managers on the operating changes.
A defined process issue may need a smaller consultancy engagement. A full-time operating leadership need may require a permanent hire. The fit conversation establishes the appropriate scope.
The first priorities are agreed from evidence
We review recurring escalations, delivery commitments, customer issues and the numbers managers use. We agree the primary operating constraint before setting the work plan.
Possible deliverables include an ownership map, decision limits, capacity visibility and a weekly management review. The engagement specifies what is included.
The founder remains involved in direction and the decisions reserved to them. Managers need enough authority, information and capability to carry their own responsibilities.
How the engagement is scoped and priced
Time, fee, responsibilities and the review period are agreed in writing after understanding the business. There is no standard day allocation or retainer price assumed on this page.
If the dependency is not yet clear, the Founder Dependency Review can provide a starting point: £1,250 + VAT for a 90-minute working review and written 30, 60 and 90-day priorities.
A 30-minute fit call comes before that commitment. If a review or fractional engagement does not fit, I will say so.
Review progress and build management ownership
We agree observable measures, such as whether managers resolve routine exceptions, commitments move without chasing and the founder can see risks early.
Support should help the team carry responsibility. Review both delivery outcomes and how much coordination still depends on the founder or fractional operator.
My background includes sales and operations across HP, Capita and the public sector. Client examples describe the work delivered, rather than promising the same result in every engagement.