Senior leadership for businesses that have outgrown the founder.
You built it, and it works. What is missing is the senior judgement a business this size cannot yet carry on the payroll.
Why a full-time executive may be premature
A permanent CFO or COO feels like the next step. For many owner-managed firms the maths does not hold:
The salary outweighs the job
A full-time executive is paid for five days. The business has two or three days of real senior work.
The search is slow
Recruiting a senior hire takes months, and good people in a small market are often already committed.
A wrong hire is slow to put right
Unwinding a senior appointment that has not worked out is slow, and an owner-managed firm notices every month of it. We contract company to company instead, on our standard one month's notice.
You need breadth, not a specialist
A single senior person who understands the figures, the team and the customers is worth more than three departments a small firm cannot yet pay for.
A fractional executive is an experienced operator who works with you part-time and answers for what happens in their domain, unlike an adviser who writes a report and leaves. Where senior people are thin on the ground, this is how a firm your size gets one.
Who this is for, and who it is not
Best for
- Founders carrying a C-suite function themselves with no time left to lead
- Businesses that need senior capability two or three days a week, not five
- A specific gap in finance, operations, marketing, technology or people that is holding growth back
- Teams that cannot yet justify, or afford, a full-time executive salary
- Owners who want an operator accountable for outcomes, not a consultant with a deck
Not for
- A junior or purely execution role a full-time manager should own
- A one-off project an agency could deliver and hand back
- Businesses wanting a figurehead rather than someone who does the work
- A pre-revenue idea with no function yet to lead
Where we come in for owners
A senior operator for the days your business needs, and our governance around them from the first week to the last.
Check-ins built for owners
We meet you at agreed points to look at the engagement as an owner would, and reshape the brief if the business changes.
The collective behind one person
Your executive has our collective of 800+ to call on, so a cash problem that is really a stock problem still gets a straight answer.
The brief stays with us
We keep your brief and our notes up to date, so if your executive moves on, the handover and the next search are ours to run.
Matched on fit
We match on stage, sector and temperament, because in a small firm a poor fit shows within weeks.
What an engagement looks like
From first call to an embedded operator in weeks, not months.
Discovery
We spend time understanding your business: challenges, goals, team dynamics, and what 'success' looks like in 90 days.
Match
We introduce the right fractional executive from our vetted collective. You meet them, ask hard questions, and confirm the fit.
Scoped engagement begins
The engagement launches with a defined scope, clear deliverables, and a structured cadence. Your fractional is embedded, not advisory.
Adapt and evolve
As your business changes, the engagement changes with it. Add hours, shift focus, introduce a second specialist, all without restructuring.
Which executive do you need first?
You do not need to know the answer before you call. Match the problem you feel most to the operator who owns it.
Each fractional role maps to a different SME challenge
Start with the gap that is costing you most, and the roles below show which leader owns it.
Backed by executives who have led at
