FAQ

A Fractional COO (sometimes called a part-time or interim COO) is a senior operations leader who works inside your business to fix what's holding back growth, without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire. Not an advisor. Not a consultant who writes a report and leaves. Someone who gets embedded in your team and takes ownership of making things work. How a typical engagement runs: Diagnose (weeks 1–4):  I start by rolling up sleeves, getting into the weeds, understanding how the business actually operates, not how the org chart says it should. I map the real bottlenecks, agree priorities, and set baseline KPIs. This phase is usually the most intensive, three or four days a week. Implement (months 1–3):  We build what's needed. That might be an operating model, SOPs, CRM/ERP, automation, reporting, whatever moves the needle most. I'm hands-on through this, but your team is involved from day one. This isn't something being done to them. Embed (months 3–6):  This is where the shift happens. I'm upskilling your permanent team, the people who'll run this long after I'm gone. Locking in the routines, the scorecards, the accountability cadence. My time starts reducing as their confidence and capability grows. Step back (ongoing):  Eventually I move into a coaching and advisory role. One or two days a month, sometimes quarterly. Attending board meetings, keeping the leadership team honest and focused on longer-term objectives, and making sure nobody quietly drifts back into firefighting / BAU mode. What this gives you: A business with clear ownership, reliable data, and repeatable processes. A team that runs the day-to-day without needing you in every decision. And a structure that scales, or exits cleanly. The whole point is capability transfer, not dependency. Strong systems, stronger people, and an operating rhythm that holds. For PE-backed businesses: This model is particularly valuable because I'm not part of the permanent cost base. My engagement is time-bound and transformation-focused, which means fees can typically be structured as a non-recurring cost and treated as an EBITDA add-back (subject to your CFO and auditor's sign-off, as with any add-back). The compounding effect is worth spelling out: better systems and processes drive efficiency and profit growth, which lifts EBITDA. The business becomes genuinely exit-ready and process-led, which supports a stronger multiple. And because my costs come off the run-rate, that EBITDA figure gets an additional boost. It's value creation from several angles at once.