A fractional Chief Operating Officer (COO) fulfills many of the same duties as a traditional COO, but on a flexible basis. Traditionally, a COO oversees the day-to-day administrative and operational functions of a business.
As a company grows, it will begin to bring on executives (or promote from within) to fill senior management roles. As these roles require many years of experience, executives at this level can command high salaries. It is common for a COO’s salary to be in the range of $200,000 or more.
Small businesses below $5MM a year in revenue are often not able to justify the expense of bringing on a full-time COO.
Enter: the fractional COO.
Fractional COOs have years of experience performing in the COO role and often have previously been full-time COOs themselves. The ‘fractional’ designation means that a fractional COO is available for businesses to engage flexibly. Some bill for their time on an hourly basis, but most will charge a single monthly fee in exchange for a pre-defined scope of engagement.
This flexible relationship gives businesses the ability to make the best use of their resources. The business can contract with a fractional COO to solve a specific operation situation or work with the owner and the leadership team to improve the business over time.
Overall, a fractional COO can be a great asset to businesses of many different sizes.