News & Insights
Build Your Business Faster
11th November 2024
Reflecting the changing nature of stimulating senior executive work, a growing number of professionals are choosing to embrace portfolio careers, board roles, or periods of entrepreneurial activity, reveling in the freedom to choose how, when, and where they work.
This has huge upsides for small business owners.
Traditionally, following a corporate career, C-suite leaders often fell into consultancy work, setting up their own small businesses to work for clients. This involves a steep learning curve, building a pipeline of work, and ongoing business development.
Fuelled by the pandemic’s impact on flexible working and work-life balance, there is a growing pool of highly talented people who don’t want the hassle of running their own consultancy but want to stay professionally engaged.
They are described by a term growing in traction that you might not have heard before: Fractional Executives.
What is a Fractional Executive?
A fractional executive will take on specific responsibilities for a business, working for an agreed number of days each month. The executives are seasoned, committed, highly capable individuals with a career track record that may have you thinking they’d be out of your league.
Not so.
This part-time, hands-on leadership is budget-friendly, especially for small and medium-sized businesses because they work for a fraction of the full-time equivalent time and cost.
Their level of expertise means they need less of your management time to get up to speed and start grappling with the challenges limiting growth and profitability.
Traditional consulting can be expensive for businesses, but having access to an experienced executive who can offer counsel and fulfill the responsibilities of a particular role, such as CFO or CMO, can do much to alleviate stress without breaking the bank.
Fractional executives immerse themselves in the daily operations and understand the nuances of your business. They become integral to your team and are invested in your success. For instance, a fractional CFO could provide financial expertise to your board, introduce potential investors, lead due diligence, or implement strategies to mitigate financial risks.
Budget Friendly Expertise
Finding an executive leader with the skills that meet your specific requirements and your budget can be difficult.
Fractional executives are the solution.
- Access senior executives on a part-time, long-term basis.
- The executive is a member of your team, holding responsibilities for a specific role in your business.
- Unlock efficiencies and gain value insight with their unique, insightful perspectives.
- Benefit from long-term impact beyond their remit through informal mentoring.
- Adjust the level of engagement based on your business needs, ramping up during critical periods and ratcheting down during stable periods.
- Save money on full-time salary and benefit costs.
Within our exclusive network of independent C-suite executives are professionals with decades of experience as troubleshooters, agile project managers, strategic advisors, and discipline experts in finance, tax, HR, IT, and procurement who have worked through the challenges you are facing now.
Following a consultative conversation with our recruiters, we identify which of our executive leaders has the skill set that best suits your requirements and facilitate an introduction.
However, you stay in control, with the final hiring decision agreed between you and the executive. Your administration burden is minimal as we take care of the executive’s payroll and can also provide them with working space in our executive hub at 38 Albyn Place.
