Fractional COO & Systems Optimization

Executive operational leadership for organizations that need it — without a full-time executive salary.

We help build the operating system behind your business.

Book a conversation about fractional COO advisory

Who this is for

Organizations somewhere between "the owner runs everything" and "we have a leadership team that runs itself." Usually 20 to 250 people. Growing. Profitable enough to invest in structure. Led by someone who is spending too much of the week inside operations and not enough on the business.

You may already have strong managers. What is usually missing is not talent — it is an operating system: the rhythms, the ownership, the metrics, and the decision structure that let good people run the business without everything routing through one person.

What we do

●Operational strategy — what the operation needs to become, and in what order

●Business systems design — the structures that hold the work

●Workflow optimization — removing friction from how work moves

●KPI development and dashboard strategy — deciding what leadership should measure and why

●Process improvement — sustained, not one-time

●Organizational operating rhythms — the meeting, review, and planning cadence a business needs at your size

●Leadership decision support — a thinking partner for the calls that keep you up

●Accountability systems — clear ownership, visible commitments

●Technology and AI opportunity identification — where it genuinely earns its cost

●Operational roadmap development — a sequence, not a wish list

●Executive advisory — direct, experienced, and outside the politics

What we do not do

This is the important part, and most fractional COO offers are vague about it.

We do not run your day-to-day operations. We are not a project manager, an interim staff member, or an extra pair of hands. We design, advise, structure, diagnose, and enable. Your internal team owns execution — that is what makes the improvement durable and what keeps you from becoming dependent on an outside firm.

Where hands-on implementation support is genuinely needed, we scope and price it separately, in writing, and tell you plainly when we think you should hire internally instead.

How it works

Engagement shape

Monthly retainer, three-month minimum, then month to month. Typical engagement runs six to twelve months, at which point most clients either have the operating system they needed or are ready to hire the full-time executive we helped them define.

A typical month

●A standing executive working session with the owner or leadership team
●One structural workpiece in progress — a workflow, a KPI system, an operating rhythm, a role redesign
●Availability between sessions for the decisions that will not wait
●A monthly written summary: what moved, what did not, what is next

Pricing

Advisory

$2,500/month

One session per month plus availability. Owner-led businesses building their first real operating structure.

Most common

Embedded Advisory

$4,000/month

Twice-monthly sessions plus one structural workpiece per month. The most common engagement.

Executive Partner

$6,000/month

Weekly cadence, leadership team access, multiple concurrent workstreams. Businesses in active scaling or restructuring.

Three-month minimum. Month to month after. Thirty days' notice to end. Fixed scope, fixed price, quoted in writing before anything begins.

Why fractional, honestly

A full-time COO in this market costs $150,000 to $220,000 plus benefits, plus the six months it takes to hire well and the risk of hiring wrong. Most businesses under 250 people do not need a COO forty hours a week. They need COO-level thinking on the right ten questions, consistently, with someone who will tell them the truth.

When you do need the full-time role, we will say so — and having done this work first means you will know exactly what to hire for.

Questions people ask

Let's talk about what your operation actually needs.

Book a conversation Not there yet? Start with a Business Systems Assessment.