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Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) often face unique challenges. Whether it’s scaling operations, managing cash flow, or finding specialized talent, business owners often need expert guidance to get ahead. Senior talent, in the form of fractional executives, offers a potential solution, allowing businesses to tap into high-level expertise on a flexible, part-time basis. Hiring fractional talent can be the catalyst SMBs need to break through growth plateaus and scale efficiently without overpaying for full-time hires.
What is a fractional executor?
A part-time executive is an experienced professional hired on a part-time basis to manage certain areas of the business. This arrangement allows business owners to tap into expertise when needed, offering flexibility in resource management. Fractional leaders are often brought in with a specific growth mandate and provide deep expertise in their area of specialization.
As businesses grow, leadership requirements evolve. Faction leaders offer the flexibility to increase or decrease their involvement based on company needs. For example, many small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) initially hire fractional managers to address immediate challenges. Over time, the relationship often transitions into a more consultative role, helping the business remain agile during periods of growth.
According to many participants A the latest nationwide gathering of faction leaderstheir biggest advantage is that they can be integrated into the business like a full-time team member. Chris Taylor, Fractional CFO, explains: “I share financial responsibility with the management team. This is what makes me different from a consultant. I’m there with the management team. Similarly, Steve Margerin, Fractional’s chief revenue officer, describes the fractional model as “removing the entire burden of the function from the CEO, giving the team more time to focus on other priorities.”
Where to find fractional leaders?
If your business is at a stage where growth is important but resources are limited, fractional leaders may be the right solution. But where could these fractional leaders be?
As of mid-2024, more than 110,000 people on LinkedIn are identified as Fractional Leaders, offering part-time expertise in core business functions such as marketing, finance, IT and human resources. To explore this option, you can start by viewing profiles that match your criteria to get an idea of the different profiles that offer fractional services. Acquiring informative discussions and having right talk about possible fractional involvement is key. Once you’ve identified potential candidates, the next step is to match them to your business needs.
To facilitate this process, several intermediary organizations have emerged that focus on matching SMEs with specialized fractional talent. In the domain of fractional sales leadership, for example, Vendux LLC maintains a list of nearly 900 fractional sales lead profiles in the US and Canada. While every founder or CEO knows someone in sales, the question is whether that person is available as a fractional executive and, more importantly, whether they are the best fit. Vendux co-founder Henning Schwinum explains: We checked out these professionals to understand in detail what they’ve done in the past and the sales scenarios they’ve managed. In fractional roles where time is limited and the pressure to solve a specific problem is high, it’s critical that a fractional executive be able to look the founder or CEO in the eye and confidently say, “I’ve done this before,” whether it was a similar product, deal structure, or sales cycle.
Similarly, fractional brokerage services also exist in the realm of external general advisory services such as: Frost Brown Todd OGCand in technology and finance.
Making the fractional model work
Once you find the right fractional talent, alignment with the fractional executive is critical to making the fractional model work effectively. A mismatch of goals or expectations can strain a relationship. As Megan Doberstein, Fractional CMO, explains, it’s important to ensure that the goals set by the client are realistic. If there is a significant gap between the client’s expectations and realistic achievements, and if this gap cannot be bridged, then the partnership is unlikely to succeed. Chris Taylor, Fractional CFO, emphasizes the importance of collaborative learning and collaboration. A successful fractional relationship should feel like a collaborative effort, not a purely transactional exchange. Ultimately, success comes from a shared commitment to solving customer challenges and aligning expectations from the start.
Whether it’s driving growth, scale of operations, or providing strategic leadership, factional leaders can be an option to help small and medium-sized businesses navigate today’s competitive environment. By providing specialized expertise and flexibility, they can enable businesses to move quickly and make informed decisions that drive success.