Fractional COO
Fractional COO engagement: senior operational leadership, embedded.
The full engagement. 1 to 3 days a week inside your business, owning operational outcomes, sitting in leadership meetings, executing the plan, not advising on it.
Definition
A Fractional COO is a senior operations executive retained part-time, typically 1 to 3 days per week, embedded inside the leadership team. Unlike a consultant, they are accountable for operational outcomes, not just recommendations.
When this engagement fits
The Fractional COO engagement is built for founder-led product or ecommerce businesses turning over £1m to £20m where:
- The founder has become the operational bottleneck
- The team below the founder is execution-strong but lacks senior strategic capacity
- Growth is being held back by fulfilment, supply chain, or channel complexity
- A full-time COO at £120k+ is premature, unaffordable, or too risky
- You need someone in the building 1 to 3 days a week, not a slide deck
If you're under £1m, the engagement is usually too senior for your stage. If you're over £20m, a full-time Operations Director is typically the right call.
What the engagement covers
The scope is shaped in the diagnostic, but typical responsibilities include:
- Operational strategy and 90-day planning
- Leadership team meetings: chairing operations, sitting on commercial
- Direct line management of operations, supply chain, and customer service leads
- Senior hiring decisions (Ops Manager, Supply Chain Lead, Head of Customer)
- Commercial reporting design: margin per channel, cost per order, working capital
- Channel strategy decisions: Amazon expansion, marketplace launches, international entry
- Vendor management: 3PL contracts, fulfilment partners, freight providers, ERP vendors
- Crisis handling: stock-outs, supplier failures, channel suspensions
How it differs from alternatives
| Approach | What you get | Where it falls short |
|---|---|---|
| Fractional COO (this engagement) | Embedded senior operator, 1 to 3 days/week, owns outcomes, stays long enough to implement | Not the right fit if you only need 1 to 2 hours of advice a month |
| Full-time COO hire | 5 days a week, fully bought in | £120k to £180k loaded; 12+ week hiring cycle; risky if scope is unclear |
| Consultant or advisor | Frameworks, slide decks, recommendations | Doesn't implement; leaves before the hard part |
| Coach or mentor | Sounding board for the founder | Coaches the founder; doesn't execute the operation |
Typical engagement shape
The Fractional COO retainer is structured as a fixed monthly fee covering a defined number of days per month (typically 4 to 12). Engagements run for an initial six months and renew on a rolling basis. Pricing is shared on the discovery call once we've defined the scope.
Engagements close when permanent capacity is in place, typically when the business has hired or promoted into a full-time senior ops role and the handover is complete.
How the engagement runs
Discovery call
30 minutes. Understand the business, the pain, the gap.
Operational diagnostic
Two weeks of deep audit. Prioritised plan, quantified opportunities.
Engagement kickoff
Embedded 1 to 3 days/week. Leadership team integration. KPI ownership defined.
Quarterly reviews
What's been moved, what's next, whether the engagement still fits.
Handover
Permanent capacity hired or promoted. Knowledge transferred. Engagement closes.
FAQ
How many days per week is a typical engagement?
Most engagements run between 4 and 12 days per month. Heavier in the first 90 days as we get the reporting and structural changes in, lighter as the operation stabilises.
Is the fee fixed or hourly?
Fixed monthly retainer. You know what you're paying, James knows what he's committing to. No hourly billing, no scope creep through nickel-and-diming.
Can the engagement scale up or down?
Yes. Most engagements step down naturally as permanent capacity comes in. We review every quarter.
Do you work with other Fractional COOs in parallel?
James leads a small number of concurrent engagements, never more than four at any time, to maintain the depth that an embedded role requires.
What happens if the engagement isn't working?
30-day notice either way after the initial six months. No long lock-ins. The model is built on outcomes, not contractual hostage-taking.
See if this is the right fit for your business.
30 minutes, no pitch. You'll leave with actionable insight whether you engage further or not.