How Much of My Time Is Needed If I Hire a Fractional Chief Operation Officer?
End the frustration and get the help you deserve
How Much of My Time Is Needed If I Hire a Fractional Chief Operation Officer?
The most significant stress point for small businesses is TIME. Can my current business operate without me needing to be there every minute of the day? Can I take a two-week vacation? Can my employee take responsibility for the workplace?
If you can’t answer these questions, how long will it take to diagnose and fix the problems that keep you from living the life you want?
Usually, this challenge drives the typical small to mid-sized business to look for help because they don’t have the time or experience in-house to re-build, repair, or build the systems required for sustainable achievement. Using an Outsourced or Fractional COO is an excellent fit in these circumstances.
Once the top executive understands the workings of the IAS model, the question I often gets is, “How much of my time is needed if I hire you?”.
How Often Do We Meet?
Based on the scope of our involvement, we are on the ground in your business 1-6 hours per week. Working with you, your team members, contractors, etc., to identify, educate, and improve the ability of your business to operate without dependence on any individual.
This minimal time commitment results from our experience building operational efficiency in non-traditional businesses and knowing how to leverage the client’s domain knowledge to guide our efforts.
Early in the relationship, I invite my client champions to invest additional time by attending staff meetings we lead, participating in discovery sessions we facilitate, etc. I’ve found this extra involvement up front helps us form a productive working relationship and allows the client to get more comfortable with the new concepts.
Throughout this journey, the client sponsor and us stay in lockstep by focusing on high-level activities during our routine check-in meetings, such as:
Individual support plans for employees
Maintaining alignment
Reviewing the work products we produce and refining them as needed before roll-out.
Partnering on culture transition objectives.
Checking in on milestone progress and establishing the next set of goals.
What Do You Take Ownership of?
Most often, there are six phases during our involvement:
Discovery & Assessment
Design & Implement
Operationalize with Adoption
Evaluation
Adjust improve (introduce continuous improvement)
Continuous growth
After completing the Discovery & Assessment phase, we develop a plan to serve as our guide. We oversee the steps and actions necessary to create the change you brought us in for. With this plan defined, we’ll take full ownership of designing the agreed-upon work products and implementing them with designated members of your team.
We involve your employees during the design process to glean insights from their subject matter knowledge while also gaining their buy-in before new solutions are implemented.
During this heavy lifting phase, you remain at a high level yet aware of the changes by gaining updates during our routine meetings.
We focus on the key organizational competencies that most small to mid-sized businesses struggle with Strategy, Performance Management, Process Documentation & Improvement, Culture Alignment, Ownership, Trust, Communication, etc.
We work with your team to implement, evaluate, adjust and improve organizational behavior to create sustainable improvements.
How Do We Work Together?
While we’re in the trenches with your employees throughout the six phases described, acting on your behalf to ensure the proper changes are made and adopted. This is most effective when we develop a strong bond of trust, honor one another’s authority areas, and are committed to seeing changes through.
We guarantee that we can fix 1 of your top 5 problems in the first 90-days or less.
We have seen owners panic when the company isn’t completely fixed within 90-days. They grow impatient and feel drawn to undo the work. To avoid ending up at square one, leaving the new processes and systems in place is critical to gaining the desired outcomes.
The Best Outcome: Trusting Your Business to Succeed without you
We enter many small to mid-sized businesses every year. We’ve found that most business owners struggling to reach their goals are the same ones who are personally overseeing/involving themselves in all their departments.
Usually, that means late nights doing someone else job, making excuses for others, stressing out about sales, and trying to figure out what went wrong. Unfortunately, this often leads to a lack of focus, crunched windows of time, and a never-ending project load.
Imagine the time you’ll immediately get back by hiring an Outsourced or Fractional COO Leader! Not to mention how it will feel to be able to take time for yourself.
This freedom allows the owner or top executive to work “on” the business, creating a greater sense of impact and personal fulfillment.
You can actually take a vacation and not spend the entire time fretting about an order not being fulfilled or a project not being completed. No more sleepless nights filled with stress. You can enjoy time away knowing your business is going in the right direction to achieve the growth you’ve always dreamed of.
By partnering with a Fractional Chief Operations Officer, you are gaining a partner with the skills to create immediate impact while only investing a fraction of your time.
If you’d like to discuss the improvement you’re looking for in your business, contact me through these methods: (412) 397-7967 or doogie@ideasactionsuccess.com or book a slot on my calendar.