Tag: scaling a company

Hiring a team can be daunting for many founders, especially when it’s their first company. It’s like leaving your toddler with a babysitter for the first time. Trust me, I get it. One mistake can be detrimental. If you bring in the wrong person to a team, it can derail any progress made and cost you thousands in the process. That’s why hiring fractional help can be of assistance.

Think about it like testing before buying. But when should a company seek full-time help and when is it better to go with fractional hires? There are some important factors to consider. 

How to tell if you need help 

If any of the following are true, you’re overdue for a hire or more. These are just a few of the main pain points.   

• You’re replying to customer support at midnight.   
• You’re spending more time on spreadsheets than on strategy.  
• Your to-do list seems to be never ending.   
• You’re managing people and projects that should be done by someone else.  

As a CEO, when you spend too much time on work outside of your expertise, you know support of some kind is necessary. Many CEOs get stuck in the doing—managing projects, overseeing tasks, and solving immediate problems. They may be the busiest people in the business, but unfortunately that often does not translate to revenue. Hiring experts to fill your gaps is the best way to grow sustainably.  

A few years ago, a founder contracted me to help with declining profits and “hiring problems.” Within two weeks of discovery interviews, the real picture became clear. He was spending more than 80 hours a week managing his team members and completing tasks far below his pay grade. The interesting part is that he had a team to rely on, but he didn’t have the tools to succeed with the team.  

Consequently, he had no time to grow the company. That was the real issue. I persuaded him to bring in a fractional chief of staff and that completely transformed his organization. The CEO’s mindset shifted from reactive to proactive, and two years later, he sold the company for $2 billion.   

Fractional versus Full-time  

You know you need help, but you’re unsure what type. If you don’t have enough work for someone to fill the role full time, but you need the help of an expert, fractional is the way to go.   

When I first founded my company, I hired a fractional social media expert. I am a Baby Boomer, so it is the furthest thing from my expertise. Years later, when I had the funds and many more projects to delegate, I hired a social media manager full-time. Another reason to make a fractional hire is when you simply can’t afford full-time help. Expert fractional work won’t be cheap, but it will give you an expert for less money.   

The long-term effect   

A mistake I see many founders make is not hiring help soon enough. Although it requires investment early on, it saves a company money in the long run.   

Imagine you attempt to do it all yourself for the first few years. You will save cash in the short term, but it will cost you in the slowed and possibly stagnant growth of your company. One person can’t effectively do the work of many people. Also, it’s 2025. Everything moves faster than ever before, and without the proper help, you can quickly have a disaster on your hands. Instead, make a small investment now to prevent turning into one of many organizations that operate reactively rather than proactively.