Fractional COO Services For The Way Your Business Actually Runs
Most firms will tell you what to fix. We embed a vetted, outsourced COO inside your business, matched to your industry, stage and leadership style, and they stay until it is fixed. Not advice. Execution.
What Does It Mean To Hire A COO?
To hire a COO is to bring in a chief operating officer who runs daily operations, leads the leadership team, and owns execution. A fractional COO does the same work part-time on an ongoing retainer, which is how most companies under $15M in revenue access that seniority without an executive salary.
The question most founders get stuck on is not whether they need one. It is how to tell a genuine operator from someone who has read the books. That is what this page is for.
You've Built The Business, Now It Needs An Operator
Growth doesn't stall because you're not working hard enough.
It stalls because the systems, structure, and second-in-command leadership haven't caught up with what you've built.
A fractional COO isn't extra capacity. It's a strategic partner who takes the operational weight off your plate: the processes, the people problems, the follow-through. You stay focused on vision and growth, and we build what turns that vision into repeatable, scalable results.
We come batteries included to make the vision real.
That operator is not a fourth priority on someone else's list. They are in the seat, every week, owning execution. Most founders decide to bring one in at one of three moments, and there are 8 signs your business needs a fractional COO worth checking against.
A new project needs real execution
You're starting something that has to be delivered with speed and precision, and there is no operational capacity to run it alongside everything else.
The current model won't reach the goal
You already know the way the business runs today will not support where you want it to be. The structure has to change before the numbers can.
Growth without micromanaging
You want rapid expansion without standing over each person to get it. That needs accountability built into the structure, not supplied by you.
Recognize your business in one of these?
Let's talkWhat Does a Fractional COO Actually Do?
Think of your fractional COO as the air-traffic controller across the whole organization:
marketing, sales, operations and finance. Scope is set with you at the start and adjusted as priorities change.
In practice, fractional chief operating officer services cover four areas of the business, and the work in each is concrete.
Operations and execution
- Owns the weekly priority list and holds the team to it
- Runs the meeting cadence for leadership, departmental and one-to-one meetings
- Tracks quarterly priorities from set to delivered, not set to forgotten
- Resolves operational issues before they reach your desk
The right person in the right role
- Builds the accountability chart so everyone knows who owns what, in writing
- Directly manages your leadership team day to day
- Identifies where people are in the wrong role, and says so
- Owns the hiring plan and sits in on senior hires
Measurement and reporting
- Defines the handful of KPIs that actually predict the outcome
- Builds a scorecard the team reviews every week
- Produces a founder-level report you can read in ten minutes
- Flags variance early instead of at quarter end
Systems and infrastructure
- Documents the processes that currently live in people's heads
- Evaluates and consolidates the tools the business runs on
- Sets vendor and partner governance
- Builds an operating model that grows without proportional headcount
A good operator tells you not just what to do, but owns how it gets done. We're wired to finish what you start.
Working out what to hand over first? Start with the 5 fractional COO duties every CEO needs to delegate.
Built By An Operator, Run By A Bench
The COO Solution was founded by Derek Fredrickson, who spent 16+ years helping founder-led businesses scale, including growing his family's business to multiple seven figures, before building this firm to bring that same operational leadership to more companies.
Today that means a bench of vetted, formally trained COOs, each matched to your industry, stage, and working style. Not a single advisor stretched across every client. A capable operator in the wrong company is still the wrong hire, so you meet the one we recommend before anything is signed, and fit runs both ways.
You work with one operator. One person, accountable to you, in the seat every week. Behind them sits the rest of the bench, running engagements across different industries and stages and comparing notes on what is working. When your operator meets a problem they have not seen before, they are rarely the first on the team to have seen it.
Operators across eleven US states and the United Kingdom. Matched on fit, not proximity.
"You don't need more hustle. You need a business that runs without you in the middle."
Derek Fredrickson
Founder & CEO, The COO Solution
Full-Time COO or Part-Time COO Services?
A full-time chief operating officer typically costs $200,000 to $350,000 a year before benefits and equity.
For a business doing a few million in revenue, that single hire absorbs a serious share of operating profit, which is why the seat often stays empty long after the business needed someone in it.
Fractional engagements are monthly retainers, tiered by hours. They start at $4,000 a month for a twenty-hour retainer and scale with the level of leadership the business needs. For the wider market picture, see fractional COO hourly rates in the USA.
$65K to $350K per month in five months. ADC Water went from a founder consumed by daily operations to forecasting $3.7M at 58% net profit margins. Read the full story.
| Fractional COO | Full-time COO | Operations consultant | Operations manager | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| In the business every week | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Leads the leadership team | Yes | Yes | No | Rarely |
| Owns outcomes, not recommendations | Yes | Yes | No | Within scope |
| Has run and scaled companies before | Yes | Usually | Varies | Rarely |
| Available forty hours a week | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Cost | Fraction of an executive salary | Full salary, equity, benefits | Project fee | Mid-level salary |
| Time to productive | Weeks | Months | Weeks | Months |
Scroll the table sideways to compare all four.
The forty hours row is the honest trade-off. A fractional operator is not in your business full time. What you get instead is seniority, at a level of experience most growing businesses could not hire outright.
On the last two columns: we go into detail on fractional COO vs business consultant and on the difference between a COO and an operations manager.
If that math works for your business, the next step is seeing who fits.
Ready to see who fits?Diagnose. Design. Drive.
Every engagement runs on the same three-part method. It is what separates an operator from a consultant: we do not hand over a recommendation and leave, we stay until the results compound.
Diagnose
We find the real constraint, not the one that is loudest. That means looking at how work actually moves through the business, where decisions stall, and which problems are symptoms of something further upstream.
Design
We build the systems, accountability structures and meeting rhythms that fix it. Not a slide deck of recommendations. The actual scorecards, ownership charts and cadence your team will use every week.
Drive
We hold the organization to it until the results compound. This is the part most firms are not built for, and it is the reason an operator in the seat beats an advisor on a call.
This is not consulting and it is not coaching. Your operator owns the outcome, not the advice. More on what that looks like in practice: scaling without chaos.
How Do Outsourced COO Services Work Week to Week?
Your operator sits on the leadership team, not on a vendor list, and the work runs to a rhythm.
After that it continues month to month, because trust should be earned through results rather than held by a contract.
Every week
- Runs the leadership meeting to an agenda
- Reviews the scorecard against target
- Clears blockers before they reach you
- Resets priorities for the days ahead
Every month
- One-to-ones with each leadership team member
- Hiring and capacity review against the plan
- Operational and financial review with you
- Process gaps documented and assigned
Every quarter
- Measures the quarter that just closed
- Sets the priorities for the next ninety days
- Revisits org structure and role clarity
- Resets the plan with you, in person
Fractional Integrator Support for Companies Running on EOS®
EOS® does not fail at the whiteboard. It fails in the execution gap between sessions.
The framework is in place. The quarterly sessions are happening. The Rocks are set. Then the weeks in between arrive, and without someone consistently holding the Integrator seat, a well-designed implementation starts to lose traction.
What drifts between sessions
- The team slides back toward firefighting
- Ownership gets blurry again
- Decisions three levels down land on your desk
- Rocks are set but not genuinely tracked
What the Integrator seat holds
- Leads the leadership team day to day
- Drives accountability across the Accountability Chart
- Runs Level 10 meetings with discipline
- Tracks Rocks through to delivered
- Keeps the business on the path set in the quarterly session
Our fractional COOs are trained and experienced in stepping directly into that seat, with 15 or more years in the number-two chair.
Integrator or Implementer?
These are distinct roles, and the difference matters when you are working out what your business actually needs next.
They step into the Integrator seat and run the business inside the framework every week. Operational authority of a seasoned COO, combined with the fluency of a formally trained Integrator.
We work with companies already running on EOS®, and with companies ready to start applying its principles.
Licensed professionals with a specific mandate: advising on and teaching the EOS® system inside a business. A separate and valuable function.
Our fractional COOs are not Implementers.
The COO Solution is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or an official partner of EOS® Worldwide.
Running on EOS®? Let's talk about your Integrator seat.
Start the conversationEvery Industry Operates Differently. So Do We.
Our operators have led across a wide range of industries. What matters more than sector is fit.
- Professional Services
- Financial & Legal Advisory
- Healthcare
- Travel & Hospitality
- Recruiting & Staffing
- Coaching & Education
- Interior Design & Architecture
- Manufacturing
- Technology
- Engineering
- Construction
- And more
What Do Results Actually Look Like?
Real businesses, real numbers, in the founders' own words.
per month
The founder was consumed by daily operations and unable to work on the direction of the business.
Five months later, revenue per month had gone from $65K to $350K, every project milestone had been hit for four consecutive months, and the business was forecasting $3.7M at 58% net profit margins. The founder was out of daily operations.
done in six weeks
Relaunching the firm alone, with clients and team following her across, half a million in payroll commitments, and a calendar full of decisions only she could make.
A 21-day sprint for immediate traction inside a 90-day roadmap. Within six weeks, thousands of competing ideas had become a short prioritised list and the top three were finished. Ops meetings became the highlight of her week.
in 18 months
A founder carrying operational leadership personally, with no structure underneath to scale against.
Revenue doubled within eighteen months and the founder freed up significant time to focus on growth, with the clarity and structure needed to scale confidently.
Three of many. Read the full case studies.
These started with one conversation about what was actually in the way.
Book a call— Lucy Rayden, Managing Partner & Co-Founder, Insight Technology Search
we’ve got answers
Common Questions About Fractional COO Services
What industries and business types do you work with?
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We serve a wide range of industries and business models. Our fractional COOs have led operations across professional services, financial advisory, legal, travel, interior design, architecture, healthcare, recruiting and staffing, manufacturing, coaching and education, technology, engineering, construction, and many more.
We work with B2B and B2C, service-based and product-based, digital-first and brick-and-mortar. What matters more than industry is fit. Our ICP is founder-led and CEO-led businesses between $1M and $15M in revenue, where execution has become the bottleneck and operational leadership is the next hire. If that's your business, we can almost certainly place the right operator.
What makes The COO Solution different from other fractional COO companies?
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Three things set us apart. First, we operate on a proven framework: Diagnose. Design. Drive. We identify the real bottlenecks, design the systems to fix them, and drive execution until results compound. This isn't consulting or coaching. We're also not babysitters. We don't stand on the sidelines watching the business get run.
We drive accountability, ensure the right person is in the right seat, and elevate how the entire organization operates across every function. We don't just focus on what to do to grow and scale. We focus just as much on how you're doing what you're doing to grow and scale. We come with batteries included to make the vision real. Second, our bench. Every COO on our team has 15+ years of second-in-command experience, is well-versed and experienced in the EOS Integrator model, and is deliberately matched to the CEO and business they'll serve.
Most are graduates of the EOS Integrator Masterclass. We don't send resumes. Unlike other outsourced COO companies, we pair you with the right operator, backed by a firm and a methodology. Third, our focus. We serve founder-led and CEO-led businesses between $1M and $15M in revenue. That's our lane.
What does a typical engagement look like?
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Every engagement starts with a 90-day commitment. This allows your fractional COO to do the foundational work that creates real traction: stabilizing execution, clarifying roles and accountability, and implementing the systems and cadence your business needs to scale. We structure the first 90 days around a 30-60-90 Day Plan.
The first 30 days are diagnostic and stabilizing. The next 30 days will design the systems and accountability structures. The final 30 drive execution and measurable results. After the initial 90 days, support continues on a month-to-month basis. We earn your trust through results, not contracts.
Most engagements continue well beyond the first 90 days, often 6 months, a year, two years, and more, because every new level brings a new devil. As your business grows, the operational challenges evolve, and we're with you every step of the way.
Is the fractional COO remote or on-site?
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We operate remote-first. We lead weekly meetings, manage execution, and hold your team accountable through regular video and asynchronous communication. Our clients span the US, UK, and Europe, and our operating rhythm is built for distributed teams. We find this model works best to drive accountability. It doesn't lean on the comfort and convenience of in-person presence to create results.
The alternative is hiring locally, which means compromising quality for proximity. Remote-first lets us pair you with the best-fit operator on our bench, not just the one nearest to your office. When an engagement benefits from periodic on-site presence, we arrange it directly with the client.
Do you only work with companies already running on EOS®?
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No. Our fractional COOs are well-experienced in EOS® frameworks and methodologies, and most are graduates of the EOS Integrator Masterclass. For companies operating on the Entrepreneurial Operating System®, they serve in the Integrator seat from day one. For companies using other operating frameworks, or none at all, we bring the same boots-on-the-ground execution, tailored to your business. EOS® is not a prerequisite for working with us.
What is the difference between a fractional COO and an EOS® Integrator?
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The Integrator is a specific seat within the Entrepreneurial Operating System® framework. It's the operational counterpart to the Visionary. A fractional COO is a broader executive role covering all aspects of operations. At The COO Solution, our fractional COOs are well-versed and experienced in the EOS Integrator model.
For companies running on EOS®, they serve in the Integrator seat. For companies using other frameworks, they bring full operational leadership along with the execution discipline EOS® is known for. In both cases, you get the same caliber of operator, applied to the framework your business runs on.
Ready to See What an Operator Would Change?
Start with a short conversation about where the business is and what is actually in the way. No obligation, and no pitch if a fractional COO is not what you need yet.
Your information stays with us and is never shared.
Not ready to talk? Take the 2-minute assessment instead.
Learn More About Fractional COO Services
Guides on what the role covers, what it costs, and whether the model fits where your business is right now.
