Fractional COO
Fractional COO for print and embroidery businesses.
A fractional COO owns your operations part time, so you get the leadership without a full-time hire. I’ve spent twenty-five years in print, embroidery and decoration, from the warehouse floor to IT to operations, and I work inside your business the way I’d want someone to work inside mine.
What it covers
What a fractional COO does in a decoration business.
Some owners call it a fractional operations director, and some an outsourced COO. The job is the same. One person owns how the work runs, and your team stops carrying it alone.
Production flow
I walk the floor, find where jobs wait, and fix the handoffs between artwork, production and despatch. After twenty-five years in this trade I know what a stalled job looks like before anyone tells me.
Supplier data
Supplier files arrive in different shapes and go out of date. I own how they get cleaned, matched and kept current. At Hanicks, 317,812 supplier products now sit in one catalogue.
Systems
I help you decide whether to use what’s already there, add a layer on top, or use something already built. Then I keep the vendors honest while it goes in.
Team rhythm
What shipped, what’s stuck, what’s next. Decisions get made in that slot instead of being saved up for a fortnight.
Straight answer
When it’s the right call, and when it isn’t.
It fits when
You’ve grown past the point where you can hold operations in your head, and a full-time COO would be more than you need. You’ve just finished an audit and somebody has to own the plan. Or the person who held all of this has left, and you don’t want that to happen twice.
It doesn’t fit when
You need someone on site every day, which is a full-time hire. Or you haven’t worked out what’s actually broken yet, and a Clarity Audit comes first. I’d rather tell you that now than take a retainer for six months of finding out.
How it starts
Every engagement starts with a Clarity Audit.
I spend a day on site, then write up what I found and give you a plan. That tells us both what the operation needs and how much of me it needs. Retained follows if it’s the right next step.
Questions
What owners ask me.
What is a fractional COO?
A part-time chief operating officer. They own how your operations run, from production flow to suppliers to the weekly management rhythm, for an agreed scope and cadence instead of a full-time salary.
Is a fractional COO the same as a fractional operations director?
In practice, yes. The titles get used interchangeably. What matters is that one person owns operations for you, with the scope and cadence agreed at the start.
How does a fractional COO engagement with you start?
With a Clarity Audit. I spend a day on site, then give you a written plan. If ongoing leadership is the right next step, it moves to Retained, which runs on a 12-month minimum, then rolling monthly.
When is a fractional COO the wrong choice?
When you need someone on site every day, or when you haven’t worked out what’s actually broken yet. The first is a full-time hire. The second is a Clarity Audit.
Let’s talk about whether this suits you.
An hour, no obligation, and an honest answer at the end of it, including if the answer is that you don’t need this yet.