Stop Competing. Start Winning.
Fractional COO for $1–20M Business Owners
You didn't build a business so you could run every part of it forever.
Most owners of $1–20M businesses are doing three jobs at once: the owner job, the operator job, and the unpaid operations job — the one where you remember everything, chase everything, and hold every loose end in your head because no one else can.
A Fractional COO takes that third job off your plate. Not by handing you a report and a recommendation, but by doing the work: running the planning, driving the projects, keeping the communication moving, and making sure what gets decided actually gets done.
Assess. Diagnose. Execute. A Baldrige-based assessment finds where the business really stands, and the Visionary Velocity platform keeps the fixes on track.
What Is a Fractional COO?
A COO is the operations partner sitting next to the owner — owning the planning process, the project management, and the internal communication that keeps a leadership team pointed the same direction. Fractional simply means you get that capability at the level your business actually needs, without carrying another full-time executive salary.
The operating model behind the work is the Baldrige Excellence Framework: leadership, strategy, customers, measurement and knowledge, workforce, and operations treated as one connected system. I'm a former Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence Baldrige Award judge, so I've evaluated organizations against these criteria, not just read about them. Fixing a process without touching how it's measured, or setting strategy without the workforce to run it, is why most improvement efforts quietly fade. Baldrige keeps the whole system in view.
The FirmFoundation™ Assessment
FirmFoundation™ is my own diagnostic, adapted from the Baldrige "Are We Performing as Leaders?" assessment and tuned for $1–20M businesses. It covers all seven Baldrige categories and produces the FirmFoundation report: a clear picture of how the business actually operates, not how it looks on paper.
Both the owner and the team take it. That's the point. The most useful finding is almost always the gap between how leadership sees the business and how the people doing the work experience it every day.
We run it at baseline to set the starting line, then again every quarter so progress is measured rather than assumed.
What I Do
Strategic Planning — Turn the vision into a plan with owners, dates, and measurable outcomes.
Operational Streamlining — Remove the friction, handoffs, and rework that slow delivery down.
Performance Metrics — Build scorecards that show drift early instead of after the quarter closes.
Vendor Relations — Manage suppliers and partners so terms, service, and cost stay in your favor.
Executive Coaching — Develop your leaders so decisions stop routing through you.
Project & Change Management — Run initiatives to completion and bring the team along with them.
Technology Integration — Choose and implement tools that fit the work rather than complicate it.
Financial Oversight — Budgets, margins, and cash rhythm reviewed with the same discipline as sales.
HR Management — Hiring, onboarding, and performance practices that hold up as you grow.
Why Me
Baldrige Award Judge
Former judge for the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence's Baldrige-based awards program. I know what a well-run organization looks like because I've evaluated them.
CEO Experience
I've sat in the owner's chair and carried payroll, strategy, and every decision in between. I know what the job costs.
Certified Executive Coach
Formally trained to develop leaders, not just direct them — so your team gets stronger while the work gets done.
Operational Track Record
Decades of building operating systems, metrics, and rhythms that hold up after the engagement ends. Comfortable with data, systems, and automation, so technology decisions get made on merit rather than a vendor's pitch.
What's Included
Visionary Velocity Intelligence — The platform that carries the FirmFoundation findings into execution: scorecards, weekly meetings, and 90-day initiatives in one place. Included, not upsold.
VisionaryMBA™ — Practical business education for your leadership team, delivered in the flow of work.
Book Summaries — Curated summaries so your team shares language and ideas without shared reading time.
The Predictive Index — Behavioral data for hiring, team design, and getting the right people in the right seats.
Quarterly Staff Development — A working session each quarter to build skills the business needs next.
Vetted Solution Providers — Access to a bench of specialists already proven with businesses your size.
The Process
- 1
Onboarding
We set the engagement up properly: access, context, key relationships, and the FirmFoundation™ baseline for both you and your team.
- 2
Deep Dive
I go through the numbers, the processes, and the conversations to find where the business actually loses time, money, and momentum.
- 3
Quick Wins
We fix the obvious friction in the first weeks and your team goes live on Visionary Velocity Intelligence, so scorecards, meetings, and initiatives all live in one place.
- 4
Quarterly Sprints
Each quarter gets a short list of initiatives with owners and dates — planned, executed, and reviewed against the FirmFoundation™ re-assessment.
- 5
The Rhythm
Weekly, monthly, and quarterly cadences become how the business runs, so execution no longer depends on you remembering everything.
The Seven Numbers That Actually Matter
Most dashboards track everything and reveal nothing. These seven tell you whether the business is healthy.
- 01Customer Satisfaction (NPS)
- 02Employee Engagement (eNPS)
- 03Revenue
- 04Profit (EBITDA)
- 05Revenue Concentration
- 06Revenue Churn
- 07Pipeline Coverage Ratio
For Law Firms
Law firms carry their own operating reality: billing conventions differ by practice area, and what works for litigation rarely works for transactional or family law. Managing partners who are tired of being the de facto operations department get a partner who understands both the practice and the business behind it.
Investment
Engagements start at $2,000/month, scaled to the size and complexity of the firm.
Billing is quarterly in advance and auto-renews. You can cancel with notice by the last day of the month before the next billing cycle begins.
The Guarantee
If you're dissatisfied and say so before the quarter ends, a full month's fee is credited off your next retainer. No argument, no process.
Let's see where things actually stand.
We'll look at where things actually stand and whether a Fractional COO is the right move — not a sales call, a real look.
Schedule a Discovery Call