A fractional COO is a senior operations leader who works part-time - typically 1–2 days a week - inside a growing business. They build process, hire and train the team, and run operating cadence, at a fraction of the £140,000+ cost of a full-time hire. Most engagements run 3–12 months, after which the business runs at around 80% autonomy and the fractional COO transitions to strategic adviser.
If you’ve been reading this far and thinking that sounds expensive and fuzzy, keep reading. The short answer above is the one Google will pull. The rest of this is what the job actually looks like.
What a fractional COO actually does
A proper fractional COO is doing five things at the same time:
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Finding the bottlenecks. Most scaling businesses have three or four hidden single points of failure - usually the founder, a heroic ops manager, and one or two processes held together by Slack messages and hope. Week one is about mapping them.
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Shipping quick wins. Nothing builds internal credibility like fixing something real in month one. A live KPI dashboard. A proper sales-to-delivery handoff. A contract review template the team will actually use. The quick wins unlock the budget and trust for the bigger work.
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Building the systems. Hiring, financial close, onboarding, contract review, reporting cadence, investor communications - the infrastructure a scaling business needs but usually builds by accident. A fractional COO builds it on purpose.
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Embedding the team. This is the part most outside consultants skip. A fractional COO doesn’t just write a plan and leave. They train one or two people to own the new systems, document them, and make sure the machine keeps running when the COO dials back.
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Handing over. At month three (or six, or twelve), the COO transitions out of day-to-day delivery and into strategic advisory. The team runs the business. You don’t need us in the room every week - and we’re not trying to be there.
What a fractional COO costs
In the UK, you should expect to pay:
- £3,500–£8,000 per month for a standard fractional COO retainer, 1–2 days per week, 3–12 month engagements.
- £5,000–£15,000 for a one-off Ops Audit - a two-week diagnostic with a prioritised roadmap.
- £1,500–£3,500 per month for a Strategic Adviser retainer - light-touch monthly reviews once the systems are in place.
Compare to a full-time COO: £140,000–£200,000 base plus equity, plus 3–6 months to recruit. The fractional engagement is typically one-third the cost for one-half of the hours - and ninety-percent of the strategic value, because you’re getting someone who’s been through the same scaling problem six times before.
When to hire a fractional COO
Three signals, any of which is enough:
- You’ve become the bottleneck. Every significant decision runs through you, and the business can’t move faster than you can think.
- You’re scaling without systems. Headcount is rising but there are no KPIs, no reporting cadence, no accountability framework, and no documented processes.
- You’re signing commercial contracts on gut feel. The revenue is coming in but so is the risk, and you know the documentation is not keeping up.
When not to hire one
- You’re pre product-market fit. Get to PMF first. A fractional COO will make your chaos more efficient, but they can’t find your product for you.
- You have less than £50K a year to spend on operations support. At that budget, hire a senior operations manager instead.
- You want someone to do the work while you disengage. A fractional COO works with you, not for you.
The Edwards Practice approach
We run a three-phase, ninety-day method. Month one: find the bottlenecks. Month two: build the systems. Month three: embed and hand over. Then we stay on as Strategic Adviser for as long as you need. Pricing starts at £4,000/month for a fractional COO retainer (3-month minimum).
If you’re reading this and thinking yes, this is me - book a discovery call. Thirty minutes, no pitch, no pressure.