When you run a small business, you often think that you and your team can handle everything. After all, you’ve been doing fine so far. But if you want to stay competitive in the marketplace, you will need some additional help. This is where fractional executives come in. People often think of executives as permanent members of a company. Fractional executives are different since they come in and work for a few months for a company. They can be a big help to your operations and here is how you can use them effectively:
Figure Out What to Outsource
Before anything else, you have to figure out who you will be hiring. Most small businesses don’t have formal departments, with various people hired for particular duties. Several functions are great for fractional services though. Finance and marketing are the two main examples. The main reason you should have for hiring a fractional executive is the expense. If it is more expensive to hire a permanent finance officer, then you might want to consider hiring one for a few months every year or so.
Find the Right Person
You can’t randomly pick out a consultant and hire them because they say they have the skills. These people will have an enormous influence on your company. If you hire the wrong person, it will affect your operations for a long time. You’ll need to do your hiring the smart way.
Approach it like you are hiring them for the long term. This means looking into their background and experience. For example, professional healthcare marketing consultants are the ones you should hire if you work in the healthcare industry. You should also ask for references and do some background checks to ensure that you are hiring the right people.
Leverage Their Experience and Network
Once you have a fractional executive hired, it is time to put them to work. Though the main reason you hired them is still there, you should also use their connections to your advantage. Fractional executives have years of work behind them. This means that they know quite a few people and these industry connections can be a big help to any business. Their experiences can also give your company a boost. For example, tech and information officers often have years of experience building a company’s tech infrastructure. This would normally be very expensive but fractional executives can help you out for a fraction of the cost.
No Need For Physical Presence
The great thing about outsourcing is that your fractional executive does not need to be there. You can have a chief financial officer who is across the country. With modern technology, they can teleconference with your people and even send in messages in times of emergency. It allows you to get savings by hiring an executive from a location that has lower salaries. For example, an executive from Iowa is not going to be demanding the same high salary as a Manhattan-based one.
Small businesses have the advantage of being a compact operation. They can react quicker than larger businesses and change their business strategy quickly to adapt. With fractional executives, you can add even more value without complicating your operations. Use their expertise so that your business can have the knowledge and resources it needs to grow.