"A Fractional COO can save a startup £300k a year"

I heard that recently and thought - steady on there, that's a bit rich.

.... Until you do the maths.

Let’s say for example, your delivery is messy.

Your projects run late.

Your team’s over capacity.

You’re about to hire a full-time Head of Ops to fix it.

But here’s what actually happens:

🔹 Full-time hire = £120K–£150K salary

🔹 Add overheads, notice period, ramp-up time...

🔹 You’re in for ~£160K/year

Sure - they might fix the chaos.

They might save you £300K in lost time, bad hires, tool sprawl, and missed deadlines.

But what if a fractional Head of Ops could deliver the same outcome…

For 2 days a week?

You’d get: 

- The same fix

- Embedded leadership

- No onboarding faff

And you only pay ~£85K/year

Let’s run the ROI:

- Full-time: £300K gain / £150K cost = 2x

- Fractional: £300K gain / £85K cost = 3.5x

This is why more startups are ditching full-time hires and building modular leadership teams instead.

It’s not about “cheaper.” It’s about smarter.

Interested in exploring Fractional leadership support for your business? Reach out today for a free, no obligation chat.