When marketing, finance or operations outgrows the owner, there are three ways to fill the gap. Each is right for a different situation, and the wrong choice is expensive in different ways.
Full-time hire
Best when the function is large enough to need someone every day and the company can afford a senior salary plus benefits, typically $150K to $250K all in for a real executive. The risk is a mis-hire: six months and a severance to find out.
Agency
Best for execution capacity in a defined channel: ads, SEO, content, development. Agencies are accountable for output, not for the strategy or the P&L. If nobody senior on your side sets direction, agencies optimise what they were asked to optimise.
Fractional executive
Best when the company needs senior decisions and systems but not 40 hours a week of them. A fractional CMO or CFO costs a fraction of a hire, starts in weeks, and builds the function so it can eventually be handed to a full-time person. The risk is choosing someone who advises but does not operate.
A simple rule
- Under $2M: owner plus specialists and an advisor
- $2M to $10M: fractional executive plus agency or in-house doers
- $10M to $30M: fractional executive building toward a full-time hire
- Above $30M: full-time leadership with fractional specialists
By Ali Sedighi, MBA. 5 minute read.