Senior experience at the size of an Edinburgh business.
You have built something solid. The distance between where the business is and where it could be is rarely effort. It is the judgement of someone who has done it before, which a firm this size cannot yet put on the payroll.
Why a permanent executive team is out of proportion
Taking on a permanent CFO or COO seems the natural move. For most Scottish businesses of this size it does not suit:
The salary arrives before the workload
A senior hire costs a full year from the first day, whether or not the role fills the week.
The right people are hard to land
Experienced operators who want to work in Scotland are not always easy to find, and the strongest are courted by larger employers and by London.
A permanent appointment is hard to unwind
The rules on senior hires are tightening across the UK, so a wrong permanent appointment takes longer and costs more to put right.
What you need is experience, not a full-time diary.
A firm of this size usually needs just a few days a month of true senior input.
A fractional executive has done this work already and commits a set part of the week to your business. This is not an adviser who produces a paper and moves on. They join your team, decide within their remit and are accountable for what follows. That is a practical way for an Edinburgh firm to gain senior capability without changing what the business is.
Who this is for, and who it is not
Best for
- Founders carrying a C-suite function themselves with no time left to lead
- Businesses that need senior capability two or three days a week, not five
- A specific gap in finance, operations, marketing, technology or people that is holding growth back
- Teams that cannot yet justify, or afford, a full-time executive salary
- Owners who want an operator accountable for outcomes, not a consultant with a deck
Not for
- A junior or purely execution role a full-time manager should own
- A one-off project an agency could deliver and hand back
- Businesses wanting a figurehead rather than someone who does the work
- A pre-revenue idea with no function yet to lead
What an owner-led firm gets
Part-time senior leadership fits an owner-led Scottish firm well: experienced judgement in the team, without a permanent executive salary.
We stay involved
Our reviews continue for the whole engagement, and we raise drift with you rather than wait for it to grow.
800+ operators to call on
A finance problem that is really a people problem can still reach the right person in the collective.
An up-to-date brief, not a reserve
We keep the brief current instead of holding someone in reserve, so any new search starts informed.
Matched on judgement
We weigh stage, sector and temperament, and we talk to your team before we recommend anyone.
What an engagement looks like
From first call to an embedded operator in weeks, not months.
Discovery
We spend time understanding your business: challenges, goals, team dynamics, and what 'success' looks like in 90 days.
Match
We introduce the right fractional executive from our vetted collective. You meet them, ask hard questions, and confirm the fit.
Scoped engagement begins
The engagement launches with a defined scope, clear deliverables, and a structured cadence. Your fractional is embedded, not advisory.
Adapt and evolve
As your business changes, the engagement changes with it. Add hours, shift focus, introduce a second specialist, all without restructuring.
Which executive do you need first?
You do not need to know the answer before you call. Match the problem you feel most to the operator who owns it.
Each fractional role maps to a different SME challenge
Start with the gap that is costing you most, and the roles below show which leader owns it.
Backed by executives who have led at
