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Know When to Walk Away: A Guide for Fractional Leaders

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I've caught myself saying the following more times than I can count: "Fractional work allows me to have all the fun associated with working at a startup without the bullsh*t associated with a startup." For most of my career, that has been true. But based on a recent experience, I have started thinking about the times when the bullsh*t of a startup does rear its ugly head and how I could advise new fractionals on how I've approached it. Here’s my list for how to know when to walk away. Reasons to Walk One of the most powerful concepts that I learned in that time is the concept of "firing a customer." There are many reasons why you might need to let a customer go: Nonpayment or chronic late payment; Violation of terms and conditions—for example, work outside scope; Unreasonable demands or expectations—3 AM replies; Abusive behavior; Lack of engagement—they forget they hired you; Misalignment of a target market; Merger and acquisitions; Legal reasons; Strategic
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Fractionals United Is 4-Months Old

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Fractionals United has turned four months old today and we have over 1750 members. Below is a chart showing our growth month over month.


This is the first time I've shared our growth metric on social media since we hit 1000 members, since it's no longer my primary goal and focus. As other founders with limited resources have discovered before me, and many will discover after me, it is best to focus on one major goal. If you try to focus on more than one at a time, you risk not accomplishing any well.

My first focus had been to get us to 1k members, which I was told was when we'd become attractive to sponsors. My current focus is getting sponsors to support the community. Many from within and without have told me to just charge a small membership fee, and although in principle that is not wrong, given that it is so hard for fractionals to find work, it is wrong in this instance for me and this community.

I do fortunately have volunteer leaders and other fractional community leaders who have joined Fractionals United. 
  • The volunteer leaders have stepped forward and give of their time to further the goals of the community.
  • And the fractional community leaders who have joined my community agree with me: we are not competing with each other but instead are trying to help fractionals everywhere. We are stronger and better together and with our collective experiences, skills, and insight, we will accomplish way more than we can do so individually.
So although my resources and budget may be currently constrained, my options are not, given the talented and abundance-minded fractionals I get to interact with daily.

Thank you to each and every one of you and here's to everything we can—and will—accomplish together.

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