Fractionals United Blog

Last year today, I had this crazy idea. I had just come back to being fractional,  found it harder and lonelier, and didn't want to do it alone. When I couldn't find a community for the sake of community, I decided to see if there was interest in one. And as the chart demonstrates, there was definitely interest. But I can't take sole credit for this amazing growth. Yes, it's my community and vision, and yes, I optimized it for ease of entry, but I happened to be at the right place at the right time. And fractional is only going to continue growing. You may wonder what this means for the community.  A few things will remain constant: FrUn will continue to be free and open to current and aspiring fractional leaders; FrUn will continue focusing on community, and as such, prioritize connection, collaboration, and learning from each other; FrUn will continue to partner with those in the fractional ecosystem that provide other needed services for fractionals. And a few things...

Fractionals United is 6-months old and crossed 2900 members. If you've read my other posts, you'll know that I'm a first-time founder and first-time community builder. I won't reiterate my origin story or the lessons I've already blogged about. An additional lesson I'm having to come to terms with is that community is very different than other "businesses." There are similarities and at some point you probably have to monetize, but there are different ways to do so...and in my opinion, that is a means to an end, not the purpose or goal. I chose to make  Fractionals United free and I've gone on the record countless times saying what exists today will remain free. I am told by advisors and friends alike that I deserve to be reimbursed for my time and efforts, and the value that I am providing, and they are not wrong, but I will not go back on my word. Since community is about connecting people, there are countless ways to do it and one isn't mor...

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 ...

Last week, Fractionals United turned 3 months old and we hit 1000 members.  To say that I couldn't have expected this back in January when I went looking for my fractional tribe is an understatement. And since I'm an "accidental founder" and a first-time community builder, I've had to learn a lot...every day.  Here are some of my top lessons: Being a founder is hard. As a Fractional COO, I've run small to mid size businesses across many industries and therefore don't shirk from tough decisions and responsibility, but now that every decision and every mistake ultimately is mine, it's harder. I will say that having an ops background and having been a COO and Fractional COO has made some things a lot easier, but it is different in ways I could not have anticipated. It's about the people. It should be obvious that community is about its members, but that means that you constantly have to keep their good in mind and also listen to what they're sayi...