Why Startups Should Hire Fractional Workers

There are four main reasons why you should hire fractionally:

Reason #1. Founder Needs to Hand Off a Specific Business Function

The most common reason for hiring a fractional executive is that the founder has a business function they just need to hand off.

They need it to be handled by someone else because they’re too busy either working on the product or growing the customer base.

They simply don’t have time, for instance, to keep an eye on cash flow or automate key operational processes. And so, they look for a fractional CFO or fractional COO to do it for them.

When hiring a fractional C-level executive, founders know they can rely on their new hire to onboard quickly and work effectively without needing to be actively managed.

Reason #2. Tight Budget

Another reason to hire a fractional worker is being cash constrained. It’s almost inevitable for startups at some point in their lifecycle to need to achieve something substantial on a tiny budget.

You may need a CFO to build you a financial model or a designer to rework your UI.

Hiring a fractional worker is faster, less expensive, and less risky versus hiring full-time.

Reason #3. Hiring Time Constraints

Most startups don’t have the luxury of taking months to find the right talent, hire, and onboard. For fast-paced growth, they need to hire someone in weeks, not months.

In such cases, companies turn to hiring fractional talent, as it can take 2–3 weeks to hire and onboard someone ideal for the role.

If they see that the team member they hired fractionally is the perfect match, they can offer them to transition to full-time later on.

The ability to hire quickly and scale a team without taking on risks can be a huge competitive advantage for startups.

Reason #4. Need a Team Member, Not an Agency

Sometimes, a startup or a scaleup needs a reliable person to take over a project or responsibility, but they don’t want an outside agency to own it.

Fractional workers are now the most popular alternative to agencies. When hiring someone fractionally, they join the team for the long-term. They are still a 1099 contractor, giving the company flexibility and the worker freedom in their work life, but they are able to integrate fully into the organization and work closely with the founders.

Fractional workers can hire and manage FT or fractional team members under them. Utilizing fractional workers, startups are essentially able to take the concept of an agency and hire for all of the generalist and specialist roles with as much or as little capacity as they need.