Natalie Hoop explains why your next hire might be the wrong move, and what fractional leadership actually looks like in practice.
GROWTH PILLAR:Leadership & Ops
WHO THIS IS FOR: SMB owners / Solopreneurs / Founders building teams / Leaders hitting a growth ceiling
WHAT THEY'LL GAIN: A clear picture of what fractional leadership is (and isn't), three signs you need it, and a real client story with a 238% sales increase — no new headcount.
Most founders hit a wall. Revenue is up. The team is maxed out. Decisions are piling up. And the instinct is to hire, but hire who, exactly?
Natalie Hoop is a fractional COO and strategic operations partner who works with founders and scaling businesses to bring order to chaos. In this Canada Growth Network Power Hour session, she breaks down the fractional leadership model — what it is, what it isn't, and when it's the right move.
Natalie covers the three signs a business needs a fractional leader, why hiring full-time too soon is a costly mistake, and how she walked into a client's business, remapped their entire sales process using Typeform logic and pipeline automation, and produced a 238% increase in sales, a 79% increase in transactions, and a 71% reduction in the sales cycle — in 30 days. No new headcount.
She also walks through how to make the fractional partnership actually work: define the problem (not just the role), use a 30/60/90 day framework, and give the fractional real decision authority.
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Past episodes
Natalie (00:05)
one of the things that I work a lot with is on founders, business owners who they're in this place where their company is scaling for some point of view. It could be they suddenly have an influx of customers coming in, could be revenue. it could just be something that's happening where they're ready for their next stage. There's some type of influx.
Natalie (00:26)
flection point that's happening.
Natalie (00:27)
And what happens is usually when I'm working with a founder, the immediate thing is I need to hire a full-time employee. Something is going on. My next step is I need to hire a full-time employee who can do. And one of the things that I really always like to talk to people about is investing in a full-time employee is very expensive for both the short-term and long-term.
So it's something that you really need to think about in terms of what do you really need right now? What is that pain point you're solving? And how do we get you the right person at the right? So
Usually a founders think that they have two options, So a great example is one of my clients right now. They are a startup. They are a healthcare platform. And she knew that she needed help with her customer success. And so her instinct was: I need to hire someone who's senior, who's going to be expensive, who has that skill set and can come in to my company and just
Natalie (01:16)
Yeah.
Natalie (01:26)
Take it and ramble with it. However, like most companies, I'm sure we've all been there, even with our own businesses, there is always that struggle of finance. You always have limited resources and you need to make the best decision for your company. So, in a lot of cases, what happens is they start talking to people and realize they can't afford the senior and expensive person. So they can hire a junior level person.
Natalie (01:46)
Yeah.
Natalie (01:50)
who hasn't really seen it before, hasn't really done it, and at that point needs to push forward and hopefully make sure that
Natalie (01:59)
they find the right fit.
Natalie (02:00)
But what people don't realize is there's actually a third. And a lot of people haven't heard of it. It is a term. And fractional is really just a fancy term that was built a couple of decades ago by fractional CFOs, which is a part-time strategic person who can also help you execute. So slightly different than a consultant, but somebody who can come in and actually help you.
Natalie (02:02)
I'm sure.
call fractional.
Natalie (02:26)
get you where you need to be, and then save you a lot of money by either h not hiring the expensive person or remove the six month ramp up period from a brand new person who really doesn't understand because they're
Natalie (02:39)
junior level to do it.
Natalie (02:40)
So I always tell people that there are really kind of two gut checks that you need to do in order to really decide what is the best person and type of person you need to get into your company to help. So, one, if you are the founder and you are the final decision point on almost everything in your business, that is a problem. And number two, have you ever thought about hiring a 2000 plus executive, but the timing felt off?
Natalie (02:51)
help them scale.
busy.
usually because of finance.
Natalie (03:08)
If you click either one of those boxes, then what ends up happening is it's time to look at actional and brings.
Natalie (03:16)
on board.
Natalie (03:17)
So a lot of companies that I've been with, what they start to feel is when growth happens, the business starts to really strain. So the idea is we'll use sales as there's too many leads. That's a great problem to have. But if the founder is the one that's only doing the sales, then they get backed up, they're behind, and then they end up losing leads.
Natalie (03:28)
⁓ great example, right?
portion.
Eight.
Natalie (03:42)
So the idea is okay, great, we just added. But if that operational foundation doesn't work, when you add that salesperson in, what ends up happening is you uncover the structure. And so usually there's not an onboarding training for them. There's no one really to manage or help them grow. There's no developmental program. And they are kind of bogged down.
Natalie (03:44)
salesperson and
our problem.
Natalie (04:06)
By admin work instead of the work that they really need to do in order to help the company. So usually symptoms of this is your revenue's up, but your margin starts slipping, the team is maxed out, and the decisions are piling up. You post a job, but you don't even really know what you're. So you know you need a salesperson, but other than selling, you don't have that.
Natalie (04:12)
the top.
down.
looking for.
don't have background
to understand
Natalie (04:29)
what exactly you need, what does success look like? What does and so what happens is in a lot of cases somebody does hire somebody and then six months later the bottleneck is still here, the teams still burn out, and you're you're now two steps back instead of
Natalie (04:33)
Does great look like?
More reinforcement.
Natalie (04:47)
And so a lot of times when I talk to companies, what I hear a lot about we'll figure it out. We'll figure we've done it before. We'll figure out how. But every moment you don't figure this out, you don't the root problem, you end up costing yourself money in the so you lose deals, you have a huge turnover with your team, and now you've got to ramp people up.
Natalie (04:51)
is like well again before well how to fix this
Out don't fix
I don't know.
Natalie (05:11)
Your margins eroding and basically you become push at at your company because it's not.
Natalie (05:14)
shaded and really upset and how
you envisioned it.
Natalie (05:18)
So this is where
Natalie (05:20)
fractional person really comes in.
Natalie (05:22)
And there is a fractional person for every stage and every piece of the company. So every department, you can find a fractional to do the
Natalie (05:30)
job
that you're looking for.
Natalie (05:31)
Fractional is not freelance. It's not a consultant. And it's a fractional person is an embedded part-time team member who not just advises, but leads and then actually executes. We own the real outcome. We're actionable for the actual function, not just there is a time and a place for consultants, and that's great. But usually if you're a smaller company,
Natalie (05:34)
It's not a stop give.
Natalie (05:46)
Yeah.
Natalie (05:47)
comments.
Natalie (05:57)
You don't have a team in place who can actually execute the recommendation. That's what makes fractional difference. We're part of the team. We consider ourselves part of the team and we make sure that we achieve the
Natalie (06:01)
Of a consultant.
the
outcomes that have to happen.
Natalie (06:10)
Fractional is never, it should never go to a full-time position. It is right now. So anytime I go into companies, my expectation is that they will only need me until, and then at that point, I call it graduating. Maybe they'll need a full-time person. Maybe they won't need my skill set anymore and they'll have need somebody else. But the idea is that that role is scoped to what you need right now, not what you may need three years from now. And of course,
Natalie (06:30)
goes up.
Natalie (06:38)
Fraction of the cost of hiring a full-time senior leader. And again, they're ramped up quickly. It's usually easy to get out of these contracts. Like for me, I always make sure 30 days. So if something changes in your business and you need to re-pivot, it's a really easy way for me to wrap up, you wrap up, and then you can move on to your next.
Natalie (06:45)
Usual.
skill set that you really need.
Natalie (06:59)
So I always want to go into this because I think it's really important to know it is not just a part-time employee who shows up occasionally and this isn't a knock on part-time, but I've worked for many companies that have part-time employees. And a part-time employee is not usually
Natalie (07:07)
hop hopes for the best.
Usually
a strategic person.
Natalie (07:16)
It's also not somebody who is a consultant who writes the report and then lets the company actually manage. Usually when a fractional goes in, the company's drowning. Much different than a consultant who's going in, who is doing a turning point for the company, and there's a team in place that can
Natalie (07:22)
the process.
actually execute this.
Natalie (07:35)
Fractionals do not need hand holding. We do not need and not a six month onboarding process. Literally, you go in right. I usually start working in week two. So one week to kind of understand systems and stuff. Week two, start delivering. ⁓ for one of my clients, by week three, I had actually rewritten their entire web copy and also their schema and everything. And again, ops.
Natalie (07:49)
delivering things.
Psychology.
everything else then I'm
not marketing. So I'm gonna explain how fast fractionals move.
Natalie (08:04)
But again, what's the benefit of it? You want to make sure fraction hits the ground running. They are somebody who's going to go in and start the right way, right? Fractionals have done this before at companies, like they know what questions to ask, when, and how to figure it out. And again, they look at outcomes not. Fractionals are usually monthly retainers. So the idea is if you need them to do X, doesn't matter how long it takes them to do X.
Natalie (08:07)
Yeah.
working right away. Friday.
hours
X
needs to get completed.
Natalie (08:32)
So here are three signs that either yourself as a business owner or one of your clients may need a right. They're missing targets, but they have no clear idea why. The big one is the founder is a bottleneck. Usually when I come in, the founder is doing everything. And it gets to the point where a lot of the other team members can't move forward without the signing off on things.
Natalie (08:38)
A fractional eater.
founder actually
Natalie (08:58)
And that's just because they don't have enough leadership team members to be able to help. Or they're starting to look and they're starting to look at hiring a full-time person. And what they're thinking is something's off. Usually what I get get from people who are looking to hire a full time person is the I don't really know what I need. So I'm going to bring on this person, ramp them up. It's going to be full time.
Natalie (09:03)
make the decisions for the founders.
Natalie (09:24)
And what if I don't need a a full-time sales leader. What if I don't need a full-time marketer? What if I don't? And that's why it matters. So if you're not sure, then you're setting the other person up for failure. I know in a lot of cases, people will hire fractional talent to even see if this is what they need or to understand what they need. And then once they do, they use that fractional talent to go help them find a full time person, train them on board, get them set up, and then the fractional.
Natalie (09:26)
leads.
person leaves.
Natalie (09:52)
So look, I gave you a lot of words. I talked about a lot of things. And let's be honest, everything goes in and one ear and out the other, you guys are getting a ton of information. So I wanna explain when fractional works and what I did for one of my clients because
Natalie (10:00)
Every day.
really work. They
think this really matters.
Natalie (10:08)
Situation was I had a fractional, I had a client, I was fractional at the time. And the client specifically came to me about something completely different and he was complaining about. ⁓ he really just said, I think it's time to replace my sales team. We're missing our revenue. I had met the sales team, I knew them. You get a pretty good instinct. I'm sure you guys all have. And I knew it was the sales team. But I said, Hey, can I just invest to you mine before you?
Natalie (10:17)
SLS team.
targets.
Doesn't this help investigate, make
any decisions? No problem.
Natalie (10:35)
He said sure.
So I go in, I look at it, and the problem is, which the sales team also knew. So again, this was not a hidden thing that they did not recognize. Said every person they were meeting with was an unqualified lead. So they get on the calls and they could not buy, they did not have the money, they didn't want the program, they were just hoping to get free information.
And so the sales teams spending all of their time trying to sell to people who 100% were not going to buy. And the people that were going to buy, the sales cycle was three weeks. So by the time they actually got to meet somebody, they had gone and found another solution. They're not waiting three three weeks if they're ready to buy now. So I went in and I actually remapped their entire process.
I created using type form because that is the process they use for their lead intake. I used logic to pre-qualify the leads that were coming in. I created pipelines, I created automation. I removed all of the friction in the process. So all that happened was the sales team spent their time showing up for clients and then just talking to them about the program and said.
It was never about headcount. We didn't add any headcount. It wasn't anything about the team members. And in 30 days, so from the time I started the program, a change, but to 30 days where it was done, they had a 230, 38% increase in sales. They had a 79% increase in transactions. And they had a decrease of 71% in the sales sales cycle.
And it was all because the system underneath needed to be changed in order to allow the team members to do. And so this is the thing to really think about is the sales team didn't know. He didn't have anyone who built these systems. And all he saw was an outside issue of not hitting sales. So therefore it must be high. And in a lot of cases, that's where you need this strategic layer to come in and say,
Natalie (12:17)
But they were great at
speaker-5 (12:38)
This is
Natalie (12:38)
The root cause and this is
Natalie (12:40)
Need to work.
Natalie (12:40)
So the other thing I talk a lot about, right, which I think is so important, is understanding from both sides, from both the CEO, the founder, the business owner, and the fractional, how do you make that? Because it is a very different partnership than a consultant. It is a very different partnership than a full-time employee. So I always tell people to find the problem, not just the role.
Natalie (12:54)
Yeah.
Natalie (13:07)
The problem matters more than figuring out your responsibility is doing X. Because as that leader gets in, they're going to find more issues. So you want to define the problem and the specific challenge that this person needs to solve. The more precise you are, the faster the result. The outcomes and what are the deliverables should be defined right away.
Natalie (13:27)
are gonna happen.
Natalie (13:32)
I always recommend using a 30, 60, 90 day. ⁓ that way you know in 30 days exactly what is going to be delivered. And then you can adjust it each month. I always usually adjust it with my clients because, hey, things come up and they may want something different, totally fine. But each month I know what I'm delivering for the month and that's what I focus on. But again, having those outcomes will allow you to see the return on investment.
Natalie (13:57)
by having this person.
Natalie (13:58)
And the final thing is you need to give them real decision authority. If at the end of the day they need to come and ask you things over and over again or get your approval, just adding more stress and work your plate. It's not going to be a reliever. It's not going to move forward as fast. So think about them as a strategic partner and not just either a vendor partner and not just again, somebody who's part. Like the idea is this is who will help.
Natalie (14:09)
Yeah.
as you want it to be.
partner help
get you where you need to be.
Natalie (14:27)
And so
You know, I'm here if you guys have any questions, you know, about fractional leadership. You need it for your business, for one of your clients. I do work with a small number of founders as a fractional COO. And as I said, I help coach other fractional leaders. But I really want to make sure that people understand that there are fractional everything. So fractional CFO, fractional operations, customer experience, fractional HR.
Natalie (14:48)
Fractional fractional
Natalie (14:54)
So it's really important that you know what you're looking for and what those pain points are, and then find the right. Because it is really from a, I don't even want to say just process, from a scaling point of view, it is gonna save you a lot of time and money as your company scale.
Natalie (15:00)
person who can help solve that because