Ask just about anyone running a business, and they will tell you that 2022 has been a rollercoaster of events. From what was coined “The Great Resignation”, where employers across several industries saw the exodus of key employees, to the now more recent events of a US technical recession, and larger global recession, have led company leaders to re-evaluate their hiring practices, forecasting, and risk mitigations to plan for growth and make it through a worsening recession. In previous recessions, typical behavior was to tell the c-suite to downsize product offerings, conduct mass layoffs, and put on a hiring freeze to conserve capital. In other words, burrow into a hole and wait out the storm. But what if you took this opportunity to be different, go against the tide, and instead plan for growth while there’s blood in the streets? (to borrow a saying from the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffet) What if you used a combination of fractional services and an innovative marketing strategy, and trained your remaining workforce to go against the tide and thrive through the recession? Vendors are one of the first cuts to overall spending when an event of such magnitude as a global recession is knocking on the door. However, this is an antiquated business theory. Instead, an evaluation of what your vendors can bring to the table in times of pain may be in order. Strategic partnerships with your vendors could help backfill key positions, and set overall strategy, all while reducing overhead expenses such as worker’s compensation, insurance, PTO, and retirement benefits, not to mention the time and costs associated with hiring. In other words, businesses can benefit from experts at a fraction of the cost. Filling these high-level roles could help set strategy, realize efficiencies, and allow business owners to focus on core tasks. To find the right fractional services for your particular firm, you need to be prepared to:
- Determine the outcomes by priority: What gaps does your business have?
- Success metrics: How will you communicate what a shared vision of success that you and the fractional support will be?
- Source the fractional support: If you don’t have the ability internally, do you need the assistance of experts to help find your fractional talent?