A fractional COO makes sense for businesses under about £5M revenue, where you need senior operational leadership but not forty hours a week of it. A full-time COO makes sense once you’re past £5–10M, operating across multiple functions or geographies, and need someone in the leadership team full-time. The decision is almost never about the person - it’s about the scope of the job.
Fractional vs full-time at a glance
| Factor | Fractional COO | Full-time COO |
|---|---|---|
| Typical fit (revenue) | £500K – £5M | £10M+ |
| Annual cost (UK) | £40K – £100K | £140K – £200K base, plus equity |
| Commitment | 1–2 days a week | 5 days a week |
| Ramp time | 2–4 weeks to full capacity | 3–6 months to find, 3–6 months to ramp |
| Exit cost if wrong fit | Off-contract at the next month-end | 6–12 month unwind, severance, replacement |
| Best for | Building infrastructure, fixing chaos | Running a complex, multi-function org |
| Worst for | Externally-facing leadership role | Pre-PMF or sub-£3M businesses |
The three questions that settle it
Answer these three honestly and the decision is usually obvious.
1. What’s your revenue?
As a rough rule:
- Under £3M: A fractional COO is almost always right. A full-time COO at £140K+ is a material drag on margins you probably can’t absorb.
- £3M–£10M: This is the grey zone. Most businesses in this range do well with a fractional COO for another 18–24 months, then convert.
- £10M+: You probably need someone full-time. The job is too big for 1–2 days a week.
2. How many functions are you asking the COO to own?
A fractional COO can realistically own two or three functions end-to-end - say, Operations and People, or Operations and Commercial Contracting. Once you need someone owning Operations, People, Finance, Legal, and Customer Success simultaneously, you’re in full-time COO territory. The scope has outgrown the part-time model.
3. How embedded does the COO need to be?
If the COO needs to represent the business externally - to investors, key customers, regulators, or the press - they likely need to be full-time. If the role is primarily internal (building infrastructure, running cadence, coaching the team), a fractional COO is usually the better fit.
The hidden cost of hiring full-time too early
Full-time COOs don’t just cost their salary. They cost:
- Recruitment time. Senior operators take 3–6 months to find and close.
- Ramp time. Another 3–6 months before they’re operating at full capacity inside your business.
- Brittleness. If you hire the wrong COO at £180K, unwinding it is a twelve-month, deeply uncomfortable process.
A fractional COO gets you operating at full capacity within two to four weeks, and exits cleanly if the fit isn’t right. The optionality is worth a lot.
The hidden cost of hiring fractional too long
The other direction also has risk. If you stay fractional past about £10M revenue, you’ll start to feel it:
- Decisions slow because the COO is only around two days a week.
- Leadership team dynamics get awkward - other execs are full-time, the COO is not.
- Cross-functional projects stall when the fractional is off-contract that week.
When these signals appear, start the full-time search. A good fractional COO will tell you when it’s time - and should help you hire the person who replaces them.
What The Edwards Practice recommends
We’re a fractional COO practice, and we will happily tell you when you’ve outgrown us. Most of our engagements run 6–18 months, after which either (a) we transition to a Strategic Adviser retainer while the business runs day-to-day, or (b) we help you recruit and onboard your first full-time COO. The goal is always the business running well, not extending the engagement.
See the full service breakdown on the Fractional COO page, or start with the Ops Audit at £5,000 if you’d rather diagnose first.
Also worth reading
- What Is a Fractional COO?
- How Much Does a Fractional COO Cost in the UK?
- Fractional COO vs Interim COO
- When to Hire a COO: The Series A Operations Checklist
- 5 Signs Your Startup Has Outgrown Ad-Hoc Management
If you’re unsure which side of the line you’re on, book a discovery call. Thirty minutes is usually enough to tell.