The senior team your business cannot yet put on the payroll.
You built the company through some hard years. What it is short of is rarely effort. It is the judgement of someone who has already run a company this size.
Why hiring a whole C-suite is premature
The usual answer is a permanent hire. For most South African SMEs it is the wrong one:
The cost is out of proportion
A senior package, a recruiter and the cost of getting it wrong, for a seat you need part of the week.
The search takes too long
Finding a permanent executive takes months, and the problem is here now.
A permanent seat is a long commitment
A senior permanent appointment in South Africa is slow and costly to unwind. An agreement between two businesses suits an owner-led company better, with one month's notice either way as our standard.
Most weeks the work needs fewer than five days
A business this size usually needs two or three days of senior input, not five. A full week buys a part-time answer at full price.
A fractional executive is an experienced operator who gives your business a share of the working week. Rather than an adviser who files a report and goes, you get a senior operator in your team, taking decisions in their own function and answerable for them. Experienced people here have options, many of them abroad. This is how a company your size gets them.
Who this is for, and who it is not
Best for
- Founders carrying a C-suite function themselves with no time left to lead
- Businesses that need senior capability two or three days a week, not five
- A specific gap in finance, operations, marketing, technology or people that is holding growth back
- Teams that cannot yet justify, or afford, a full-time executive salary
- Owners who want an operator accountable for outcomes, not a consultant with a deck
Not for
- A junior or purely execution role a full-time manager should own
- A one-off project an agency could deliver and hand back
- Businesses wanting a figurehead rather than someone who does the work
- A pre-revenue idea with no function yet to lead
What an owner-run business gets
Part-time senior leadership suits an owner-run South African business: experienced judgement in the team, without a permanent executive package.
We stay close
Our reviews run for the whole engagement, and drift is raised with you early.
Many disciplines behind one person
When a problem crosses functions, your executive can ask someone in the collective who has seen it.
No stand-in, a current brief
Nobody is held in reserve for you. Our up-to-date notes on the business are what make a new search quick, if one is ever needed.
Matched to an owner
We match on how a person works with an owner who built the company through hard years.
What an engagement looks like
From first call to an embedded operator in weeks, not months.
Discovery
We spend time understanding your business: challenges, goals, team dynamics, and what 'success' looks like in 90 days.
Match
We introduce the right fractional executive from our vetted collective. You meet them, ask hard questions, and confirm the fit.
Scoped engagement begins
The engagement launches with a defined scope, clear deliverables, and a structured cadence. Your fractional is embedded, not advisory.
Adapt and evolve
As your business changes, the engagement changes with it. Add hours, shift focus, introduce a second specialist, all without restructuring.
Which executive do you need first?
You do not need to know the answer before you call. Match the problem you feel most to the operator who owns it.
Each fractional role maps to a different SME challenge
Start with the gap that is costing you most, and the roles below show which leader owns it.
Backed by executives who have led at
