Tremendous Growth

It's 12 midnight and, once again, Tracey is just getting around to checking his email. Sound familiar?

As the CEO of a small contracting firm, he was elated to land two large contracts providing cybersecurity services to federal agencies. But his “success” is overwhelming him. For every fire he puts out, two more start. And each one is just important enough that an executive needs to be involved. There just isn’t enough of Tracey - or time in the day - to oversee existing contracts, supervise back-office operations, onboard new contracts, and continue to build his business. 

It is time to expand the executive team.

Deciding to expand the executive team was easy. Tracey’s next step was to decide which area most needed executive-level oversight, and where he would reap the greatest benefit. So he relied on the philosophical principles that had guided him throughout his firm's journey. 

First, take care of existing customers. To Tracey, that meant he had to continue providing executive level support to project managers of existing accounts and take the lead onboarding the new accounts. Second, build the business. No one can sell his company like Tracey can, so he had to be in charge of business development. Third, Tracey was not yet comfortable getting anyone new involved in sensitive financial areas.

This left the strategic and day-to-day operations of the business. A COO was the answer.

Tracey assessed how much COO support he needed and how much capital he could commit. He quickly realized that this was not a full-time position - and he did not have another full-time executive salary in his budget. He needed a part-time person with expertise in business operations, able to hit the ground running. And he needed the ability to end the engagement once he made it through this growth spurt and the new accounts and projects were completely onboarded. Tracey decided to engage a Virtual Chief Operating Officer (vCOO) to get him through the crunch.

Bringing a vCOO on board provided Tracey with executive oversight of HR, providing guidance for all hiring and recruitment. It also created an executive point of contact for all operations, including administration and IT infrastructure activities for new accounts, This freed Tracey to do what he did best - establish a strong start to the new contracts and ensure all new accounts received the high-touch attention they deserved. Tracey also asked his vCOO to propose process improvements so the company could better handle its next exponential growth spurt. 

And if the role develops into a full-time position, Tracey can engage the vCOO in an interim capacity until he finds the right person to fill the role permanently.

Tracey was able to bring the vCOO on board for a fraction of the cost of a permanent executive hire. 

The vCOO engagement enabled him to bring executive level oversight on board when he needed it, for exactly as long as he needed it, without lasting impact on his budget.

And by engaging the vCOO at a critical point, his company was able to respond in a timely manner to the demands of the new business, secure existing revenue, and fully realize his company’s opportunity.

With the vCOO handling day-to-day issues, Tracey could focus on business development while the firm was starting new contracts. By not sacrificing business development for the immediate operational demands, Tracey was confident he could maintain this year’s revenue into the next year. 

The vCOO’s recommendations regarding process improvement - which included streamlined recruitment and hiring - also helped Tracey prepare for yet another substantial business opportunity without compromising his performance or dramatically increasing expenses. 

In fact, Tracey gained six new prospects after bringing the vCOO on-board.

Most importantly, Tracey was able to take his first vacation in two years! Now, Tracey can't wait until his next growth spurt.