I Finally Went Fractional. Here's Why.

At the risk of stating the obvious, 25 years is a long time. More specifically, 25 years is a long time to do the same thing in your career—every single working day—without questioning it. But sometimes even the most stubborn people change it up, and more often than not change can be very, very good. Even if it comes much later than it should have.

As the title of this article indicates, I finally went fractional. And for those who aren’t familiar, the term “fractional” essentially means I have decided to work for five companies one day per week each, instead of one company for all five days per week. This is a bit of an over-simplification, but the description is mostly accurate.

The fact is, going fractional is a massive bet on myself—and make no mistake, that bet comes with a significant amount of risk. Health insurance for a family of five is crazy expensive, I have to find my own customers, and when I need a day off I don't get paid. But all of that said, I had very little trouble making this decision, and I’d like to explain why.

1. I Want More Control Over My Career. Over the last seven years I have been in non-voluntary job search mode three times: once when a corporate relocation required me to move across the country, and twice when new CEOs restructured the entire company. Truth be told I loved all three of these companies—but when your experience, dedication and quality of work can't help you retain your job, it's time to rethink what you're doing.
   

2. I Prefer to Not Work in an Office Full Time. As much as I hate to say it, the Return to Office (RTO) debate is just getting started, and I’m not confident my side is going to win. With a traditional one employer job, the fear of getting called back to an office—or being let go because you won’t allow it to happen—constantly hangs over you, no different than a pending restructuring or an unpredictable economy.
   

3. I Really Enjoy Having a Personal Life. Less than 3 months ago during a final interview, I had a CEO tell me that giving up my personal life for the next 24 months was a requirement of taking the role—evenings, weekends, time with family, hobbies, exercise, all of it. In fairness, my last two employers have been excessively work-life supportive, and in my experience the expectation of being "all in" isn’t exactly common anymore. But it’s also not uncommon (particularly in tech) and I’m no longer willing to pretend I don’t have a spouse, three kids and a handful of hobbies during job interviews.
   

4. Finding a Few Smaller Roles is Easier than Finding One Big Role. Anyone who has looked for work during a sluggish economy, inflationary period, recession, bursting bubble or time of global unrest knows how difficult it is to swim your way to the top of an applicant pool that is 500 people deep. But when I finally began socializing my intentions to become fractional just a few weeks ago, companies started seeking me out. And going where there are more buyers than sellers feels like a good strategy to me.
   

5. I’m Comfortable Selling Myself. When I first started thinking about going fractional, I had friends in fields like HR, graphic design and software development tell me “I love the work, but I have trouble marketing myself when I need a new client”—which is absolutely a legitimate concern. But as a career marketer I have a built-in advantage, because if I can’t market myself, then . . . you know the rest.
   

6. Fractional Work Offers Something Different Every Day. This past month I reworked an ICP in the industrial automation space, wrote a requirements document for an ecommerce platform, optimized a lead generation strategy, facilitated a strategic planning meeting, and helped a startup with their Series A funding pitch. For comparison purposes, during my last full-time role I spent 90 straight days trying to increase the win rate of a product the company decided to give up on anyway.
   

7. Running My Own Business is Kind of Fun. This is where I probably differ from a lot of people reading this article. But I enjoy writing contracts, paying bills, managing bank accounts, saving receipts and maintaining my own website. And truth be told acquiring a web domain, setting up an LLC and getting a Federal Tax ID number took less than three hours total . . . so I'm not performing any magic here. It's actually a lot easier than it looks.

In terms of what’s next, there are two things I would love for each of you to do.

ONE . . . if you know of a company that needs fractional Go-to-Market (GTM) help, please share my website with them (https://www.cgtmo.com/)—and thank you!

TWO . . . if you’re already a fractional employee or are interested in side work, please follow my LinkedIn company page. I’m already being asked by clients for FTE referrals and services I don’t offer, and will be posting all of these job opportunities here as they come up.

And that's it! I said it, and now it’s out there . . . I'm going fractional. Time to see what happens.

About Eric

Eric is a Fractional CMO and CGTMO with 20+ years of experience owning Marketing, Growth, Go to Market and Strategy at emerging SaaS businesses. The services he currently offers include fractional CMO and GTM advisory services, interim or transitional executive placement, marketing team management, Go-to-Market process optimization and investment due diligence. You may connect with Eric on LinkedIn, or follow this link to learn more about the services he offers.