The Darker Side of Being Fractional

Over the last 16 months or so, I have written several articles related to the benefits of being fractional—specifically this one and to some degree this one. When writing both of these articles, I was careful to point out that the fractional lifestyle isn't always a positive one. But until recently I haven't focused exclusively on the not-so-good parts.

So today and in the interest of fairness, we're going to talk a little bit more about the frustrating, stressful, and financially challenging things that come with starting a one-person business and working for multiple companies at the same time.

Everyone is Trying to Sell Me Something . . . For Some Reason

I'm going to come in a little hot on this first one, so forgive the directness. But if you are a sales person, and your company believes fractionals—who live off of credit lines and couch-cushion change—are the next big 'synergistic partner' for your company's products and services, you need to find another job because you will make $0 in commission this year.

I've managed some pretty big budgets at some pretty visible companies over the years. But I have never been cold-called, texted, InMailed or emailed as many times per week as I have since becoming fractional. All kidding aside, there are so many books, strategies, consultants, webcasts, life coaches, software platforms, remote assistants, e-learning courses and former fractionals offering to '3x my fractional revenue in a matter of months' that I don't even have time to opt out of most of it.

Recruiting Firms Are Moving In—and They're Making a Mess of It

As with any other emerging and lucrative industry, once the real risk-takers and innovators have proven a concept is profitable, corporations can't resist trying to take over. And nowhere has our time-tested model of capitalism been on greater display than in the Fractional space.

Instead of bringing in experienced fractional professionals to help build out functioning practices, many talent placement and executive search firms are winging it—over-charging or under-charging clients for fractionals by 50% or more (I've seen both), adding excessively heavy markups to hourly rates, selling fractionals with manager-level experience as C-level placements, and pitching fractionals to clients as 'temp to hire' . . . when the fractional in question has no intention of taking a full-time role.

Bonus Content: A number of national placement firms have also recently started offering fractionals the opportunity to turn over their leads and even clients to them, in exchange for a nominal finder's fee and a lower hourly rate. True story.

16 Months Without a Day Off is Starting to Add Up

As I've mentioned in a few other articles about the fractional lifestyle, there are two colliding dynamics that make fractional a challenging work style to maintain: 1) there are no health or wellness benefits of any kind, and 2) if you don't work, you don't get paid.

These two dynamics, when considered in combination, create what PhDs in Human Behavior refer to as a 'dis-incentive' to slow down for five minutes, the definition of which is as follows:

Dis-in-cen-tive (noun): a factor, especially a financial disadvantage, that tends to discourage people from doing something.

Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely prefer the pace that working for 3 to 4 companies at one time offers—and I take plenty of breaks over the course of any given week. But even after more than year, completely getting away from work for more than a weekend at a time seems out of reach for me right now, and I really wish it wasn't.

Sometimes, Clients Can't Pay

Given the mostly-descriptive title of this one, I probably don't have to explain what I mean here. So instead of explaining, I'll ask a question: if someone removed $10,000 from your finances right now, how would you replace it? Do you have it in your savings account? Would you take out a personal loan, or use an advance from a credit card? Would you borrow from your 401K, or maybe ask a relative for a loan? And would your answer to this question be different if, for example, this number was $25,000?

As silly and irrelevant as this question is for full-time employees, it's also a question fractionals have to face pretty much every single Friday, without exception. A fractional practice is a business, that business deals with other businesses, and sometimes businesses fall on hard times.

Legitimate Peer Networking is Almost Impossible

I'm not exactly breaking any news here, but fractionals are on an island most of the time. And because of this, our natural instincts are to seek out—and have coffee with—the few people we share our island with. Along these lines, early in my fractional journey I accepted every meeting request, video call link, LinkedIn invite and free breakfast sandwich I was offered from people who claimed to be fractional. And unfortunately, here is what I learned:

• 40% wanted to sell me something
• 30% wanted to sell my clients something
• 15% wanted ME to sell my clients something
• 10% wanted me to hand my clients and leads over to them
• 5% were legitimate fractionals looking for peers

I don't know why this is the case exactly, but when it comes to networking it feels like there are no rules anymore—particularly on LinkedIn. Or at a minimum, someone decided it was OK to lie to fractionals because (just a theory) we're not 'real' businesses. Either way, it's been a disappointing and fruitless 16 months of trying to expand my first-degree network.

Wrapping it Up

If I managed to talk you out of pursuing a fractional lifestyle—and this is absolutely a lifestyle—it certainly wasn't my intent. But things like flexibility, variety of work, job satisfaction and freedom come with some pretty significant tradeoffs that not everyone is capable of making. And it's only fair you are aware of these tradeoffs, before you make what will be one of the biggest decisions of your entire career. Also . . . if you are currently fractional, and would like to vent a little and add something to the list, please put it in the comments below! I'd love to hear it.

About Eric

Eric is an 12x Full-Time, Fractional and Interim CMO / CGTMO with 25 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. Learn more about the services he offers at www.cgtmo.com.