Another type of work?
Before we talk about Fractional work let’s define what we all learned growing up.
Full-time Employee – A w2 position at a company, typically for 40 hours/week. Paid an annual salary.
Part-time Employee – A w2 position at a company, typically for any amount of hours under 35/week. Set hours are not guaranteed. Paid a rate per hour.
Independent Contractor – A 1099 role with a company. You are technically not an employee of the company. You are your own business. You work out an agreement for hours and pay rate. You could potentially work anywhere from 0-40 hours per week. Commonly you are working on a project for a defined amount of time.
Freelancer – Basically the same as an independent contractor.
Okay, so now where does Fractional fit in?
Fractional is when an Independent Contractor divides their time up each week amongst a small number of clients. The worker makes an agreement with a company to work X hours per week for Y dollars per month. The worker generally is with the company ongoing and treated more like a part of the company rather than temporary help.
The Company Perspective
The benefits to a company of hiring a fractional worker include:
– Being able to work with high-level, experienced talent at an affordable price because they are not needed full-time.
– None of the expenses of salary, benefits, or overhead from employing a full-time person.
The Fractional Worker’s Perspective
The benefits to being a fractional worker include:
– Spreading your eggs across multiple baskets. If, for example you are working 10 hrs/week per company for 4 companies and one of the companies ends your work together, you will still have 75% of your income until you find a new client vs if you worked full-time for 1 company and were fired you would immediately have no income.
– Depending on your financial goals, you might decide not to work 40 hrs/week. You might even make more working only 30 hours/week than you did working 40 hours/week as a full-time employee.
– Avoid boredom by working for multiple companies and having some variety in your day.
Fractional Worker Titles
Fractional roles typically are for C-suite level positions, most commonly you will see the CMO, Chief Marketing Officer. In this example, a company may have 1 or a few employees handling the company website and marketing, and they want someone very experienced to come in and manage them, but they can’t afford that salary; the solution being to hire a fractional CMO.
That’s my brief overview of Fractional Work. How is your company doing these days? Would you benefit from a fractional worker joining your team to manage your company’s online presence?
8 thoughts on “What Are Fractional Services?”
Fractional work sounds like a clever way to balance jobs, eh? Good for folks needing flexibility!
Fractional work seems like a clever way to maintain flexibility and stability!
Working for different companies sounds really interesting! It must keep things exciting and fresh!
Sticking to one job’s got its perks, like building solid relationships and trust.
Aye, this notion of fractional work surely brings new light to the craft, seen it before!
Fractional work? Sounds like a way for companies to avoid paying full salaries. Gotta keep an eye on that.
Yet, fractional work can weave opportunities for folks to find balance, nurturing passions while still earning. Sometimes, the path less traveled yields hidden treasures.
Finding balance can be tricky. Stability is important too.