Small Business Advisor/Fractional CEO

Please note, we are only able to hire in the following states at this time: AZ, CO, FL, GA, IL, MD, MI, NC, NJ, NY, PA, TX, VA, WA

Small Business Advisor/Fractional COO

Who are you?

You are a thoughtful, considerate and insightful human being who enjoys helping small business owners understand, interpret and make courageous decisions based on what their personal, professional and financial goals are—and then helping them turn those decisions into operational execution—instead of allowing their feelings to run the show.

You are able to educate, “break it down” and connect the dots between the client’s financials, their motivations, their operations and their team—and help the client make better decisions so they can realize their personal, professional and financial goals.

You are willing to question the client’s beliefs, challenge their “stories”, test their assumptions and use your own life experiences (& maybe a little bit of humor) to help them explore their options and then implement a clear operational path forward.

You are experienced enough not to take it personally when a client is afraid to follow your advice and you also know that “just explaining things” isn’t enough unless the client takes the necessary action(s) to produce results. No Execution = No Results.

You are a great communicator, an enthusiastic team player and a creative problem solver who takes 100% personal responsibility for yourself and you have trained yourself to look for and find the opportunity(ies) in every problem. You have a bias for growth and know that an entrepreneur can’t cost-cut their way to prosperity; we can only execute our way there.

And yes! You can read, interpret, analyze, explain and spot the problems and the opportunities in a set of financials—and then translate those insights into operational improvements. You can go toe-to-toe with the client’s bookkeeper about unacceptable variances on a bank rec and then help build the systems, processes and accountability needed to fix the problem(s) so you can get a set of financials you can use to help our clients spot trends, improve operations & take action. No Action = No Results.

Who Are We?

We are How To Manage A Small Law Firm. But let’s get this out of the way up-front: you don’t need to have prior law firm management experience to qualify for this job. We can (and we will) teach you everything you need to know about small law firm financial management. (a good place to begin is by reading “Profit First For Lawyers”) For now, please just pretend we said “small business” instead of law firm because law firms are also businesses. Bonus points if you already knew this. Most lawyers don’t. Which is why we are looking for authentic human beings who possess a high degree of emotional intelligence to join our team instead of just hiring a bunch of technicians.

Our business was started from the co-founders’ dining room table (literally) and has been named by Inc Magazine as one of the 5,000 Fastest Growing Privately Owned Companies. We currently help to manage more than 500 of some of the fastest-growing small law firms across all practice areas and from all across the Country.

We do not care about your race, religion, national origin or how you love. And we really like to work with parents of young children because we find they value the flexibility of this role and the fact that we offer an amazing benefits package, unlimited PTO and when our kids “Zoom Bomb” us in meetings, too.

We work hard, we play hard and we pay well. We are very much a values-driven organization with a sense of humor and a strong commitment to helping all our clients and everyone we employ make real, meaningful and measurable progress toward their (your) goals.

We take (and we give) 100% personal responsibility. We have high standards. When we make mistakes (yes, we make mistakes) we apologize, seek top learn from the mistake and then we work to make it right. We expect the same from everyone who works with us.

“Wow, this seems like an amazing opportunity. . . but what exactly is the job?!?!”

How To Manage A Small Law Firm functions as the CEO, COO, CFO, &/or CMO for more than 500 of some of the fastest-growing solo & small law firms in The United States. We also provide Controllership services, and we have a bookkeeping business, too. Our clients are law firms across the country with gross revenues mostly under $10MM. More than half our clients are law firms with gross revenue under $1MM. This is why they need us to step in and provide “fractional”/ “timeshare” C-Suite services.

Our clients pay us a monthly retainer, and we provide various packages of services depending on the stage of growth the law firm is in and how ambitious the law firm owner is.

Most of our clients are single-shareholder firms which means the help we provide to their business directly impacts on the owner’s home life as well.

The job you’re reading about is to become one of our fractional/timeshare COOs.

We do all the marketing, and we do all of the sales, so you are not out marketing and looking for your own clients. In some cases we may assign you clients to your roster, and in a lot of cases you'll be "fishing from our pond" and building your roster by relationship building with our clients.

You will work remotely from your home office with up to 30 of our clients, meeting with each of them three times per month which = about 60 hours a month of client-facing time. Plus, about an hour a month working on each client’s file by yourself to prep., analyze, etc. Plus, you’ll have your “Advisor Meetings” to discuss your shared roster, align on strategy, compare notes, etc. Plus, we have regularly scheduled “all team meetings” for training, companywide communication, etc. All together we expect it to be about 1,700-1,900 hours a year which converts to about a 40-45 hour a week job. But with a lot of flexibility.

During your scheduled meetings with the clients on your roster (and who you may accept or decline an assignment to work with) you will function as the COO of their law firm. This means you will read, analyze, interpret, make sense of, and spot problems & opportunities in their business ahead-of-time, which is the easy part.

Then fun begins when you meet with the client (via Zoom or telephone) to help them see what you can plainly see, help them face up to facts (instead of making decisions based on their feelings), and then help them implement systems, improve workflows, build accountability, align their team and execute on plans that move the business forward. You will present options, lay-down-the-law, call out the b.s., agree on plans and hold them accountable for taking agreed actions which they very often find to be somewhat intimidating, but you will dig deep to find a way to help them find the courage, clarity and commitment to do it anyway!

“That seems pretty reasonable. Exciting, even! What’s the compensation”?

You will earn a base salary of $110,000 with performance-based compensation that is intended to get you to $182,000 per year. Plus, a very generous benefits package which includes medical, dental & vision for you & your family which is covered at 75%. We also have unlimited PTO, STD/LTD, Life, 401(k) match.

We work really, really hard to only hire “A Players” and we have a strict “No A-holes” policy for clients & staff alike. This is a high-performance environment that is not right for everyone, and we are getting better at spotting & NOT hiring people who won’t thrive in this fast-paced, constantly changing, no two days are the same, “we eat pivot for breakfast”, 100% personal responsibility, “no excuses” entrepreneurial (and intrapreneurial) environment.

Still with us?

OK, great! To be super-successful in this role you should be the sort of person who gets excited about improving workflows, building systems and turning strategy into execution. You think operational efficiency and accountability are “very exciting”. And the thought of optimizing a business sends tingles up your spine.

You must have a very strong background in business, operations and financials. You must have hands-on experience helping small business owners implement structure, systems and accountability. Must be able to spot and explain in plain English how operational inefficiencies impact financial performance. Must be able to identify breakdowns in execution, present multiple approaches for correcting the issue and be prepared to hold the client accountable for taking the necessary steps to get themselves out of crazy town.

This job can be enormously fulfilling as we help educate, elevate and empower small business entrepreneurs to make better decisions, build better businesses and live better lives. But if you don’t like the minutiae this job will kill you. Because this isn’t about theories and it’s not just hypotheticals, these are real people’s lives we’re having an impact on.

You absolutely will get the opportunity to be a high-level innovative and strategic thinker; but that goes hand-in-hand with executing the day-to-day tactics that make the strategies real.

Please do not apply for this job if you expect to delegate all the down & dirty analysis to someone else. Please do not apply for this job if what you really want to be doing is writing a textbook on theory. Please do not apply for this job if you can only thrive in a highly structured “corporate” environment. Please do not apply for this job if you’ve never rolled up your sleeves and had to find a way to make things work in a start-up environment. Please do not apply for this job if you can’t “roll with the punches” and/or lack a sense of humor.

To apply and learn more about this opportunity - click this link: Small Business Advisor/Fractional COO at How to Manage a Small Law Firm

Reminder: This is a FULL-TIME role that is remote.