In prepping to speak to a group of tech founders yesterday about the trendy, yet often misunderstood fractional consulting model, I asked a client dabbling in fractional work what message he’d like to share from the front-lines.

He took a beat and said,

“Some people think that fractionals are just employees looking to game the system, when really we’re just businesses looking for partnerships.”

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This is such a great lens for any consulting model you might pursue— project-based, fractional, advisory, etc.

You may feel like booking a client engagement = employment. After all, during that engagement, you’re working and getting paid.

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But the reality is you’re already employed by your business, whether you have clients and revenue or not.

And each consulting engagement is just a partnership between two businesses.

• A partnership between a customer and you, the supplier.
• A partnership meeting problem with expertise.
• A partnership focused on creating value, rather than trading time for money.

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Viewing your business as an aggregate of partnerships allows you to break out of the employee mindset and apply different B2B filters to your pipeline:

• What type of business do I want to be aligned with?
• What criteria would they need to meet to ‘qualify’?
• Is this a partner I’d like to work with long-term?
• What would be my fair share of the value I unlock for them?

Are those the questions you’d ask if you were looking for a full-time job?

Probably not — but you’re playing a different game now.

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💡

-Wes

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P.S. Are you feeling stuck somewhere in your early consulting journey?
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