How do you lead your company for growth when you’re plate is full?
Every effective organization needs to balance planning for the future with managing day-to-day operations. When your plate gets too full to keep your focus on both of these essential elements, it’s time to hand some over to your second in command. Which is where your Chief Operating Officer comes in.
The job of a COO is a versatile one. The exact role you need your COO to fill depends on your organization, your industry, and your personality as CEO. Maybe you need someone to meet with regularly and help plan the high level strategy of your business. Maybe you need someone to take on overseeing the day-to-day operations of your business so you can focus on the big picture growth. Or maybe you need some of both. Maybe there’s one key area of leadership that you need support in. Maybe you work best when you have someone you can work in tandem with. Maybe you need an outside eye to work with in developing more streamline processes and procedures. Your COO could fill any (or multiple) of these roles.
Unfortunately, for most small and medium sized businesses having a full-time COO is a pipe-dream.
Fortunately having a virtual COO means you can have all the upsides without needing someone full-time. We can plan a package and timeline that works for you and your business.We’ll use a combination of video chats, phone calls, emails, texts, and all the wonders of modern technology, combined with optional onsite visits to effectively and efficiently elevate your business.
In a world of specialists that fit your organization into their model, I specialize in being a generalist who uses the wide variety of tools in my toolbox to create custom solutions for your organization. Business is business no matter the industry, but every organization is a unique combination of strengths, weaknesses, and resources, and therefore an individualized approach is the most effective.
My toolbox has grown and expanded over the course of a wide reaching career. When I left high school my plan was to be a math teacher, but that future was quickly hijacked as I discovered computer programming. With a degree in computer science firmly in hand I worked in the industry for years: running my own consulting company, serving as a senior consultant for Ernst & Young, and ultimately managing the IT Operations department for a competitive phone company. By the time I laid myself off at the dot com down-turn in 2000 (along with dozens of people from my department), I had accomplished many of my career goals and was ready to try something new; so I turned to my life-long hobby of knitting and became a professional knitting instructor (yes — there really is such a thing)
In 2013 I felt called to start using my business and leadership experience to help others find their success. Since that time I continue to teach on the national knitting circuit, but I also speak and consult on the topics of business success and leadership. Whether I’m providing a keynote address to a crowd of 1,000 or consulting one-on-one, empowering people to achieve their own success is what I do best.
This diverse background of experience in a variety of industries gives me a vast amount of experience to draw from when creating solutions for your business.
When you need someone to help you with the holistic view of your business.
Schedule a callOfferings & Rates:
Part of offering individualized solutions is creating custom packages that work for you and your organization.
Packages are structured on a retainer basis, and are customized to meet your needs. They vary based on a number of elements including time commitment, and the level of strategic visioning and/or hands on implementation that works best for your organization. Additional on-site visits, and specific trainings can be coordinated as needed.
Some ways I’ve worked with clients are:
- Ongoing strategic planning – we meet once a week or once every couple of weeks for management meetings to work through any blocks you run into as they appear, and keep your organization moving forward strategically. These packages start at $200 per month for one 45 minute calls each month, and $500 for four 45 minute calls each month. Click here for more information.
- Yearly and quarterly strategic review – we meet at the beginning of the year to review the past year and map out the coming one. Then we’d break that strategy into quarters and meet at the beginning of each quarter to adjust and plan out the next 90 days so you can efficiently move forward on your goals. These packages start at $22,500 for one year, which includes year-in-review, planning for the year to come, plus four quarterly review & planning sessions throughout the year. We can begin this package at the turn of the calendar year, the turn of the fiscal year, or the beginning of any quarter.
- Managing day-to-day operations – this works great if you have a larger organization and need a true second in command to take running the day-to-day operations off of your plate. I’ll make sure things are running smoothly so you’re free for long-term planning. These packages are billed on a monthly retainer basis and are completely customized to you and your organization, schedule a call and we can find a solution that works perfectly for you.
For any package that involves in ongoing implementation I always recommend a minimum of a 6-month commitment, and I strongly encourage you to commit to a year, so that we can create deep, effective and lasting change.
My goals were to move my business to the next level, manage employees more effectively, and grow personally as a shop owner. We identified key areas for improvement, including working through an organizational chart to see how everything fits together. I’ve found myself calmer, more patient with customers, delegating more responsibility to my employees, and more easily able to tackle problems as they arise.
I came out of this knowing that I’m good at what I do, and also, there is always room for improvement. This is the best thing I ever did for myself and my business!
Susan Post