Latest / The Comeback Career Podcast with Fexingo: Returning After a Gap, Stay-at-Home Re-Entry / How a Career Gap Helped One Parent Return as a Fractional COO
Transcript
- Lucas: Luna, I want to talk about a path back to work that I don't think we've covered yet on this show — the fractional executive route. Specifically, the fractional chief operating officer. Luna: Fractional COO — that's a role where you work part-time or project-based for multiple companies, usually startups, right? Lucas: Exactly. And I've got a concrete case. Her name is Sarah Chen — not her real name, she asked me to keep it anonymous — but she's a former operations director at a mid-sized logistics firm. She stepped away in 2018 when her second child was born. Planned to be out for maybe two years. Ended up being six. Luna: Six years is a long stretch. What made her think she could come back at the executive level? Lucas: That's the interesting part. She didn't initially think she could. She spent the first year of her attempted return applying for operations manager roles — mid-level, reporting to someone. And she got nowhere. Overqualified, under-current, the usual gap stigma. Then a friend from her old industry mentioned fractional work. Luna: I've heard the term, but I think a lot of our listeners might not know what a fractional COO actually does day-to-day. Lucas: Fair point. A fractional COO typically handles the operational backbone of a company — process design, vendor management, team structure, financial planning, sometimes even HR systems. But they do it on a limited schedule, say ten to twenty hours a week per client. Sarah's first engagement was a ninety-day diagnostic project for a Series A health-tech startup. Luna: Ninety days. So it's a defined project, not an ongoing commitment. That seems less intimidating than jumping back into a full-time executive role. Lucas: Exactly. And she structured it that way on purpose. She told me she needed a low-risk way to prove to herself — and to potential clients — that her skills were still sharp. After the ninety days, the startup asked her to stay on as a retainer client. That's when she started building a real fractional practice. Luna: How did she find those first clients? I imagine cold applying to a startup as a fractional COO isn't a thing on LinkedIn. Lucas: Not really. She joined a peer advisory group for former operations leaders — it's called the Operations Guild, I think. About forty members, all experienced ops people, many of them also returning from career breaks. Through that network, she got a referral to a founder who needed operational help but couldn't afford a full-time COO. Luna: So the network was everything. That's consistent with what we hear from a lot of returners. Lucas: Right. And here's the financial side that I think surprises people. Sarah charges a retainer of ten thousand dollars per month per client. She currently has three clients. That's thirty thousand a month, gross. Luna: Thirty thousand a month? That's a hundred and eighty thousand a year if you annualize it — which is more than she likely made full-time before her gap. Lucas: More by about forty percent, she told me. And she works about thirty-five hours a week across all three clients. So it's not exactly part-time, but it's flexible. She sets her own schedule, doesn't commute, and she can block Fridays off for her kids' activities. Luna: That's a compelling model. But I have to ask — is that typical? Or is Sarah an outlier? Lucas: Good question. The data suggests she's on the higher end, but not an outlier. According to a 2025 report from the Fractional Executives Association — and I'm paraphrasing here — the average retainer for a fractional COO in the US ranges from eight thousand to twelve thousand dollars per month. That's for companies between two million and twenty million in revenue. Luna: And the market is growing. I saw a stat that the global fractional executive market is estimated at over thirty billion dollars now. It's becoming a legitimate career path. Lucas: It is. And I think one of the reasons it works so well for career-gap returners is that it directly addresses the skepticism employers have. A founder doesn't have to take a chance on hiring you full-time. They can trial you for three months on a project basis. If it works, great. If not, they end the engagement. Luna: So the risk is lower for them, and the flexibility is higher for you. That's a win-win. Lucas: Exactly. And Sarah told me something that stuck with me. She said the six-year gap actually became an advantage in her client conversations. Because she could say: I stepped away to raise my kids, I know what it means to manage chaos with limited resources, and I bring a level of calm and prioritization that comes from that experience. Luna: She reframed the gap as a strength. That's a skill in itself. Lucas: Absolutely. And that's something we've talked about before — the narrative you build around your gap matters as much as the skills you bring. Luna: You know, speaking of building something that matters, I think a lot of our listeners come back to this show because it helps them think through these career moves. And we deliberately don't run ads on these episodes. If you want to support that choice, the link is buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Yeah. It's a small way to keep this resource free and independent. Every bit helps. Luna: And we appreciate it. Alright, back to Sarah. How did she handle the transition from one client to three? That sounds like a real scaling challenge. Lucas: It was. She started with one client for six months. Then she added a second, which she says was a mistake — she took on a client whose founder was a micromanager and the engagement was stressful. She learned to vet clients more carefully. Luna: What did she look for in a good client fit? Lucas: Three things. One: the founder had to have a clear vision of what they wanted the COO to do — not just 'help with operations.' Two: the company had to have at least six months of runway, so she wasn't worried about them running out of cash. Three: the founder had to be willing to give her real autonomy. If they wanted to approve every decision, it wasn't a good fit. Luna: That third one is huge. A fractional executive can't be effective if they're treated like a consultant who needs permission for everything. Lucas: Right. And once she had those criteria, she found her third client through a referral from her second. That's when she hit her three-client sweet spot. She says she could technically take a fourth, but she'd have to work weekends, and she's not willing to do that. Luna: That boundary is what makes it sustainable. I think a lot of returners worry that going back means losing the flexibility they gained during their gap. Sarah seems to have found a way to keep it. Lucas: She did. And she's now been doing fractional COO work for two and a half years. Her income has grown each year, and she's built a reputation in the startup ecosystem. She gets inquiries now without applying. Luna: What advice does she give to someone listening who's thinking, 'I have an operations background, I've been out for three or four years, maybe I could do this'? Lucas: Her advice is surprisingly practical. First, update your LinkedIn headline to include 'Fractional COO' or 'Fractional Operations Executive' — even if you haven't done it yet. She says clients search for those terms. Second, join one of the fractional executive communities — there are several: the Fractional Executives Network, the Operations Guild, even some on Slack. Luna: And third? Lucas: Third, do a pro bono or discounted project for a friend's startup first. Get a case study and a testimonial. That's what she did for her ninety-day engagement — it was at a reduced rate, but it gave her the credibility to charge full price for the next one. Luna: I like that. It's a low-stakes way to build proof of concept. And the financial payoff can be significant. Lucas: It can. And I want to be clear — not everyone will earn thirty thousand a month. But even one client at eight thousand a month is ninety-six thousand a year, working twenty hours a week. That's a solid income with real flexibility. Luna: And it's a path that doesn't require you to start at the bottom. You're leveraging years of experience, not discounting it. Lucas: Exactly. The gap doesn't erase your expertise. In some ways, it can enhance it — if you frame it right. Sarah's story is a great example of that. Luna: I wonder how many people are out there with similar backgrounds who just haven't considered fractional work because they think 'executive' means 'full-time.' Lucas: Probably a lot. And that's why I wanted to do this episode. If even one listener thinks, 'I could be a fractional COO' — that's a win. Luna: Agreed. And maybe next time we'll look at fractional CFOs or fractional CMOs. There's a whole ecosystem. Lucas: There is. And we've got plenty of stories to tell. For now, though, I think Sarah's journey is a good reminder that the career you come back to doesn't have to look like the one you left. Luna: It can be better. And more tailored to the life you want now. Lucas: Right. That's the goal, isn't it? Not just returning — but returning on your own terms.