Navigating the Stages of Fractional Success: Key Insights from Scott Ritzheimer

In a recent conversation with Scott Ritzheimer, founder of Scale Architects and someone who has helped launch nearly 20,000 businesses and nonprofits, we dove deep into the challenges that fractional executives face as they grow their practices. Scott shared invaluable insights about the stages every founder experiences, the common traps that ensnare even successful fractional experts, and how to build a sustainable practice.

The Artisan Trap: The Fundamental Challenge for Fractional Executives

One of the most significant challenges that fractional executives face is what Scott calls "the artisan trap." He illustrated this with the example of a luthier in the UK who builds exquisite, $100,000 guitars:

"It takes him months to build one of these guitars. So he'd go out, sell one or two of them, and then spend months building them. When he delivers them, the customers are ecstatic. But then he has to go sell something again. It's this constant cycle of either selling and not doing, or doing and not selling."

This trap is particularly problematic for fractional executives because of their dependency on trading hours for dollars. When you fill your schedule with client work, you stop selling. When client work ends, you scramble to sell again, creating a feast-or-famine cycle.

The solution? "You can never stop selling," Scott emphasized. Even when you're busy with client work, you must maintain a minimum standard of outreach every week. This ensures that when a project inevitably winds down, you have relationships already developing that can quickly fill the gap.

Creating Systems That Scale: Beyond Trading Hours for Dollars

When I asked Scott about how busy fractional executives can find time for consistent business development, his answer revealed a powerful insight about high-earning professionals:

"The number one thing that separated high-demand coaches from everyone else was a structured process. They weren't making it up as they go on every single session. They weren't just trading hours for dollars. They had a structured program."

This structured approach gives you more control over your schedule and delivers higher value to clients without requiring more hours from you. It also creates efficiency, a repeatable sales process, and clarity on your ideal client profile.

Scott explained that this approach works whether you want to stay solo or build a larger practice: "Whether you want to scale it up or not, it's still going to serve you really well. And it has the added advantage of allowing you to scale if that's what you choose to do."

The Three Places Successful Founders Get Stuck

Scott identified three primary stages where even successful founders hit roadblocks:

1. Not Prioritizing Sales Properly

The first and most relevant challenge for fractional executives is failing to prioritize sales. Scott explained: "Especially folks that are conscientious professionals, educated, they think that the answer is to do great work. That's how you build a great business, and it isn't. You don't build a great business by doing great work. You build a great business by selling to people and then doing great work."

This mindset shift is critical. While your expertise is essential, without the ability to sell that expertise, you'll struggle to create a sustainable business.

2. Becoming a Reluctant Manager

As your practice grows, you might bring on other fractional experts to handle the overflow of work. Suddenly, you're no longer just doing the work, you're managing people who do the work.

"You wake up one morning and you've got five fractional CFOs that are all dependent on you to sell. You don't have the problem of filling one schedule. Now you have the problem of filling five schedules, and there's always a vacancy in one of them," Scott explained.

This creates pressure to sell more than ever before while managing people who may not approach work exactly as you would. Many founders hit this stage and retreat, believing "no one can possibly do what I do" or "if it's to be, it's up to me."

3. Becoming a Disillusioned Leader

If you successfully navigate the management stage and continue growing, you'll eventually reach what Scott calls the "disillusioned leader" stage. Your role changes dramatically as the organization grows.

"When it's happening in real time, it feels nice because people are taking things off your plate. It feels great until it doesn't," Scott said. "Problems scale way faster than the profits. We find ourselves wondering, 'Is this it? Is this as good as it gets?'"

Many founders mistake this stage as the beginning of the end when it's actually just one step away from what could be the most rewarding stage of their journey.

Moving Forward or Backward: The Power of Choice

When faced with these challenges, Scott emphasized that you have two options: move forward to the next stage or move backward to a previous one. And importantly, moving backward isn't failure; it can be the fastest route to success if it aligns with your vision.

"For a lot of folks, if they accidentally outgrow what they wanted to be doing, the answer is to go back a stage or two," Scott explained. "I've seen folks sell two-thirds of their multi-million dollar business to keep the third that they really enjoyed doing."

The key to making this decision is getting clear on your vision. As Scott put it: "You have to get clear again on what your vision is for your company... because there's two ways out of any stage. You can go forward or you can go back."

Finding Your Marketing Strategy: Do What You Enjoy

When I asked Scott for marketing advice for fractional executives, his answer was refreshingly simple: "Whatever you like to do, find a way to sell doing it."

If you enjoy one-on-one conversations, build a strategy around having coffee with potential clients. If you love speaking, consider podcasts or speaking engagements. If you're naturally drawn to LinkedIn, develop a strategy there.

Scott cautioned against two common pitfalls:

1. Trying to do everything and doing nothing well
2. Following trends that don't align with your preferences

"For most professionals, it feels a little icky going out and talking about yourself anyway," he noted. "If you don't like it and you don't like what you're doing with it, it's going to be hard to actually master that and build a sustainable model."

For many fractional executives, especially those content with maintaining a limited client roster, local networking might be all you need. Scott mentioned that many successful coaches he knows have terrible websites - or no website at all - yet make exceptional incomes because they've found another strategy that works for them.

The One Thing Every Founder Must Do

When asked about the one thing every founder must do, Scott offered wisdom that cuts through the noise of endless business advice:

"Understand what stage you're in and what's necessary at that stage."

This understanding dramatically narrows your focus from dozens of possible strategies to just a few critical ones. Instead of trying to implement 20-30 different tactics and hoping something works, you can focus on 2-3 approaches that are proven effective for your specific stage.

"Anyone who's been doing this for any period of time is going to say, give me the two or three things to focus on," Scott emphasized. "You can't get that unless you know what stage you're in."

Applying These Insights to Your Fractional Practice

The conversation with Scott revealed several principles that every fractional executive should consider:

1. Never stop selling, even when your client roster is full. Set a minimum standard of outreach every week.
2. Develop a structured process that delivers consistent results rather than reinventing your approach with each client.
3. Recognize the stage you're in and focus on the strategies appropriate to that stage.
4. Align your growth decisions with your vision. Don't assume bigger is better; choose the stage that best supports what you want to create.
5. Build your marketing around activities you enjoy. Sustainable business development happens when you're consistent, and consistency comes easier when you enjoy the process.

Whether you're just starting your fractional practice or looking to evolve an established business, understanding these principles can help you avoid common pitfalls and create a more sustainable, fulfilling path forward.

As Scott reminded us, no one stage is inherently better than another. The right stage for you is the one that aligns with your vision and allows you to do work that matters to you.

Mylance

‍This value-added article was written by Mylance. Mylance takes your marketing completely off your hands. We build the marketing machine that your Fractional Business needs, but you don't have time to run. So it operates daily, growing your brand, completely done for you.Instead of dangling numbers in front of you, our approach focuses on precise and thoughtful input: targeted outreach to the right decision makers, compelling messaging that resonates, and content creation that establishes trust and legitimacy.To apply for access, submit an application and we'll evaluate your fit for the service. If you’re not ready for lead generation, we also have a free, vetted community for top fractional talent that includes workshops, a rates database, networking, and a lot of free resources to support your fractional business.