Fractional COO for growing companies
I run operations part-time for companies that make, move and sell physical products. Systems, processes, and the people who run them. You set the priorities. I own getting them done.
COO and co-founder, Recreo San Miguel.
I work across the US and Mexico, in English and Spanish.
Where it usually starts
Most companies don’t bring me in because of one big failure. They bring me in because:
- Month-end takes too long, and the numbers still don’t match what’s in the warehouse.
- You added a channel (wholesale, retail, a new country) and the systems never caught up.
- Your store, inventory, CRM and accounting each hold part of the truth, and a spreadsheet holds them together.
- One person carries the whole operation in their head. Or they just left.
- You’re getting ready to raise or sell, and the operation has to stand up to a buyer’s questions.
- The founder, the CEO or the CFO is running operations on the side, and it’s the job that keeps slipping.
Finance usually sees it first. The fix is almost never in finance.
What I do
I come in as your part-time COO and own operations end to end: the systems, the processes, keeping the team accountable, and the automation that takes manual work off people’s desks. I run your priorities and tell you what moved.
Where automation or AI saves real hours, I build it. Where it doesn’t, I don’t.
Start straight in
If you already know where it hurts, I start working inside the business from the first week.
Or start with a Discovery Sprint
If you’re not sure what’s broken, I spend one to two months mapping how the business actually runs. You get a plan in priority order, whether or not I’m the one who carries it out.
I’ve run this, not just advised on it
I’m an operator first. What I recommend, I’ve built and run myself.
Recreo San Miguel
COO and co-founder
Every operational system for a vertically integrated apparel brand: about 1,400 active products, from raw materials through manufacturing, retail, wholesale and online, to cost of goods.
Far Away Projects
Operations Director
I came in as a consultant to fix the systems of a fast-growing nonprofit, built the platform it runs on, and was asked to stay on to lead operations. It ran about 20 projects at a time when I arrived. It runs about 60 today, on systems built for 250+.
The payments system I rebuilt there has moved $1.2M across about 75 requests since April. Half are paid within six days, where they used to take weeks, and it runs on under $5 a month of software. It gave me back about two working days a month.
Burning Man
14 years
Fourteen years of event production in the desert for a camp of 220: power, storage, vendors, provisioning, and the run of show for build, event and teardown. Solar has cut our diesel costs 90%.
A good fit
- 5 to 150 people, usually $3M to $50M in revenue.
- You make, move or sell physical products, through more than one channel.
- Or you run a service business with many clients, projects or locations, and the back office hasn’t kept up.
- You’re the founder or CEO who ended up running operations too, or the finance lead doing two jobs.
- You’re ready to hand someone real ownership, and back them.
Probably not
- You need an assistant or a developer to work through a task list.
- You want one system built and handed over. Happy to talk, but that’s a project, not this.
- Enterprise IT: SAP-scale rollouts.
- Nobody senior will back the changes.
If you’re an accountant or a fractional CFO
You see it first: the close that drags, the inventory that never ties out, the client who keeps asking why the numbers moved. That’s who you can send me.
I don’t do the books, and your client stays your client. I fix the operations that feed the books, so your work gets easier. And when I find finance work, it goes back to you.
If one of your clients fits, send them this page or introduce us by email. If you want to size me up first, book 30 minutes yourself.
The one-line version, if you need it
Charlie runs operations part-time for growing companies, most of them making and selling physical products. He fixes the operational mess that shows up in the books.
Not an accountant? If you know a company like this, the same goes for you.
The first call
Thirty minutes on video. You tell me how the business runs today and where it’s stuck. I’ll tell you straight whether I can help, and if I can’t, who might. I won’t hand you a solution on the first call; I’d be guessing. If there’s a fit, you’ll leave with a dated next step.
Prefer email? chat [at] char-cole.co