This one’s great for marketers and really good for just about anyone else thinking of taking the leap.
If you’re a marketing professional thinking about leaving your permanent full-time employment for the thrilling world of fractional work, this video is your new best friend. Packed with 11 telltale signs and plenty of personal insights, you’ll learn how to gauge if you’re cut out for the fractional life. We’ll dive into the highs and lows, from thriving on variety and hitting ceilings to managing ambiguity and building a killer network. So grab your coffee (or tea, we’re not judging) and join me as we explore whether it’s time for you to make the jump!
00:00 Fractional: 11 Signs You’re Ready
01:10 1. Wired for variety, not endurance
02:32 2. You’ve hit the career ceiling
03:47 3. You’re OK with ambiguity
05:31 4. You can sell yourself repeatedly
07:19 5. You have a special thing (at least one)
08:56 6. Your network can feed you
10:17 7. You have the receipts
11:23 8. You can handle the “you” business
13:15 9. You have the basic toolkit
14:37 10. You have financial runway
16:24 11. You have people in your corner
18:43 Take it up to 11!
But wait! (Yep, there’s more for subscribers.)
Exclusive content is available with Rachel’s livestream videos: Boss Level Mondays and Hot Mic Fridays. Start your week off with irreverence and real talk as you face down the work week of a marketer with Rachel at your side. Then, on Fridays, head to Hot Mic Fridays for unfiltered takes from the week, as well as podcasting and video tips you can always use. Subscribe here on Substack to access and join Rachel live!
About But Wait, There’s Moore
BWTM is the marketing agency owned and operated by Rachel Moore to bring business podcasts from brain to earbuds. We also provide content marketing services and on-camera/on-stage host services (provided by the blue-haired, tatted-up Rachel Moore herself). Visit us online for more info: www.ButWaitTheresMoore.com
Transcript
[00:00:00] Rachel Moore: You may have a thing that a company said, Hey, we’re downsizing or right-sizing, and we still need someone to do that thing, but we don’t wanna pay them a permanent role. Guess who gets to step in and take that on you in your fractional state.
[00:00:21] Rachel Moore: In this video, I’m going to go over signs that you may be ready to transform into a fractional marketing professional, whatever level, expertise, title, you feel that that warrants is completely up to you. I’m basically going to share with you things that I recognized in myself, but also things that may be the flag that’s lining up behind a row of flag saying, yo, it’s time to make a change from permanent to fractional. Please know that everybody’s going to be different. There’s no formula to this. These don’t [00:01:00] have to happen in any particular order. But also, please know there are 11, and this goes up to 11 just like Spinal Tap. Let’s get started.
[00:01:10] 1. Wired for variety, not endurance
[00:01:10] Rachel Moore: First of all, maybe you’re noticing that you are wired for variety, not endurance.
[00:01:17] This happened to me. But maybe you’ve noticed a pattern that you thrive at a new role for the first 12 to 18 months, but then right around that, or the two-year mark, you start mentally or even actively redecorating your LinkedIn, ‘cause you’re like, where’s the next thing? Now you might see that as a flaw.
[00:01:36] I know my boomer parents certainly have, because they worked, my dad worked at the same job for his entire career. He was with the government, but he did. He worked there from graduation, from college to retirement. That is not the journey that I took, and it may not be the journey you’re taking and there’s nothing wrong with you feeling a bit antsy every time you get around one [00:02:00] to two years at a job, and that might be an indicator.
[00:02:03] That you’re fractionally built, that your brain is ready for some new puzzles that fractional can bring you. That perhaps a steady job that lasts into 2, 5, 10, 15, 20 years might not afford you. And please know there’s an asterisk on that. Obviously you can be at the same company and your role may change over time, not necessarily what we’re talking about here. So maybe assess that and see if the variety is the thing. Not so much the endurance.
[00:02:32] 2. You’ve hit the career ceiling
[00:02:32] Rachel Moore: Second thing is maybe you’ve hit the ceiling or more to the point the ceiling hit you. Promotions have stalled. Your raises are insulting or non-existent. Uh, you’re training people repeatedly who get promoted past you.
[00:02:48] Uh, if the traditional path has stopped rewarding you, uh, it might be time to reward yourself and build your own path that you have more control over. Uh, that is a fact of permanent employment for [00:03:00] an employer where there’s always gonna be somebody above you who decides if or how far you’re able to advance.
[00:03:07] And believe me, as someone who just turned 51, I was feeling that, and I have seen stats that say Gen Xers like myself have even been skipped over. And, uh, millennials tend to get promoted past us even though we have longer longevity at a company. More tenure, more experience. Uh, it’s not really working out now.
[00:03:27] I know I just labeled myself and my generation and gave one example. This could happen to anybody. Any kind of ism is out there. So it might be that you need to not only break through that ceiling, but go create your own ceiling, and there’s no one that says that ceiling has to be anything you ever hit ever.
[00:03:47] 3. You’re OK with ambiguity
[00:03:47] Rachel Moore: Third, you can rest easy or easy enough in ambiguity. Here’s the fact about fractional. It’s not necessarily a sure thing, and I will have an asterisk on this as well [00:04:00] because I have some things to say about ambiguity and permanent employment. However, when you are fractional, you may not necessarily know what each quarter looks like coming up.
[00:04:10] Um, does it feel like you have freedom to say, Hey, I can move through each client, or this client’s gonna be seasonal here, whereas this one’s gonna pick up later in the year, and I know this one will take a back seat. You may have that flexibility based on what clients and gigs you bring on, but it can feel uncertain.
[00:04:28] It can feel like there’s no pat answer. And of course, even your clients are subject to the economic sociopolitical windfalls and waves that we all have to hit. Um, but if you feel okay with that saying, yeah, but I know I’ve got a good thing and I’ll always be able to pivot and ensure that I’ve got something that’s bringing in money.
[00:04:53] You may be able to find peace in that and if you can, fractional may be the thing for you. [00:05:00] Here’s the asterisk about the ambiguity, even in permanent employment, as someone who has been laid off, and I always also alluded to that ceiling that you might hit where you thought you were gonna get promoted and no, that never happened.
[00:05:13] Or you thought things were going to change for your benefit and that never happened. Those things are outside of your control that is also ambiguous, and you may decide that you prefer the ambiguity around fractional versus the ambiguity. Of permanent up to you gonna have to wait and see.
[00:05:31] 4. You can sell yourself repeatedly
[00:05:31] Rachel Moore: Alright, number four, you’re willing to sell yourself on repeat. This can be pretty tough, especially, and I say this as someone who is, I am now on my third excursion into having my own business. And this is the first time that I have been routinely profitable. My first two forays into having my own business, uh, wound up with me returning to corporate, uh, returning to permanent.
[00:05:55] Uh, the third time for me has been the charm and I’m very excited and pleased [00:06:00] about that. But it took me a minute to get there. Now that’s not to say that you are gonna try on your first time to go fractional and fall in your face or have to go back to permanent. But you have the flexibility. You can be fractional as long as you want to be, or as long as uh, someone doesn’t come along with a better offer and you’re like, Hey, I’m gonna take that route and go that path.
[00:06:20] I’m not gonna lie, if someone came to me and said, Hey, I’ve got a permanent role for you, and it’s just too good to pass up on all accounts and all fronts, and for the unforeseeable future, I’d probably go. But it’d have to be a really special situation. But with that, coming back to selling yourself.
[00:06:38] This particular effort into my business, I fortunately have to do very little marketing and selling of myself, though it is something I always keep in mind. And yes, I do have to have those discussions with a potential client where we talk about money, we talk about contracts, we talk about scope, and sometimes it happens after I take on a client.
[00:06:56] We have those talks about scope. It can be uncomfortable, but you have to [00:07:00] be comfortable with the discomfort to say, Hey, I’m running a business and so are you. Let’s have an honest discussion about that. If you’re not ready to do that, you may not be ready for fractional, but if you are or think you are and wanna practice it and get better at it, which is exactly what I do, you may be ready.
[00:07:19] 5. You have a special thing (at least one)
[00:07:19] Rachel Moore: Fifth, number five, you have a thing now, whatever your thing is, and I mentioned this at the top of the video. I’m really gearing this whole video toward marketing professionals who want to go fractional. You don’t have to be a marketer to find this video useful, but if I am looking at marketing, marketing is a very vast ecosystem. There’s so many aspects to marketing that people can be really good at or be known for. And if you know that you have that thing that people think of, you. And you’re easy [00:08:00] to be thought of when they’re like, I need this, or I need this specific thing.
[00:08:05] And you are the first go-to or can be their first go-to. That’s your thing. And you may have the thing that the market is asking for right now that allows you to go fractional. And I will say too, some of these companies as well as we’re talking about layoffs and reductions and piling more work onto less people because they’re trying to get away with having smaller teams.
[00:08:29] And of course that glorious thing, AI, that everybody thinks is just gonna solve everyone’s ills. Jury still out on that? You may have a thing that a company said, Hey, we’re downsizing or right-sizing, and we still need someone to do that thing, but we don’t wanna pay them a permanent role. Guess who gets to step in and take that on you in your fractional state. So keep that in mind.
[00:08:56] 6. Your network can feed you
[00:08:56] Rachel Moore: Number six, your network can actually feed you. This comes [00:09:00] down to the ability of your clients to actually pay what you’re worth, routinely and on time. This is not just about how many LinkedIn connections you have. You could have 50 LinkedIn connections and some of you watching this video may and 40 of those might be epically awesome connections who do have the means and the need for you to make sure that they’re paying you your value. Yeah, but you could have 15,000 LinkedIn connections and if nobody’s saying, yeah, I wanna pay you what you’re worth to do this thing that we just talked about, then maybe you don’t have it yet.
[00:09:41] To make fractional work for you and feed you, you need real relationships with people who will hire you, who will refer you, and who know people who want to do those two things for you. This is your pipeline. Your network is your pipeline. Not so much job boards, and it’s not like you’re never gonna look at those.
[00:09:58] You can absolutely find gigs [00:10:00] on job boards, but your network is what’s going to matter here. And once again, this is why I have admonished my children. One of them, one out of two of my children, is on LinkedIn, and the other one better be on it by the time he graduates college. And Willis, if you’re watching this, that was for you.
[00:10:17] 7. You have the receipts
[00:10:17] Rachel Moore: Number seven, you’ve got receipts. Hopefully by now, and hopefully as you are a marketing person now, possibly working in a permanent employee position, you’re building a portfolio. This means grabbing screenshots. Now, I’m not talking about giving away the keys to the kingdom, giving away trade secrets or proprietary information from your employer.
[00:10:39] That is not what I’m talking about. What I am referring to is saying, are there graphs and numbers and metrics that you can keep and store away in your back pocket, whether those are visuals or just the information, and then turn those around. If you’ve been using those on your resume, you can absolutely use those on a portfolio, but you want [00:11:00] case studies, you want outcomes, you want that portfolio of proof. Clients are going to be buying your track record and I mentioned the network who probably is already familiar with you, but that’s not to say you’re not gonna run into clients who don’t really know you, have only been given your name and might need a little bit more proof positive that you are the person to do the thing that they need.
[00:11:23] 8. You can handle the “you” business
[00:11:23] Rachel Moore: Number eight, you can handle the business that is you. That means all the icky stuff that none of us like to do. I certainly don’t, not a big fan of time tracking. I’m not a big fan of doing invoices every month. Yet, that’s how I get paid. So I make sure I do. Contracts can be messy, especially the first few that you do, where you’re trying to really dial them in and make sure they include everything they should legally as well as what your scope is and what the client will be appealed to chasing payments.
[00:11:56] Hopefully, you’re lucky enough that you have clients that always pay you on time, and if they [00:12:00] miss or are late, it’s a total anomaly and they’re like, let’s get you back on track and let’s not let that happen again. But you have to be able to handle that business. Right now I’m in tax preparation time already, because we just turned the corner from 2025 to 2026.
[00:12:16] Yes, I’m dating when this video is recorded, but, uh, today I spent some time downloading my last year’s worth of transactions on a few accounts because I’m gonna need to generate my profit and loss statement. So exciting. I even got to go file my, uh, annual report of filing of good standing with my state, and that was also very boring.
[00:12:37] Twenty-five bucks later, I’m still in good standing because I filled out a form that said I was. These are the things you have to remember to do and have to manage if you’re gonna be fractional. Worth it. To me, it really is ‘cause as much as that stuff is annoying or bothersome or boring even, it’s still ensuring that I’m like, well yeah, but I get to keep all this other stuff going and that makes [00:13:00] sure I get paid so that I can keep all that stuff churning.
[00:13:03] Um, so yeah, you have to recognize that you are a business and that requires certain aspects that you might have to learn more about. And uh, fortunately there’s tons of resources online to do that, including me.
[00:13:15] 9. You have the basic toolkit
[00:13:15] Rachel Moore: Number nine, you have your basic toolkit. Now, marketing, uh, most of us, as we know, we tend to get by just fine with a laptop. I, of course, need some extra things. I need this microphone that I’m speaking into. I need the webcam that I’m looking at right now, and I need some other tools of the trade, some accoutrement, if you will.
[00:13:36] You may need the same thing. Um, things that this boils down to, software subscriptions to tools. A decent workspace. Um, it doesn’t have to look like this. You can work from your recliner if that is what you prefer. You can go work at coffee shops. That can be your coworking. You might decide, and you might be able to afford a coworking space or something like that.
[00:13:56] But you do need to figure out where is all this gonna happen and [00:14:00] with what? If you have those things and have those pretty set and are able to set something up that works for you, great. Fortunately, everybody working remotely via COVID really helped a lot of people, kind of force them into figuring that out quickly.
[00:14:14] But if you’re gonna be fractional, what do you want to do? Where do you want to be working? What do you want to be working with? And remember that part of your value, and this is very important part of what you charge. Clients will include some of that because if they’re not providing it to you, you’re providing it for yourself in order to do the work for them. That needs to get included in your costs.
[00:14:37] 10. You have financial runway
[00:14:37] Rachel Moore: Speaking of costs, number 10. You really need to have a financial runway. I’m not here to tell you you shouldn’t go fractional if you have no savings. It would be a really good idea. I also really, and please know I’m saying this as I turn down every credit card offer I get. I’m the person that goes up to the counter at Old Navy and says, no, thank you very much. [00:15:00] This is gonna benefit nobody, especially me. So please know that as I say that, I’m very careful in my old age about taking on credit card debt. I’m not saying it can’t be the way that you get to go fractional, but please be mindful of it.
[00:15:15] I would never, ever recommend to anybody to start racking up a ton of credit card debt. You have no guarantee of paying off. Okay? Now that we’ve gotten through that, you really do wanna have about three to six months of expenses as a runway because, as we mentioned, there’s that ambiguity there. You don’t necessarily know how your clients will be faring after 3, 6, 9, 12 months, maybe they’ve been around for a while.
[00:15:42] And this is something you do wanna assess as you take on clients. How long have you been around? Do you tend to pay your vendors on time? Uh, can I expect that we are gonna have a good relationship and a partnership maybe two years into the future and longer? That would be ideal. Of course, I’m not trying to put you in a box.
[00:15:59] Not to [00:16:00] say that you can’t pivot in one to two years and kind of go in a different direction, which you are able to do as a fractional, but you wanna make sure you’re thinking long term and get those long term clients as much as possible ‘cause they really can benefit you and make sure that now you’re able to build up those longer runways so you have more than three to six to nine to 12 months of savings and profit by being fractional.
[00:16:24] 11. You have people in your corner
00:16:24] Rachel Moore: And lastly, we’ve hit number 11, holla out to Spinal Tap. You really do wanna have people in your corner. There are going to be folks, well-meaning as they are, who are not going to be able to wrap their brain around you being fractional. I mentioned my parents earlier in this video, and what they’re used to is working for employers so that they can have a guaranteed paycheck. They can have benefits, they can have retirement funds saved away from them. They have an office to go to. They have colleagues. There’s that whole [00:17:00] structure. They’re very used to. Remember, fractional is basically you setting that up for yourself.
[00:17:05] It’s you, yourself, and you just like, it’s me, myself, and I. Um, I have to fabricate my own colleagues by co-working with other people or going out in public instead of staying here in my basement studio and working all day. Um, I need to go out and find my own health insurance or I need my partner to go do that so that we have health insurance together.
[00:17:27] And again, I’m speaking from the United States. It might be different based on your geographical location. But there’s all kinds of logistics and emotions where you want to have people in your corner because you absolutely will come up against people who don’t understand why you’re going fractional.
[00:17:44] Maybe not agree with it, but they should in no way overcome the amount of people in your life who are in your corner, who are cheering you on, and who will say your name in the rooms that matter, that will help you get those new clients, help you get that new [00:18:00] business, and even remind you that you’re awesome when you are facing leaner times or uncertainty or saying, Ooh, should I even go for that contract that I really want?
[00:18:09] And they should say, yes, you should, because you’re awesome. It’s not the easiest thing to do, um, especially if you try it. And remember, I’m speaking for somebody who tried it once, didn’t work, tried it the second time, didn’t work, third time finally started working for me. Um, and I could have taken those first two times and said, I think this is never gonna be for me again.
[00:18:32] And I even did say that. Until I hit all of these 11 signs we just talked about that yelled to me, it is time. It’s time for you, Rachel, to do this.
[00:18:43] Take it up to 11!
[00:18:43] Rachel Moore: And you watching this video, it may be time for you now. It may be time for you soon. It may never be time for you to go fractional.
[00:18:52] And again, this is not a formula. You don’t have to make a checklist off of all these 11 items and say, oh, only once I’ve hit all 11 should [00:19:00] I go for it. I’m not here to tell you that. What I am here to tell you is my experience with it and just ways to help you be smart about it and make sure that when you do.
[00:19:12] Sally forth into your fractional life, um, and your fractional profession that is as successful as possible. I want that for you. I want it for me too. So, uh, please by all means, if this was a helpful video for you, I’d love it if you’d share it and if you are fractional thinking about it or have already done it, holler in the comments.
[00:19:32] I wanna hear from you. Uh, let me know how it went. Let me know how it’s going. Let me know if it’s not going. Uh, I definitely wanna see what we can do as a community to help you out because, uh, it can be amazing if it’s meant for you.
[00:19:44] You’re still here. It’s over, but you should hit like on this video before you head out and subscribe if you wanna get more videos that’ll help you realize how much “moore” there is to marketing.
[00:19:56] See what I did there?