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Is your year-end goal starting to feel a little too far away?

Here's the thing most business owners get wrong when September hits: they think a great Q4 is about doing more — more hustle, more new ideas, more drastic moves to close the gap. It's not. A great Q4 isn't built on addition, it's built on elimination — cutting the noise so you can go all-in on what's already working.

Spoiler: if you try to burn your business down and rebuild it in four months, you won't hit your goal. You'll just be starting from scratch with none of the momentum you already have.

In this episode, I walk you through the exact 5-step planning process I run with my own business every quarter — a mashup of Rachel Hollis's Last 90 Day Challenge and the book The 12 Week Year — so you can head into the last four months of the year focused, clear, and set up to actually hit your goals.

In This Episode:

• Why "doing something drastic" backfires every time
• The corporate story behind this framework, and how it created more transformation in 90 days than the previous 9 months
• Step 1: Define the purpose of each month
• Step 2: Set three goals for the last four months (not ten)
• Step 3: Declare a focus for every team member
• Step 4: Compare where your business started January 1st to where it is today — and what to cut
• Step 5: Ask honestly, can we really do it?

Your homework: Before September ends, sit down and write out the purpose of each of your last four months — even a rough first pass gets you ahead of where most business owners are right now.

Connect with Melissa:

Consultation Call: https://www.melissafranks.com/fractionalcooservices 

3 Operational Leaks Every Business Has Masterclass. https://oncallcoo.melissafranks.com/3operationalleaks

Learn more about On Call COO fractional services → https://www.melissafranks.com

Watch the Episodes on Youtube

Instagram: instagram.com/melissa_franks 

LinkedIn: Melissa Franks

What if the number you're proudest of in your business is the exact reason you can't tell what's actually happening in it?

This week isn't about tracking less data. It's not about a bad number to feel a little worse about. It's about the fact that the numbers you've been trained to celebrate, followers, opt-ins, traffic, even gross revenue, aren't the numbers that steer a business. They're the numbers that steer your ego. Real metrics aren't flashy. They're the ones that tell you, plainly, whether to spend more, pull back, hire, or hold. This episode is about learning the difference before it costs you.

I once had to walk away from a $30 million company almost as soon as we started working together, because their headline revenue number was hiding a 2% net margin.

By the end of this episode, you'll be able to run a one-question test on any metric in your business to know instantly whether it's vanity or real, and you'll know the four numbers I actually want on your dashboard: net margin, cash flow, customer acquisition cost, and founder dependency.

In This Episode:

• What a vanity metric actually is, and the one question that separates vanity from reality
• Why "AI employees" is quickly becoming the newest vanity metric
• The real story behind a client whose huge social following couldn't actually buy anything
• Why I had to walk away from a $30 million company after finding a 2% net margin
• Why your team may be handing you good news instead of the truth, and how to fix that
• When EBITDA actually matters (and when it's a waste of your time)
• How to calculate net margin, cash flow, and customer acquisition cost in plain terms
• The time-study method for measuring how dependent your business is on you

Your homework this week: pick one metric you currently report on or brag about, and ask yourself honestly if it's ever changed a single decision you've made. If it hasn't, it's time to replace it.

Connect with Melissa:

Consultation Call: https://www.melissafranks.com/fractionalcooservices 

3 Operational Leaks Every Business Has Masterclass. https://oncallcoo.melissafranks.com/3operationalleaks

Learn more about On Call COO fractional services → https://www.melissafranks.com

Watch the Episodes on Youtube

Instagram: instagram.com/melissa_franks 

LinkedIn: Melissa Franks

When Should You Hire a Fractional COO?

Are you googling "how do I know when it's time to bring in a fractional COO" at 11pm because the business feels chaotic again?

Here's the thing: it's not about being big enough. It's not about "someday." It's not even about how hard you're hustling. It's about whether you've proven a repeatable model — and there's a specific number that tells you when you're there.

I sat down as a guest on the Business Growth Podcast with Leonard DeBeer and gave founders the exact revenue framework I use, no vague "it depends."

Spoiler: it's not $1 million. It's not even close.

By the end of this episode, you'll know exactly where your business needs to sit before a fractional COO can actually move the needle for you — and you'll know the difference between a COO who "talks at you" and one who rolls up their sleeves and gets it done. You'll also hear the real numbers behind how On Call COO grew from $9,000 in cash collected in 2023 to a $3M run rate this year, and why 90% of our clients find us through paid ads instead of referrals.

In This Episode:

• [01:30] Why the fractional COO market is underserved
• [03:00] The biggest misconception about fractional COO support
• [04:30] The $1M–$3M framework for knowing when it's time
• [06:00] How On Call COO actually got started
• [09:00] What drove rapid growth once demand outpaced supply
• [12:00] Why paid advertising beats referrals for a service most people don't know they need
• [17:30] Goals for the rest of the year: retention, referral partners, brand
• [21:00] Book recommendations: Big Magic and Psychology of Money

Your homework: Before you do anything else this week, figure out which range you're actually in — still proving the model, or repeating it consistently above $3M. Then book a free consultation and let's map your next step from there.

Listen to Leonard DeBeer on The Business Growth Podcast

Connect with Melissa:

Consultation Call: https://www.melissafranks.com/fractionalcooservices 

3 Operational Leaks Every Business Has Masterclass. https://oncallcoo.melissafranks.com/3operationalleaks

Learn more about On Call COO fractional services → https://www.melissafranks.com

Watch the Episodes on Youtube

Instagram: instagram.com/melissa_franks 

LinkedIn: Melissa Franks

Have you ever had a record-breaking month and then wondered where all the cash actually went?

It's not that you're bad with money, and it's not that your business is failing. Your top line is climbing and you're still watching your bank account like a hawk before payroll runs. That's not a revenue problem — it's a blind spot problem. The number you've been chasing isn't the number that tells you the truth.

The most dangerous blind spot isn't the one big bad decision — it's the small, invisible ones you never notice piling up until you're already in the red.

By the end of this episode, you'll be able to name the three financial blind spots quietly draining growing businesses, understand why your revenue number can't be trusted on its own, and know exactly which four numbers to start tracking — no CFO, no finance degree, no fear required.

In This Episode:

• Why revenue is a vanity metric and what actually reflects the health of your business
• Blind spot #1: the gap between booking revenue and collecting cash
• Blind spot #2: margin dilution from discounting, scope creep, and slowly rising costs
• Blind spot #3: the owner's blended blind spot — draws, commingled expenses, and tax strategies
• Why your bookkeeper and accountant won't catch this for you (and why that's not their job)
• The simple financial dashboard: cash runway, gross margin, AR aging, and burn rate
• How to build an owner's mindset around cost vs. return before every decision

Before your next weekly check-in, pull up your last P&L and answer one question honestly: what is your actual gross margin, by product or by client — not "it's good," an actual number.

Ready to build your own financial dashboard? Book a free consultation with Melissa and get clarity on your cash and margin.

Connect with Melissa:

Consultation Call: https://www.melissafranks.com/fractionalcooservices 

3 Operational Leaks Every Business Has Masterclass. https://oncallcoo.melissafranks.com/3operationalleaks

Learn more about On Call COO fractional services → https://www.melissafranks.com

Watch the Episodes on Youtube

Instagram: instagram.com/melissa_franks 

LinkedIn: Melissa Franks

Do you keep hiring the wrong person, someone who looked exactly right on paper and in the interview, and then turned out to be someone else entirely once they were on your team?

This isn't about getting better at reading people in the interview room. It's about making sure the wrong people never make it into that room in the first place. After 30 years and more than 10,000 interviews, Melissa has learned that the real work of hiring well happens before the conversation ever starts, in the application, the resume, and the cross-checks most small businesses skip entirely.

One resume-review habit alone, checking whether achievements come with actual numbers attached, will eliminate half your bad hires before you ever pick up the phone.

By the end of this episode, you'll have a repeatable, five-step screening system you can run before any interview: a 30-minute application that filters out easy-apply candidates, an optional video submission that reveals how someone really shows up, a way to safely (and skeptically) use AI for screening, a resume-reading checklist that catches red flags in under five minutes, and a method for cross-checking a resume against LinkedIn that exposes inconsistencies most hiring managers never think to look for.

In This Episode:

• Why Melissa's real interview count is closer to tens of thousands, not 10,000
• The assumptions this process requires you to have already made (builder vs. steady-state, job description, comp)
• How to build an application that takes 30 minutes and why that length matters
• What an optional video submission tests that a resume and interview can't
• How to request and verify work product samples
• Using knockout questions and AI to sort applicants, and why you have to check the work
• A real story about Claude's candidate screening getting it backwards, and what caused it
• The three-part resume read: typos, data-backed achievements, and role duration
• The one exception to the "duration over title" rule (the VP vs. Director story)
• Why resume and LinkedIn need to match, and what a mismatch tells you
• How to spot an AI-written application, and why that's a dealbreaker
• Why you can't outsource the hiring decision itself to AI

Homework: Before your next round of hiring, pull up your current job application and time how long it actually takes someone to complete. If it's under 10 minutes, it's not doing its job, go back and add the open-ended questions this episode walks through.

Connect with Melissa:

Consultation Call: https://www.melissafranks.com/fractionalcooservices 

3 Operational Leaks Every Business Has Masterclass. https://oncallcoo.melissafranks.com/3operationalleaks

Learn more about On Call COO fractional services → https://www.melissafranks.com

Watch the Episodes on Youtube

Instagram: instagram.com/melissa_franks 

LinkedIn: Melissa Franks

Have you ever spent the quiet minutes of the morning, or the late hours of the night, asking yourself: why am I even doing this?

This episode isn't about finding your "why." It's not about your purpose, and it's not about your values. Melissa reframes the question entrepreneurs actually need to answer: not "why," but what your driver is — the specific, sometimes unflattering dream that pushed you to start in the first place.

Because here's the thing most founders get wrong: it's not burnout, and it's not hustle culture that makes you hate a profitable business. It's not even knowing your "why" that's missing. It's not identifying a value system — it's never having named the actual driver behind the leap, and having no way to tell whether you've already hit it.

Melissa shares the two very unglamorous goals that drove her to start On Call COO, a five-minute conversation that helped a founder realize she'd already achieved everything she set out for, and the decision she made this spring to pull back her own hours — on purpose, eyes wide open — to be present for her kids this summer.

In This Episode:

• Kristen Cavallari's "I'd hate my life" comment on Emma Grede's Aspire podcast, and why it's the smartest thing a founder can say
• Why "what's your why" is a question Melissa can't stand — and what to ask instead
• Melissa's own driver behind starting On Call COO
• What happens when you don't know your driver (and start chasing other people's results instead)
• A live coaching moment: how one founder realized in five minutes that she'd already won
• Why Melissa chose to pull back this summer, even while the business was growing
• How to build a real plan before you chase your next big goal

Connect with Melissa:

Consultation Call: https://www.melissafranks.com/fractionalcooservices 

3 Operational Leaks Every Business Has Masterclass. https://oncallcoo.melissafranks.com/3operationalleaks

Learn more about On Call COO fractional services → https://www.melissafranks.com

Watch the Episodes on Youtube

Instagram: instagram.com/melissa_franks 

LinkedIn: Melissa Franks

Have you hired the same role more than once and watched it still not work out, even with genuinely talented people? If your answer is yes, that's not a talent problem.

In this episode of the Opt In Podcast, Melissa Franks tackles one of the most common hiring mistakes small business owners make: assuming an A player is an A player everywhere. Not a question of skill, but of fit. There are only two operating modes at work, builder and steady state, and hiring the wrong one into a role sets even the most talented person up to fail.

If your job description hasn't changed since the last time this role turned over, someone is paying for that gap. Spoiler: it's your business.

Melissa breaks down why founders keep hiring skilled people into the wrong seat (it's not bad luck, it's an undefined role), walks through the two-column audit you can run on any role this week, and gives you the exact framework for figuring out whether the seat needs a builder or a steady state person, before you ever post the job again.

In This Episode:

• Why "I want the best person" is the wrong starting point for a job description
• The real difference between a builder and a steady state person, and why it has nothing to do with seniority or department
• The two-column exercise to diagnose exactly why past hires in this role didn't work
• Why a job description without defined performance metrics guarantees your new hire defaults to what worked at their last job
• How to figure out which one you are as a founder, and why that determines who you hire next
• Why your best people quietly leave, and it's rarely about the money
• Your homework: one role, one audit, one honest answer.

Connect with Melissa:

Consultation Call: https://www.melissafranks.com/fractionalcooservices 

3 Operational Leaks Every Business Has Masterclass. https://oncallcoo.melissafranks.com/3operationalleaks

Learn more about On Call COO fractional services → https://www.melissafranks.com

Watch the Episodes on Youtube

Instagram: instagram.com/melissa_franks 

LinkedIn: Melissa Franks

56.9% of new business owners say they started a business to be their own boss. 48.8% say they left because they couldn't stomach corporate America anymore. 

In this episode of the Opt IN Podcast, Melissa Franks breaks down these two very different reasons people walk away from the 9-to-5: the independent seeker and the burned-out escapee, and the blind spots each one carries straight into their new business.

This episode is a wake-up call for anyone running their business like an employee instead of an owner: doing all the work, approving every email, never stepping away. Melissa walks through how to spot it, why it's quietly dangerous to your business's stability, and the three questions she asks every new client before talking about revenue goals or team size.

If you left corporate chasing freedom and ended up with a different kind of cage, this episode is your reset.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

• The two real reasons people leave corporate America, and the different blind spots each one creates
• Why independent seekers underestimate how much structure was actually holding their old job together
• Why burned-out escapees risk rebuilding the exact problem they ran from, just inside a new container
• The difference between operating like an "owner" and operating like an "employee" inside your own business
• The warning signs that you're still the operating system of your business (and why that's dangerous)
• Why managing yourself is harder than managing anyone else, and how to build the structure for it
• What corporate America actually gave you that nobody admits to missing
• The three questions Melissa asks every client before she'll talk about revenue or headcount
• Why Melissa doesn't believe in "finding your why", and what she asks instead

Connect with Melissa:

Consultation Call: https://www.melissafranks.com/fractionalcooservices 

3 Operational Leaks Every Business Has Masterclass. https://oncallcoo.melissafranks.com/3operationalleaks

Learn more about On Call COO fractional services → https://www.melissafranks.com

Watch the Episodes on Youtube

Instagram: instagram.com/melissa_franks 

LinkedIn: Melissa Franks

When did you last raise your prices? If you have to think about it, that's your answer.

In this episode of the Opt In Podcast, Melissa Franks tackles one of the most avoided conversations in small business: pricing. Not setting prices for the first time, but revisiting them after you've grown, delivered results, and become exponentially more valuable than you were when you first put a number on your work.

If your rates look the same as they did two or three years ago, someone is paying for that gap. Spoiler: it's you.

Melissa breaks down why founders chronically underprice (it's not the market, it's fear dressed up as strategy), walks through the 4-question pricing audit you can run on your business this week, and gives you the exact framework for raising rates without losing the clients you actually want to keep.

In This Episode

• Why founders set prices when they were least confident, and never revisit them
• The three stories you're telling yourself to avoid the conversation (and why none of them are true)
• The math that shows how underpricing compounds over time, and what it's actually costing you per client, per year
• The 4-question pricing gut check to run on every engagement you offer
• How to raise your rates without burning client relationships: the grandfathering window, the 30-60 day notice approach, and how to communicate the change with confidence instead of apology
• Why some clients will leave when you raise prices, and why that's not a loss
• Your homework: one service, one date, one decision

Connect with Melissa:

Consultation Call: https://www.melissafranks.com/fractionalcooservices 

3 Operational Leaks Every Business Has Masterclass. https://oncallcoo.melissafranks.com/3operationalleaks

Learn more about On Call COO fractional services → https://www.melissafranks.com

Watch the Episodes on Youtube

Instagram: instagram.com/melissa_franks 

LinkedIn: Melissa Franks

You hired the experts. You've got a fractional CFO, a fractional CMO, maybe a part-time ops manager and a media buyer. You did everything right, and yet nothing is moving. Decisions are stalled. Responses take days. You're working more than before. And somehow, you became the glue holding it all together.

You didn't make bad hires. You made a structural mistake, and in this episode, Melissa Franks breaks down exactly what went wrong and how to fix it.

Fractional support is a strategic model, not an operational one. The moment you try to use it for both, the whole thing breaks down. Melissa walks through the two lanes every growing business needs, the strategy lane and the execution lane, and explains why confusing the two is costing founders time, money, and sanity.

Whether you're running an all-contractor team or trying to figure out your next hire, this episode will give you a clear framework for when fractional is your best move — and when it's time to bring someone on full-time.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• The difference between strategy-layer and execution-layer roles — and why mixing them up stalls everything
• The 5 ways an all-fractional team breaks down (and why it's not anyone's fault)
• When fractional support is your highest-leverage move — and when it isn't
• The 48-hour gut check: a simple test to determine whether a role needs to be full-time
• Why a seasoned fractional executive at 15 hours/month can outperform a full-time hire you can't yet afford
• The football coach analogy that explains exactly how fractional executives should function in your business
• How to audit your current team and identify where your next full-time hire should be

Connect with Melissa:

Consultation Call: https://www.melissafranks.com/fractionalcooservices 

3 Operational Leaks Every Business Has Masterclass. https://oncallcoo.melissafranks.com/3operationalleaks

Learn more about On Call COO fractional services → https://www.melissafranks.com

Watch the Episodes on Youtube

Instagram: instagram.com/melissa_franks 

LinkedIn: Melissa Franks