The reflex when growth stalls is to hire a Head of Growth. It's the wrong reflex for most SMBs.
A senior full-time hire at that level is a €150K to €250K commitment, plus equity, plus benefits, plus twelve to eighteen months before you actually know if the bet worked. Total cost of the wrong hire: roughly €400K in salary, opportunity cost, and internal energy spent trying to make it work.
A fractional operator does the same thinking, without the runway.
The math nobody runs before hiring
Full-time senior operator, first 12 months:
- Base + benefits + equity load: €200K to €300K
- Ramp period before productive: 3 to 6 months
- Time to prove the role's ROI: 12 to 18 months
- Reversibility if it's wrong: low. Firing a senior hire is a company event.
Fractional operator, same period:
- Monthly retainer: €6K to €15K, no equity, no benefits
- Ramp period: often week 1, because pattern recognition transfers immediately
- Time to prove ROI: usually inside the first 90 days
- Reversibility if it's wrong: you cancel the contract
The full-time hire is a bet on a person. The fractional operator is a bet on a play. Different unit of risk.
When full-time is the right call
Full-time makes sense when you already have a proven growth motion that needs scaling. Someone to own it long-term, hire under them, and become the institutional memory of the function. If the play is known and works, hire the person who runs it forever.
It also makes sense when your growth requires deep product or domain expertise that only comes from being in one company for years.
When fractional is the right call
Fractional wins when you don't yet know what the growth motion is. When you need clarity before you commit to a role, or want to test whether the role even makes sense before you post the JD.
It also wins when you're in a phase where the answer changes quarterly. A fractional operator can pivot without an org chart update. A full-time hire in the same seat will feel whipsawed and start looking for a more stable company by month six.
The best time to hire a full-time Head of Growth is when a fractional one has already proven the play works.
The move most SMBs miss
Run fractional for 6 to 9 months to establish the operating rhythm, prove out the growth motion, and define exactly what full-time role is worth hiring for. Then either promote the fractional into a longer engagement, or hire a full-time operator into a role that already has a working machine.
The full-time hire will thank you for handing them a system that works instead of a blank page. And you'll have paid to learn what worked before you paid a salary to find out.
If you're mid-decision on hiring a senior growth role, let's talk. Sometimes the answer is: yes, hire them. Often it's: run fractional first, then decide.