Most small businesses do not hire a technology leader. They hire a person who fixes things, and that works for a while. At some point the questions change. They stop being “why is the printer down” and start being “which system should we run the business on” and “are we actually protected.” A fractional CTO exists for that second kind of question.
A fractional CTO is a senior technology person who works for you part of the month instead of full time. They set direction, make or guide the big decisions, and hold your vendors to account. They are not a help desk.
Signs you have outgrown a part-time IT person
Nobody owns the decisions. Software gets bought by whoever needed it that week. Nobody can say why you pay for three tools that do the same job.
You could not list what you have. Ask yourself where your customer data lives, who has admin access, and which subscriptions renew next month. If the honest answer is “I would have to ask around,” that is the gap.
One person is the whole system. If your IT person left tomorrow, would anyone know how the network is set up or where the passwords are kept? A single person holding everything in their head is a risk even when they are excellent.
Compliance questions go unanswered. A practice that handles patient records, or a business that takes cards, needs someone who can answer what the rules require and whether you meet them. A help desk technician usually cannot, and should not be expected to.
Contracts renew without being read. Phone, internet, software, and managed services often auto-renew. Nobody has compared them to the market in years.
A big change is coming. A move to a new line-of-business system, a second location, a cloud migration, or an acquisition all go better with someone senior planning them before money is spent.
You are the IT department. If the owner is spending evenings choosing software and chasing vendors, the business is paying for that time in other ways.
What a fractional CTO does
The work is mostly thinking, deciding, and documenting.
- Writes a plain-English technology roadmap and budget for the next year or two.
- Reviews vendors and contracts before you sign or renew.
- Runs a regular risk review and keeps a list of what needs fixing, in priority order.
- Sits in on the calls with vendors, so you are not translating between a salesperson and your own team.
- Leads compliance work for HIPAA or PCI, or coordinates it with the people who do the hands-on setup.
- Documents how everything works, so the knowledge lives in your business and not in one person.
What a fractional CTO does not do
They do not answer every “my laptop is slow” request. That is day-to-day support, and it is a different job with a different price. A good arrangement has both: someone handling daily issues, and someone senior making sure those issues are not symptoms of a bigger problem.
When you probably do not need one
If you have a handful of people, a simple setup, and nothing regulated, a reliable support provider and a written list of your accounts may be all you need. Hiring strategic leadership before you have strategic questions is a way to spend money on advice you will not use.
What to ask before you hire one
- Who actually does the work? You want the person you talked to, not a junior hand-off.
- What is included each month, in writing? Our plans state the advisory time included, so you know what the monthly price covers.
- What do I own if I leave? Documentation, accounts, and credentials should all be yours.
- Is the contract month to month? You should not be locked in to find out whether it is working.
- Can you explain it without jargon? If the answer sounds like a vendor pitch, the advice probably will too.
Where we fit
Our fractional vCTO plans start at $1,750 a month, with the advisory time included stated up front, and they are month to month. You can see the tiers on the fractional vCTO page and the full list on the pricing page.
If you are not sure whether you need this or something smaller, tell us what is going on. If a smaller option is the better fit, we will say so.