We recently connected with Amy Crutchfield and have shared our conversation below.

Amy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

The Fractional Coach provides on-demand career coaching without long-term commitment. It’s an app where you connect directly with a career coach in a chat-based format and purchase however much time you need; extend your time when you need more and end your chat when you’re done. Given the tough job market we’ve been having the last couple of years, more and more people were coming to me for career coaching but reluctant to sign up for standard coaching sessions. The desire and need for coaching was there but the ability to pay for that level of commitment was not. I’d seen some other apps in different sectors altogether that offered this type of fractionalized service and I really loved the model. There’s something about paying for things in small increments without the commitment that appeals to me. Once you get going on the app and realize how much you can ask in a short amount of time and how that advice can really help when you need an extra push, clarity or some actionable insights that you just weren’t seeing on your own, you see what a great tool in can be for so many stages of your career. I also decided this needed to be chat-based. For one, it allows you to sign-on to the app without much forethought or preparation…you can be on your commute, at home, at a friend’s house, it doesn’t matter really because you don’t need to be on video, or look interview-ready. Additionally, having it be chat-based allows you to have a transaction record of the conversation that you can come back to and re-read after the session is done or even weeks later to pick up on things you might have missed the first time or remind you of things you intended to do. While there are many career coaching apps, there wasn’t one that was offering it in this kind of format The part that gets me excited is the rapport you can build with a coach when you start to check in with frequency, especially during a career transition or interview cycle. For example, someone comes online for a session, asks their questions, gets some helpful advice as well as steps to take, can come back several days later and ask for additional steps or what to do as they are in an interviewing process. With long weekly sessions, you wouldn’t be able to have that instant gratification of getting help and getting answers and having a coach with you every step of the way as you need it. It can be incredibly helpful and a lot of fun to know you’ve got someone in your corner, giving you advice every step of the way!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Just over two decades ago, I founded my recruitment firm, Amy Crutchfield, Executive Search. I started my career as a graphic designer and then gravitated towards sales and marketing. I recruit in the brand, design and innovation spaces which allows me to call upon my experience as a trained creative as well as my love for fueling business growth. Placing discipline leads and new leaderships teams with my clients and watching those teams thrive and grow is an incredible feeling. My goal has always been to partner with my clients in a way where I truly understand their business, their growth plans and their culture and can send them talent with laser-focused precision that hits on all of those notes on my very first introduction. Saving my clients time from having to meet countless candidates to find the right one is something I have always prided myself on. There is so much that goes into recruitment beyond sending in a resume. It’s scouting the right talent, getting that talent to talk to you, for them to truly feel heard like you get what they are interested in and to help your client understand all of the reasons they can’t see on a resume as to why this person is someone they should meet. There is a level of integrity that is incredibly important to me in recruitment and something I felt was lacking when I first started out in the business and knew I needed to do it differently. Candidates will never feel like I’ve pushed them into something that wasn’t the right fit for them and clients will never have an interview that was not worth their time. That’s a promise I always keep!

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

With both of my businesses, I took a very bootstraps approach. In both cases, it was about prioritizing what had to be funded right away versus what I could do down the line. The legal things always had to be done right away, contracts, terms of use and privacy policy’s. Creating a website so I could be found in a search. Having a brand identity I felt proud of was also for me quite critical; I was representing the best in the business of branding, I’d better show that I know great brand design myself. Having all of the right office equipment, all of these things were a given and required on day one. Other things like advertising, social media, office space, additional partners and coaches…that could all happen over a span of months and be added as revenue allowed. Starting in small increments allowed me to pivot as needed, test, change and evolve as I learned and saw what was needed. So many people become paralyzed because they feel everything needs to be perfect and every bell and whistle needs to be in place before they launch. My belief has always been to start small, learn while you go, add along the way…trust your gut, you’ll know what you need and when you need to add it. The people and companies that were willing to start small with me, that were passionate about what I was trying to do and knew that the more I grew, the more business I would give them, those are the best partners to have and that was always a great litmus test for me. People that wanted retainers and huge commitments, they didn’t have skin in the game with me and ultimately that’s not who I chose to work with. At the end of the day, we all want to work with people we like and people who believe in what we are doing.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Just two weeks ago, I was at the 10th anniversary celebration of Dreamer’s & Doer’s, a wonderful organization that amplifies women entrepreneurs, and it’s Founder, Gesche Haas, spoke about how some of the darkest times often produce the greatest ideas. When she said that, it hit me, that my idea for
The Fractional Coach came out of quite a tough time. Recruiting was down over 70% worldwide and many firms had gone out of business and a lot of people were out of work. I wasn’t as busy at work as I usually am but I’m always trying to find the silver lining in tough times – it was out of seeing what people needed and wanted that the idea for this app came to light. Had I not had as much time to pivot into coaching, had I not seen the desire for coaching but the lack of ability to commit to doing sessions, I likely never would have thought of the idea to offer it in a fractionalized way, nor would I have had time time to do all of the research and development to bring it to life.

Contact Info:

• Website: thefractionalcoach.co & amyjwiener.com
• Instagram: the_fractional_coach
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-crutchfield-2753121/

Image Credits

Please credit all photographs to Alyssa Peek Photography