Your business is working. But somewhere in the growth, it has become harder to run, not easier. More decisions land back on you. The team is capable but still needs you for everything. Margins feel less clear than they should.
That is not a motivation problem. It is a structural one. And structure can be rebuilt.
It happens gradually. Revenue grows. The team expands. More customers, more complexity, more moving parts. And somewhere in that growth, the business stops feeling manageable.
The same problems keep resurfacing. Decisions that should be made at team level keep coming back to you. You are still involved in detail you should not need to be involved in. You are busy every day but not always sure what you are actually moving forward.
This is not a sign that something is broken. It is what happens when a business outgrows the structure that got it here. The thinking, the habits, and the systems that worked at £500k start to strain at £2m. What worked at £2m starts to buckle at £5m. Growth without structural evolution creates pressure, not freedom.
If two or more of those statements are true, the business has not got a people problem or a motivation problem. It has a structural problem. That is exactly what a Fractional COO engagement addresses.
A Fractional COO engagement is not advisory commentary from the sidelines. David J Wood works inside the business, alongside the business owner and leadership team, to diagnose what is getting in the way of growth and build the structure that removes it.
Depending on where the business is and what it needs, the engagement operates in one of three modes. In practice, most engagements move between all three as the business develops.
For business owners whose primary challenge is operational, decisions escalating, accountability blurring, the team not performing without direct involvement, the Fractional COO role focuses on rebuilding the internal structures that allow the business to run without its owner at the centre of everything.
This covers: reducing owner dependency, rebuilding leadership accountability, establishing clear decision-making at the right level, restoring margin visibility, and creating the operational rhythm that allows growth to feel controlled rather than chaotic.
For business owners who have operational clarity in place but need a senior commercial voice at board level, someone to challenge thinking, pressure-test decisions, and ensure the strategic direction is coherent and executable, the Board Advisor role provides that without the cost or commitment of a full-time executive.
David J Wood brings 30 years of experience building, scaling, and exiting B2B businesses to every board conversation. Not as a non-executive who observes from a distance, but as an operator who asks the questions that need to be asked.
For business owners who are ready to focus on growth, revenue, pricing, margin, sales systems, and building a business with real enterprise value, the Commercial Growth Partner role works alongside the owner and commercial team to drive measurable progress against the numbers that matter.
This is not sales coaching or marketing strategy. It is the commercial discipline that connects activity to outcome, revenue forecasting, pipeline integrity, pricing structure, and the financial visibility that makes growth sustainable rather than fragile.
Most fractional COOs come from a corporate management background. They have run divisions, managed P&Ls, and led large teams. That experience is valuable. But it is different from having personally built a business from nothing, scaled it under real pressure, and sold it twice.
David J Wood started with £3,000 and a contract supplying soft drinks to airport VIP lounges. Over eleven years, that business grew to £24 million in annual revenue with £2 million EBITDA. He sold it to venture capitalists in 2007. After losing the proceeds in the property crash, he bought the business back in 2013, at £8 million annual revenue, losing £500,000 a year, and rebuilt it to £31 million annual revenue before selling it again in 2018.
That journey, the build, the exit, the loss, the rebuild, is the foundation of every engagement he takes on today. He has sat in the chair the business owners he works with are sitting in now. He knows what the pressure feels like. And he knows how to build the structure that removes it.
Cumulative revenue contributed across 30 years building and exiting B2B businesses
First business, built from scratch over 11 years, sold to venture capitalists in 2007
Turnaround acquisition, rebuilt from £500k annual loss to profitable exit in five years
Inside B2B businesses, stock, cashflow, margin, people, and operational pressure
Alongside the operational track record, David J Wood has spent fifteen years studying directly with the people who wrote the frameworks he applies. Verne Harnish (Scaling Up), Alan Miltz (financial discipline), Professor Steve Peters (The Chimp Paradox), and Marshall Goldsmith (leadership and behavioural change).
The result is an operator whose instincts are grounded in thirty years of consequence and whose thinking has been tested, challenged, and refined by the best practitioners in the world.
“Pre-David, post-David. Night and day.”
Vinca Wine, three business owners, no clear structure, scattergun approach to sales and marketing, under 50 per cent of their sales target when the engagement began. After five months: target hit, clear roles and responsibilities established, revenue on track to grow 4x year-on-year.
Jack & Zak
Co-founders, Vinca Wine
“The change was immediate and the results were visible the same week.”
Tiger Marketing, Louise Stevenson was running three three-hour weekly team meeting, consuming 40 hours a month. Restructured to daily five-minute check-ins. Time cost dropped from 40 hours to 10 hours per month, a 75 per cent reduction, with no loss of team support or alignment.
Louise Stevenson
Founder, Tiger Marketing
“From stressed and sleepless to confident and energised about the growth plan ahead.”
ePropulsion UK, Clare Murray came with a clear vision but no structure to execute it. Staff performance issues, dealer network problems, supplier difficulties. After three sessions: vision refined, annual goals set, full team alignment achieved, 90-day accountability plan in place, supplier relationships resolved.
Clare Murray – ePropulsion UK
“Results were visible the following day.”
MAVERRIK, Dean Seddon was leading a fast-growing business but unable to shift from doing to leading. The business needed him involved in everything. Practical structural changes were in place after two to three conversations. Results visible the following day.
Dean Seddon – CEO, MAVERRIK
Every engagement starts in the same place: a Growth Clarity Call. This is a free 20-minute conversation, no preparation needed, no pitch. Just an honest look at where the business is now, what is getting in the way, and what the right next step looks like.
From that conversation, there are typically two paths.
For business owners who want a clear, structured starting point before committing to an ongoing engagement, the 30-Day Business Clarity Reset is where we begin. Over 30 focused days, we audit commercial performance, identify the structural pressure points holding the business back, establish clear priorities and ownership, and produce a 90-day execution roadmap.
At the end of 30 days, the business has commercial clarity, reduced structural drag, and a defined plan to move forward, whether we continue working together or not.
For business owners who are ready to move directly into an ongoing engagement, or who have completed the 30-Day Reset and are ready for the next stage, the Fractional COO partnership is a monthly retainer relationship.
David J Wood works alongside the business owner and leadership team on a regular basis, embedded in the business, not observing from outside it. The engagement evolves as the business develops, moving through operational stabilisation, strategic direction, and commercial growth as each stage is ready.
A Fractional COO works inside a growing business as a senior operational leader on a part-time or project basis, without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire.
For B2B business owners, the role focuses on reducing owner dependency, rebuilding accountability structures, restoring commercial visibility across margin and forecasting, and creating the operational discipline that allows growth to feel controlled rather than chaotic.
David J Wood is a UK-based Fractional COO with 30 years of experience building, scaling, and exiting B2B businesses. He works with business owners turning over between £500,000 and £30 million across a range of B2B sectors, with particular depth in wholesale, distribution, and product-based businesses. Unlike advisors who observe and recommend, David J Wood works inside the business alongside the owner and senior team, with accountability for outcomes rather than just advice. The result is a business that runs with greater structure, clearer accountability, and less dependence on the business owner being present for every decision.
A business consultant typically diagnoses problems and produces recommendations, then leaves.
A business coach focuses on the personal development of the owner, mindset, habits, and leadership behaviour.
A Fractional COO does neither of those things. David J Wood works inside the business as an operational partner, embedded alongside the owner and leadership team, with shared accountability for the outcomes. The work is structural and commercial: rebuilding the systems, accountability frameworks, and decision-making structures that allow the business to grow without the owner carrying everything personally.
David J Wood is not a coach and he is not a consultant. He is a business operator with 30 years of experience across two built-and-exited businesses contributing over £400 million in cumulative revenue. He has sat in the chair that the business owners he works with are sitting in now, and the advice he gives is grounded in having lived the consequences of getting it wrong and right.
The cost of a Fractional COO engagement in the UK varies significantly depending on the scope of the work, the size and complexity of the business, and the number of days per month involved.
David J Wood’s Fractional COO partnership starts from £4,000 per month.
For business owners who want a clear, structured starting point before committing to an ongoing engagement, the 30-Day Commercial Growth Reset is available at a fixed investment of £3,000, covering a full commercial and operational audit, identification of structural pressure points, and a 90-day execution roadmap.
Both engagements begin with a free Growth Clarity Call, which takes approximately 20 minutes and determines which path is most appropriate for the business. There is no obligation following that call.
David J Wood works with a small number of business owners at any one time, so engagements are selective, the Growth Clarity Call establishes fit on both sides before any commitment is made.
The length of a Fractional COO engagement depends entirely on where the business is when the work begins and how much structural change is required. For business owners starting with the 30-Day Business Clarity Reset, the initial engagement is fixed at 30 days, producing commercial clarity, a reduced structural drag, and a 90-day execution roadmap. From there, business owners who want to continue into an ongoing Fractional COO partnership typically commit to a minimum period discussed on the Growth Clarity Call. In David J Wood’s experience, the meaningful structural changes that reduce owner dependency and restore operational control take between three and twelve months to embed properly, depending on the size of the team, the complexity of the business, and the pace of implementation. The goal of every engagement is to make itself unnecessary over time: a business that has built the right structure should not need a Fractional COO permanently. David J Wood’s engagements are designed with that endpoint in mind from the first conversation.
No. While David J Wood’s own background is in product-based, wholesale, and distribution businesses, where he built two companies to over £24 million and £31 million in annual revenue respectively, the structural and commercial problems he addresses show up across B2B sectors. Owner dependency, blurred accountability, weak margin visibility, and reactive forecasting are not industry-specific problems. They are growth-stage problems, and they appear in service businesses, agencies, specialist consultancies, and B2B businesses of all kinds. The business owners who get the most from working with David J Wood are those where the business has grown beyond the structure that supports it, regardless of what the business sells. His deepest operational experience is in product, wholesale, and distribution, which means businesses in those sectors benefit from both the structural framework and the sector-specific instinct. For other B2B sectors, the structural framework applies fully, as the client results from Tiger Marketing, MAVERRIK, and ePropulsion UK demonstrate.
David J Wood – Fractional COO, Board Advisor, and Commercial Growth Partner for B2B business owners. £400m+ in cumulative revenue. 30 years. Two exits.
