Your full guide to building a portfolio career and finding your first clients.

And my no-BS real opinions.

Hey, it’s Daria. Here we’re talking about building careers in ways that feel true to ourselves. I promote flexibility, fractional jobs, and portfolio careers. If you’re tired of the usual full-time employment, don’t forget to subscribe.

A little disclaimer before we start: I’m not a native-english speaker, but I’m trying my best to improve my writing skills. If you see any typos (sometimes even Grammarly fails me), feel free to smile at me, but don’t forget that it’s my journey and I’m trying hard!

In this edition, we’ll cover how to find clients if you want to go fractional. The plan’s the following:

• What is fractional? Who will benefit from it?

• What types of companies are looking for fractional leaders? And what companies don’t (which is even more important!).

• How do you get your first clients if you decide to go fractional? (Spoiler: don’t leave your full-time job just yet, it might be useful!).

• My tips & tricks.

What exactly portfolio/fractional career is? Who will benefit from it?

It’s a flexible career where instead of being full-time employed in one company you work for various companies, people, and have different streams of income.

It’s different from freelancing, because when you freelance, you usually do a very limited operational task (imagine, social media copy, website design).

If you’re fractional, you’re most likely a senior person invited to solve a complex task (e.g. to increase growth metrics, to build a content engine, to develop performance management systems).

You go fractional when you already have expertise, value, reputation, or it’s easy to build it because of your set of skills.

It usually revolves around a very specific skill you can offer and monetize.

Something that:

• You get constant questions about,

• You’re the go-to person for solving it,

• You can talk for hours about,

• You’re getting recognized as an expert in (e.g. they invite you to be a speaker).

I would recommend reading two of my latest editions before continuing, just to get the feel of my ideas and beliefs when it comes to portfolio career.

1/ Why am I choosing fractional portfolio career over standard employment? And what is it?

2/ I work for 3 companies and 8 people at the same time (with my 4 streams of income).

Now that we’re on the right track with vocabulary and understanding, let’s dive into what companies benefit and don’t benefit from fractional leaders.

What types of companies are looking for fractional leaders?

In my opinion, fractional leaders thrive in startups before 300 people.

They may not have the tasks of a full-time leader, but they still have a very targeted pain point.

Imagine you’re a full-time startup HRD that scaled-up from 100 to 210 in one year. You’re good at strategy and people-partnering, but that’s still a very fast growth rate at every level. Your operational systems can’t stand it anymore, your performance management system has to be reevaluated, your KPI system is slowly moving into an OKR one. I’m not even starting on recruitment and onboarding.

Instead of hiring somebody full time for these tasks (we’re looking at Chief of Staff, L&D/T&D, recruitment change manager most likely), you hire one fractional change manager or COO with HR experience. They fix your operational systems (and make guides on how to deal with it), recreate the performance management system (now everybody knows how it works in a scaleup situation). You can still do your people partnering and strategy, but your systems are fixed (without full-time insurance and tax costs).

At the same time, I saw bigger examples. Check Elena Verna out:

By the way, that’s a good example of the flexibility a portfolio career gives you. Being fractional doesn’t mean you can’t go full-time ever again or move to another role (like Interim CMO > Advisor). It’s flexible both ways, because it’s built on your values, not the usual corporate ladders we’re used to.

Who would not benefit from fractional leaders?

Companies who just want to dump a lot of issues on somebody from the outside.

Companies who don’t want to take accountability.

Companies who don’t give resources to these people and don’t want to acknowledge that something they want to fix is a systematic problem (that needs deeper alignment).

Companies who believe one single pill can cure all their diseases.

How do you get your first clients if you decide to go fractional?

Here’s my checklist before you should even start thinking about finding clients.

• I know how much money I spend a month, and I have а financial safety cushion for at least 6 months.
  I won’t give you a fairytale-like idea that you can start just because you believe in yourself. It won’t be an easy ride, so better be prepared.

• I have an up-to-date CV/portfolio/website/one-pager on who and how I can help.

• I have a very precise understanding of what I offer. It doesn’t have to be all detailed down to the very last atom, but you should understand what exactly you want to charge for what. Start with 1-2 fast offers (consulting, guidance calls, pick-my-brain sessions, webinar recording).

• I know how I will support myself if it doesn’t take off the moment I start.

• I know how much time I give myself to explore it. Being fractional is everyone’s cup of tea, it’s full of uncertainty and bold decisions.

Got everything in place? Let’s go to the clients.

The first advice would be to set your ego aside.

Especially if you’ve built an amazing corporate career and you’re high up on the ladder. Do you remember how it felt when you were looking for your first job? Messy, chaotic, insecure.

You’ll feel the same too. You’ll have to pitch, talk about yourself (yuck, uncomfortable), ask for referrals, recommendations. With a high ego, it’ll be painful. What helped me is to print my mission statement (I want to help 50+ companies in the next to years to become more flexible and human-oriented for their employees). When I have my dark days, I remind myself of it.

Your first clients will most likely come from your network.

• Make a list of ex-colleagues who you’re on good terms with. Check LinkedIn profiles (what are they doing and can they supposedly benefit from your services?). Reach out for a quick chat to discuss.

• Make a list of your dream companies. Go to their LinkedIn pages, check if you have any acquaintances who work there, do the same as in the first bullet. If you don’t reach out directly to a potential hiring manager (e.g. If you’re looking for marketing fractional role, it’d most likely be CEO/VP marketing). Text them with the following.

Hi (name),

I’ve been following (company name) and am impressed by what you’re building, especially (mention something specific you genuinely admire – product, recent launch, traction, mission, etc.)

I’m reaching out because I specialize in (briefly state your area – e.g., growth marketing, product strategy, operations, etc.) and currently work with startups in a fractional capacity – helping them scale without the overhead of a full-time hire.

If you’re exploring support in (key value area – e.g., building out GTM strategy, improving ops, launching new products, etc.), I’d love to hop on a quick call to learn more about where you’re headed and see if I can be helpful.

Would you be open to a brief chat sometime next week?

Looking forward to hearing from you,
your name, contacts.

This message helped me tons. It’s precise, no-BS, and easy to adapt.

• Go on LinkedIn (yes, again) > search bar in the left corner > type ‘fractional + (your specialization)’ > sort by posts. Most likely you’ll find a few job openings. Or if they’re not relevant anymore (e.g. one month from posting has passed), still add the author of the post to your network, at least you’ll know that they’re flexible on fractional leaders.

• If it’s okay with your current employer (check your agreement first), post about what you’re open to. It can also attract inbound leads.

• Go to Glassdoor, LinkedIn, Otta, find full-time job openings that you love and apply as a fractional. Use this template. You can apply directly on the website, or, once again, find the hiring manager’s info on LinkedIn.

Hi (name/team),

I came across the (Job Title) role at (Company Name), and while I noticed it's listed as full-time, I wanted to reach out and express interest in exploring how I might support you in a fractional or contract capacity.

I specialize in (your core area of expertise — e.g., growth marketing, product management, operations, etc.), and I’ve partnered with startups and scale-ups to (briefly highlight key outcomes you deliver — e.g., launch new products, accelerate customer acquisition, build operational systems, etc.)

I often work with early-stage teams that need senior-level execution without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire — especially during pivotal growth periods. I believe that structure could be valuable at (Company Name), especially as you (reference something specific they’re doing — e.g., expand into a new market, scale a product, improve ops, etc.).

I’d love to explore whether a fractional collaboration could be a good fit. I’ve attached my resume for context and would be happy to chat briefly to see if there’s alignment.

Thanks so much for considering,

• Create multiple streams of income that are not tied to other people. Again, webinar, course, guide (that you can start selling on Maven, for example), newsletters. Yes, you still need to find an audience, but at least you’ll feel like you own the process (it’s not dependant on other people’s replies).

I promise you, it’ll be hard. Like extremely hard. Your brain will start working in a very different way crafting ideas you’ve never experienced before. But it’s so much worth it.

A few more of my tips & tricks

• Please, please, please don’t resign from your full-time job until you start getting any side money.

• Don’t be shy about reaching out to people who’ve already built these types of careers. I’d be happy to answer any questions you have, just drop it in comments!

• Spend time strategizing first. What exactly should your career look like? What would you like it to consist of? This will keep you going.

• Ask for referrals, contacts. 4 years ago I wouldn’t believe how open people are to spread a word about you (you can drop your portfolio in my DMs too since I sometimes hire fractional leaders for other companies too!).

• Don’t try to help everybody. Be very specific. Use this formula:
  I help (who) do (what) using (method).

• Don’t compromise your values. If somebody reaches out and you’re happy that it’s potential money, but something feel off, something will be off for sure. You’re building this career to feel better, more flexible, not to compromise what you believe in again.

If anything was helpful for you, please let me know. I’m also just discovering this platform, so your feedback will be extremely valuable.