How this is researched
Everything on this site is published by getoperators research. This page says what that means, where the numbers come from, what gets checked against a regulator rather than an article, and the things that will not be published here whatever they would do for a ranking.
Who writes this
getoperators research is the desk behind the writing on this site. It is not a content team and there is no pool of freelancers: what gets published comes from running a marketplace of fractional executives, reading the briefs companies send, and seeing what operators actually charge and actually agree to.
That is why the writing goes where it does. The interview questions on the hiring guides, the red flags, the ninety-day markers and the day-rate bands exist because running this market produces them, not because a keyword tool suggested them. A company briefing a search asks the same four questions every time, and an operator in their first fractional year gets the same three things wrong. Those are the pages.
The method, in order
It starts with a question somebody actually asked. Topics are not chosen from a keyword tool and handed to a writer. They come from what arrives: the question a founder asks before briefing a search, the thing an operator gets wrong in their first year, the objection that stalls an engagement after both sides have agreed to it. If nobody has asked it, it does not get written.
Numbers come from the bench, and are published as bands. Day rates and engagement shapes come from the listings and briefs on this site rather than from a survey or an estimate. They are published as ranges, because a single figure implies a precision that does not exist in a market this size, and they are revised when the market moves rather than on a schedule.
Anything statutory is cited to the body that sets it. Tax rates, thresholds and regulatory duties are linked to HMRC, the IRS, the FCA or the relevant authority directly, never to an article summarising them. Where a figure changes often, the page says so and tells the reader to check the source rather than trusting the number in front of them.
The limits are stated, not buried. Pages that touch tax or regulation carry a caveat saying plainly that they are general information and not advice. Where the honest answer is that it depends, the page says it depends and then explains what it depends on, instead of inventing a rule that reads better.
Drafting may use AI. Judgement and facts do not. Some drafting and editing here is done with AI assistance. Every number, citation, rate and claim is checked by a person against its source before it publishes, and nothing is published because a model asserted it. Saying so is part of the method: a site publishing regularly that stays silent on this invites the assumption anyway.
Pages are revised when they stop being true. Every guide carries the date it was last reviewed. Revision is triggered by the facts changing, a rate band moving, a threshold being updated, or a reader pointing out something wrong. Dates are never touched to look fresh, because a date that has been gamed is worth less than no date at all.
What will not be published here
The more useful half of a method is what it refuses. Each of these would be easy, and several would help in the short term.
- Publish a statistic without a source a reader can open and check.
- Invent a case study, a testimonial, or a customer who does not exist.
- Claim a credential, a qualification or an expert review that has not happened.
- Publish how many operators are on the bench, in either direction.
- Write a page whose purpose is to catch a search rather than answer a question.
- Change a review date on a page whose content has not changed.
Why this page exists at all
Most of what is written about hiring fractional executives is written by people selling something to one side of it, and almost none of it says so. A page that tells you a fractional CFO is always the answer is written by somebody who only sells fractional CFOs.
This site sells something too: a paid search service for companies that would rather not sift the bench themselves, and a retained practice for permanent hires. Operators are never charged for anything. That is the whole commercial position and it is set out in full on the rules and in the questions, including where it costs money to say so. Knowing who benefits from a page is the only way to weigh what it says.
Something wrong on a page
Corrections are welcome and acted on. If a figure has moved, a threshold has changed, or something here is simply wrong, write to support@getoperators.co and it gets fixed and the review date updated. That is the only thing that moves a review date.