Fractional COO Services for Small & Midsize Businesses · UK

From operational chaos to scalable clarity.

You've built something successful — but stretched teams, stuck decisions and systems that can't keep up are holding it back. Markinly delivers hands-on fractional COO leadership and operations consulting that streamlines your processes, boosts productivity and lets you scale profitably.

Learn more about Markinly
20+Years SMB operations leadership
Up to 25%Less wasted team effort
6Published case studies
Gideon Lyons, founder of Markinly
Gideon LyonsFounder & Fractional COO — Markinly

Trusted by founders & CEOs across industries

TNT logoTNTNT Chestnut Capital logoCCChestnut Capital Rumplers logoRURumplers Lovery logoLVLovery New Edge Design logoNENew Edge Design Datacrushers logoDCDatacrushers Prestige Furniture and Kitchens logoPFPrestige Furniture and Kitchens
Client Results

Six businesses. Six industries. One operating method.

Marketing, real estate, interior design, food manufacturing, SaaS and cross-industry advisory — the same nine capabilities, applied to whatever each business actually needed.

Up to 25%less wasted team effort with weekly advisory
2×team size and client workload at TNT in 6 months
15–20%higher close rates from sales-focused consulting
3–5hreclaimed per week by leaders we work with
Scaling a global marketing agency with systems built for growth
Marketing & Agencies

Scaling a global marketing agency with systems built for growth

How TNT doubled its team and client workload in six months — without losing operational control — on an agency-wide ClickUp system, SOP library…

2×team grew from 50 to 100+ employees
Operational turnaround for a real estate brokerage with systemised workflows
Real Estate

Operational turnaround for a real estate brokerage with systemised workflows

How a custom Asana system connected sales, admin, leadership and an offshore booking team at Chestnut Capital — recovering dropped leads and lifting rental…

70%increase in rental conversions
Streamlining sales and projects for a luxury kitchen design studio
Interior Design

Streamlining sales and projects for a luxury kitchen design studio

A custom Monday.com system connected the entire client journey — from first contact to final reveal — lifting sales conversion and cutting missed deadlines.

Resulthigher sales conversion and fewer missed deadlines
A UK food brand’s successful Amazon launch, built on product operations
Manufacturing

A UK food brand’s successful Amazon launch, built on product operations

How Rumplers went from reactive, scattered product releases to a repeatable go-to-market engine — launching on Amazon UK and Europe with demand visibility by…

100%successful product launches on Amazon UK and Europe
Helping a SaaS startup recover lost ecommerce revenue by aligning teams
SaaS

Helping a SaaS startup recover lost ecommerce revenue by aligning teams

How an integrated feedback-and-execution loop across product, support and marketing helped a cart-abandonment platform ship faster, lift adoption and grow ARR.

55%+more abandoned carts recovered
Trusted operations consulting for CEOs, founders and business owners
Financial Services

Trusted operations consulting for CEOs, founders and business owners

A weekly structured advisory rhythm — Discovery → Planning → Implementation — that gives leaders clarity, accountability and measurable operational improvement.

25%less wasted team effort
Client Voices

What founders & CEOs say

“I’ve worked with Gideon on a project and his communication and ability to understand complex ideas is great. He really will take your business from chaos to clarity, make sure everything is tracked properly, and that your vision has a clear road to success”

Zachary GitlinHead of B2B Sales and Marketing

“I had the pleasure of working closely with Gideon. Gideon improved the business’ ability to track and manage projects and workflow and created a process that empowered teams, improved efficiency and transforming performance.”

Zev PrinzCEO, Chestnut Capital

“From day one, he brought enthusiasm to the table and took initiative on big and small projects to progress our marketing efforts. Gideon took a fresh look at not just our social media presence, but our strategy as a whole, and implemented key improvements to make our strategy more comprehensive and cohesive.”

Jackie Goldberg
Free Assessment · 2 Minutes

Now find out where your own operation stands

The Operations Health Scope is based on the same five-dimension framework Gideon opens every client engagement with. This is fifteen questions that provide an instant score and highlight a clear picture of which constraint is costing your business most.

  1. ScoreInstant rating across Process, People, Data, Meetings & Execution
  2. InterpretWhat your result means for each of the five dimensions
  3. PrioritiseThe two or three constraints to fix first — and the free guides for each
  4. ActThe engagement that fits your result, or a free consultation to talk it through
Start the assessment Free · No obligation · Personalised PDF report
Sample Scope17/30
Process Maturity4/6
People Clarity3/6
Data Visibility2/6
Meeting Effectiveness4/6
Execution Consistency4/6
Partly systemized. Data Visibility is the constraint here — that is where the work would start.
Services

One operator. One joined-up business.

Every engagement draws on the same core areas, used in whatever combination your business actually needs. Explore any area to see how it works, what it fixes, and the results it has produced.

Fractional COO Leadership

Executive-level operations leadership without the cost of a full-time hire. Gideon embeds in your business, works with your team, and takes real ownership of the operational load.

Explore this area: Fractional COO Leadership

Strategic Operations Planning

Aligning your goals with what actually happens week to week: data-driven plans that allocate resources deliberately and position the business for growth it can absorb.

Explore this area: Strategic Operations Planning

SOP Development & Systems

Standard operating procedures and the systems around them, built so quality holds as you scale and a new hire can be useful in weeks rather than months.

Explore this area: SOP Development & Systems

Onboarding & Training

Onboarding that gets new people productive from day one, plus ongoing development that keeps the team matched to where the business is going.

Explore this area: Onboarding & Training

Culture & Communication

A high-performance environment built on trust, ownership and measurable outcomes — the part that makes every other system stick after we hand it over.

Explore this area: Culture & Communication
Consulting Services

Three ways to work on the business, not just in it

Consulting elements that run alongside the core areas — for CEOs who want the thinking, the system and the leadership capability without an embedded COO.

How consulting works
01

Operational Consulting

Diagnose where your operation leaks time, margin, and management attention, then get a prioritised plan you can act on. We find the few fixes that move the numbers and sequence them realistically for your team.

Read more: Operational Consulting: Find What’s Slowing Your Business Down
02

Blended Operating System Implementation

Draws on EOS-style principles (vision, accountability, meeting rhythm, scorecards) and combines them with other proven frameworks, shaped around how your business actually runs. You get one cohesive system without a rigid, off-the-shelf model.

Read more: A Blended Operating System: The Best of EOS-Style Thinking, Built for Your Business
03

Training & Leadership

I coach CEOs and leadership teams on running the system: owning their numbers, running effective meetings, and holding people accountable. The goal is a team that leads the operation without needing me in the room.

Read more: Training and Leadership: Systems Only Work When Your Leaders Can Run Them

Not sure which of these you need?

That is exactly what the Free Ops Diagnostic is for — 60 minutes to find the constraint that is actually costing you, and the two or three capabilities that will move it.

Explore these areas
How It Works

The Free Ops Diagnostic is just the beginning

A four-phase approach that takes your business from assessment to embedded, self-sustaining operational systems.

1

Free Ops Diagnostic

Deep assessment of your operations, workflows and biggest constraints.

2

Strategy & Planning

Tailored roadmap with clear priorities, measurable KPIs and a realistic timeline.

3

Implementation

Execute improvements alongside your team with hands-on support.

4

Embed & Optimise

Monitor, refine and scale systems as the business grows — then hand over fully to your team.

Watch

How Markinly gets your business running without you, in three minutes

Markinly introduction film — poster frame
Coming soon — the introduction film is being recorded
The Operations Room

What an embedded COO actually changes

A short film on the disciplines behind a business that doesn’t need its owner in every decision, and what the first ninety days look like.

More episodes
Featured Newsletter

Sharper decisions start with the Briefing.

The systems, playbooks and hard-won lessons Gideon shares with client CEOs — in your inbox every Tuesday.

SMB leader reading the Operations Briefing
Common Questions

What you might be wondering

There's no catch. The Ops Diagnostic is genuinely free with no obligation — many businesses benefit from the session whether or not they proceed.

A fractional COO embeds within your business: working with leadership and team, overseeing processes, resolving bottlenecks, building systems and SOPs — without the cost of a full-time executive hire.

Most clients see meaningful improvements within 30–60 days. Deeper structural improvements embed over 90 days and are designed to sustain without ongoing support.

Pricing varies by scope and duration; every proposal is tailored after the free Ops Diagnostic, once both sides understand exactly what is needed.

Yes. Markinly works with CEOs and business owners across the UK, Europe and the US. Our working day covers the full UK and European business day and overlaps with the US morning, so meetings and decisions run on your schedule.

Most of the work is delivered remotely: leadership meetings, KPI reviews, process design and team accountability all work well over video, supported by the systems we put in place. Where in-person time adds real value, such as a leadership offsite or a planning session, we build it into the engagement.

The best way to know if Markinly is right for you is to have the conversation.

The Free Ops Diagnostic is genuinely useful — whether or not we work together. No pitch, no pressure.

Get Your Ops Health Score
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