Fractional COO & Operations Leadership
What happens if someone quits tomorrow and the knowledge walks out with them? Most growing businesses have more friction than they realize. I come in with fresh eyes, find what you can no longer see, and build the systems that hold it all together — so you can finally take a real vacation without the 2am texts.
Work with Heather
The real problem
That question keeps more founders up at night than they'd like to admit. The team is there, the intention is there — but the knowledge lives in people's heads, not systems. Someone quits and suddenly no one knows the process. A lead falls through because no one owned the follow-up. And the owner is still getting called for everything because nothing is documented well enough for anyone else to handle it.
After 20 years working inside organizations of every shape and size, I've learned that operational gaps are predictable. They show up in the same places and cost in the same ways — every time. The problem is that when you're inside it every day, you stop seeing it. That's where fresh eyes come in.
Finding what familiarity has made invisible. Building systems so the business runs on documentation, not on any one person.
"If [blank] quits, we're screwed." Knowledge lives in people, not systems — and that's a risk you can't afford to keep taking.
Handoffs are unclear. Everyone assumes someone else will take care of it. No one does.
Follow-up is inconsistent and you're leaving real revenue on the table because of it.
You're still getting called for everything — even things that should have been handled without you hours ago.
You need senior-level operational thinking, but not a full-time COO on payroll. You need someone who can come in, see it clearly, and fix it.
Someone finds you, likes what they see — and then the back-end process lets them down. Slow response, no follow-up, lost opportunity.
What I do
I embed inside your organization — part-time, with full ownership — and bring the one thing you've lost: fresh eyes. When you're inside a business every day, you stop seeing the gaps. I spot them immediately. Then I build the systems that close them — including what your customers experience at every touchpoint from first click to product delivery.
Before anything can be fixed, it has to be found. I map your current state — workflows, handoffs, team accountability, and customer touchpoints — and identify exactly where things are slipping, including where the customer experience breaks down.
Knowing the problem isn't enough. I also build and implement the actual systems — workflows, SOPs, tools — that close the gaps and create consistent execution.
Ongoing embedded partnership — I function as your senior operations leader on a fractional basis, keeping execution tight as your organization grows and evolves.
About Heather
I'm Heather Spilburg — a fractional operations leader with more than 20 years working inside organizations of every size and type. When I walk into a business, I bring calm, steady focus — and I start seeing things you stopped noticing months ago. I'm not here to tell you what you want to hear. I'm here to see what's actually happening and fix it.
I've helped a company bring $500K in past due AR down to under $10K. Grown a CE program's gross profit by 700% in a single year. Driven $3.2M in record-breaking sales by fixing the process, not the pitch. The results show up in the numbers because the work is concrete — systems, documentation, and accountability structures that hold when I'm not in the room.
Spilburg Solutions exists because growing companies deserve someone who can walk in, see what familiarity has made invisible, and build what's missing. Not "I've got this" — "we've got this." I work with a small number of clients at a time, embedded and fully accountable.
Start a conversation →How we work together
30 minutes. You tell me what's happening — I tell you honestly whether I can help and how.
I map your current operations, identify gaps, and deliver a prioritized action plan before anything else begins.
We close the highest-impact gaps first — systems, workflows, accountability structures — in order of what costs you most.
Fractional, embedded, ongoing — I stay in the work with you as you scale, not just to hand off a document.
Who I work with
My clients are leaders who are good at what they do and building something real — but they've hit the point where informal systems and good intentions aren't cutting it anymore. They need operations that actually hold.
You've grown faster than your ops can keep up. Things are slipping — you know it, but you can't quite see where yet.
The mission is clear. The operations to deliver on it aren't as tight as they need to be. I've worked in this world and I speak the language.
Operations is everyone's second priority — which means it's no one's first. That's exactly when things start costing you money.
If you're the only one who knows how things run, that's not a staffing problem — it's an ops problem. I fix that.
Things fall through the cracks between people and departments. I find where the gaps are and build the bridges that actually hold.
New leadership, new phase, new headcount — transitions break what was working. I help you build for where you're going, not where you've been.
People are finding you and reaching out. But if the back end isn't tight, that interest evaporates. I close that gap.
Get in touch
If something's not working and you're too close to it to see exactly what — that's the conversation. Tell me what you're dealing with. I'll tell you what I see and whether I can help.
