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Yes, Your Small Business Needs to Professionalize
And no, that doesn’t mean turning it into a soul-sucking corporate monster.
Mary Alice Duff
September 08, 2025
Hey, hi, happy Monday!
The school year has officially begun and I am thrilled. Honestly? I think I like back-to-school season more than New Year’s. There’s a real, palpable “get shit done” energy in the air.
August in Europe is the exact opposite—it’s impossible to get anything done. So suffice to say: I’m firing on all cylinders. A few quick updates before we dive into this week’s essay:
✨ For solopreneurs with France on the brain
On September 29 I’m hosting a 90-minute live session on how I moved to France—not with a cushy corporate relocation, but by building my own one-person business and applying for the Profession Libérale/Entrepreneur visa. I’ll walk you through the process, how I structured my solo business, and how my husband (who had zero freelance experience) got approved too. Detail here.
✨ For future fractional operators
On October 6, I’m launching a small experimental beta group coaching program—the very first time I’m offering it before rolling it out more broadly in 2026. Eight weeks. Weekly live sessions. A private community space. Positioning, pricing, pitching, troubleshooting client dynamics and more.
👉 Read more in my recent LinkedIn post.
👉 Or check out the super slick “sales page” (spoiler: it’s a Google Doc).
If you’re curious whether it’s the right fit, let’s hop on a quick call—I’d love to hear where you are in your fractional journey.
And speaking of professionalism… that’s exactly what I’m digging into in this week’s essay.
Small businesses often resist professionalizing for two reasons: playing fast and loose feels more fun, and we’ve all been burned by corporate so we swing hard the other way. But your business still lives inside capitalism: rent comes due, payroll must be met, profitability matters.
So this week, I’m breaking down the difference between corporate and professional—why it matters for your team, your bottom line, and your sanity—and how to build the scaffolding your business needs without losing your soul.
Let’s get into it.
Mary Alice
Table of Contents
Professional ≠ Corporate: Why Your Small Business Needs Standards to Thrive
As someone who exclusively works with small businesses doing under $5M in revenue as a fractional COO, I see this all the time: companies run by a tight-knit group of family, friends, and loose affiliations.
The business was bootstrapped by a founder who, as they scaled, realized they needed hands. So they started calling in people they knew to help. What began as a “Can you help me with this project for a few months?” quickly turned into a full-time, full-blown job. And I get it—who do you trust when you’re drowning in demand? The people closest to you.
And from my experience, I can tell you: at first, it works. Customers are happy. Revenue is growing. The founder has their dream team at their side—people who love them, who are in it for the mission, who’d do anything to help.
But it’s also messy as hell. There’s no turning off when the workday is done. Boundaries blur between friendships and business. It becomes nearly impossible to be direct with someone you genuinely care about when their performance isn’t up to par. And firing your best friend? Not a task anyone wants to tackle.
I’m generally brought into a business once they’ve surpassed $1M in revenue. And here’s the hard truth: it should be easier to scale at this point—you’ve hit the magic seven figures! But if the business has zero operational infrastructure, my clients quickly find out that what got them here won’t get them there.
Staff have no idea what they’re supposed to be doing because instructions were never explicit. Team members aren’t operating in their strengths, because they were treated as a pair of hands to fill a gap, not hired for their unique brilliance. There are no project management or internal comms systems, and work to-dos are mingled with friendly banter in your WhatsApp. And the founder? Completely stuck—spending more time managing problems than actually running the business.
When I start talking about implementing structure—job descriptions, onboarding, SOPs, communication norms, contracts—I get the same pushback I always get.
“We don’t want to be too corporate.”
And here’s the thing: I get it. I hate corporate, too. I will never go back to working in a big company. I don’t believe in nonsensical dress codes or having to “request” vacation time. I don’t even believe in set working hours—you should work when and where you want, as presence does not equal performance.
But there’s a massive difference between being “too corporate” and adopting professional norms.