You don’t need another executive on payroll. You need the option.
The people stuff keeps landing on your desk.Your first managers are figuring it out the hard way.You’d like to sell someday, and the business still runs through you.
Founder- and owner-led businesses under $100M in revenue face the same people and strategy challenges as much larger companies, without the in-house executives to take them on. The usual choices are stark: stretch a manager past their depth, pay for a full-time hire you don’t need, or go without. SGR Advisory is the option in between.
I’m a fractional HR advisor. Not a fractional CHRO, not a firm, not a consultant with a deck. One senior advisor who sits beside you, sized in hours rather than headcount. Three ways to start have a price on them, so you can begin without a proposal or a pitch. The rest is scoped to the work. And when you see “we” on this page, it isn’t the consulting-firm we. There’s no team behind the curtain. “We” means you and me.
I’m a Nebraskan, which means I grew up on Tom Osborne football and the option offense. Here’s how the option works: the quarterback keeps the ball, reads the defense, and when the pressure closes in, there’s a trusted back running right beside him, ready for the pitch. The quarterback never stops running the offense. He just doesn’t have to take every hit alone.
That’s exactly how I work. You’re the quarterback. It’s your company, your call, your offense. I’m the option running beside you: there when the play breaks down, ready when you need to pitch it, and moving the ball forward when you can’t.
Three ways to start, each with a price and a button. Pick the one that sounds like your week. Everything below is delivered by me, directly, and nothing here requires a long contract to find out whether we work well together.
You’ve outgrown doing it all yourself, and the people stuff is the first thing that shows it. The first real hires. The first manager who’s struggling. The first handbook. The first hard conversation you’d rather not have alone. $350 a month puts you in the huddle: two scheduled calls a month, plus quick questions by text or email in between. Random issues, a small project, a coaching conversation, a second opinion before the hard call. Senior help a call away, without breaking the bank.
Three-month minimum, then month to month. If we spot something bigger, I’ll tell you what it is and what it would cost, and Huddle members get 10% off it.
Join the HuddleFounder and Owner Leadership Assessment and Coaching, for one leader. The quarterback reads the defense before every snap. This is you reading yourself. Built on the Hogan assessment, which measures how other people actually experience you at work rather than how you see yourself. It comes with report interpretation, development planning, and coaching: we work through what the assessment says, connect how you lead to how the business performs, write the plan, and then coach you through the first moves. If everything still runs through you, this is where it starts to change.
Book the Quarterback ReadAn hour on what’s actually happening in your business. No prep, come as you are. Within a week you have a written read: your top three risk areas, how severe each one is, and a recommended next step. The findings are yours to act on, with or without me. If we go on to work together within 60 days, the $497 is credited toward the engagement.
Book the DiagnosticWhen the calls turn into a plan. A standing cadence with you and your team, working a prioritized plan month by month: organizational design, culture, leadership development, the coaching that follows a Quarterback Read, and whatever the plan surfaces. Scoped to your business and quoted before we start.
Let’s talkWhen nobody senior owns the people side, I take the seat. Employee relations and workplace investigations, handbook and multi-state compliance, hiring and talent, performance and career frameworks, leadership development, succession, organizational design. Interim and full-time-for-a-season arrangements are available when the seat is empty and the work is stacking up.
Let’s talkPlanning to sell in the next one to three years? A buyer’s diligence team will work out how much of the business runs through you, and price it in. Better that you find out first. A full assessment across eight dimensions, the value at risk, and a prioritized plan that reduces the dependency before you go to market.
The people side of a deal, buying or selling: pre-close people diligence, key-person and retention risk, the combined organization, policy and benefits harmonization, and day-one readiness. Deals succeed or fail on the people decisions.
The ninety days after close, when two workforces, two policy sets, and two cultures collide and nobody owns it. Stabilization, role clarity, the first talent review of the combined team, and the culture work that decides whether the deal holds.
A handbook rebuild. A workplace investigation. An organizational design. A compensation structure. A talent review. A leadership curriculum. A multi-state compliance framework. Scoped after a short call, quoted before it starts, finished without adding headcount.
Fractional HR advisor. Twenty-five years across construction, insurance, banking, state government, private equity and venture-backed companies, and pharmaceutical warehousing. Led a 2,200-person merger of two state agencies. Followed the FDIC into failed banks. Chief people officer to a governor. Hogan-certified, SPHR, SHRM-SCP. Not normal HR. Not evil HR. Definitely not the police.
That’s the resume. If you want to understand why I’m worth hiring, keep reading. The context is the value.
Most job interviews ask you, “What are your weaknesses?” My answer never changes: “I need context.” That answer seems to annoy others when I ask. It’s not meant to question anyone, it’s meant to give me context. I need to understand the big picture to credibly and accurately answer the tactical question.
My strength is my ability to flex from strategic to tactical (and back).
I share this because my career is full of context. What does that mean? I’ve been graced working in many different business contexts - not just human resource contexts.
I’ve been told that I’m not “normal” HR. I’m not evil HR. I don’t lead by policy. I’m not here to tell you everything you’re doing is wrong. I’m not the police.
For me, it is normal to really understand what a business needs, you really have to get knee deep in it to move a business forward. I think the job title Human Resources Business Partner sets that expectation and fails to deliver. (HRBPs be haters.)
Human Resources should move a business forward – not tell it what it can or can’t do. To do that, one must understand the business.
Lately, I’ve been introducing myself as a Fractional HR advisor with nine lives. Why? Because my context is part of my value. I don’t want my 20+ years in human resources envisioned as driving a police car throwing handbooks out the window for decades.
I can share my functional HR work, but my experiences and exposure are my context. That’s what makes me different.
Nope, I’m not going to give you a list of everything I’ve done.
Instead, let me show you my highlight reel.
I’ve led teams – large and small – and love it. I empower people, explain what success looks like, and teach them about the business.
I’ve worked in the construction, insurance, and banking industries. I’ve held roles supporting state government, worked in private equity and venture-capital backed firms, and am well-versed in the art of pharmaceutical warehousing. I can hold my own in highly regulated spaces and am comfortable with unionized organizations.
I’ve been insurance (life and health) and securities licensed (Series 6, 63).
I can read blueprints and understand the construction bid process. I know a bit about insurance (including actuaries), group benefit plans (health, life, ancillary), 401(k) plans, individual policies (health, life, annuities), securities, and countless insurance processes and licensing requirements. FINRA and SEC are not simply acronyms to me, and I can even explain annuitization if you’d like.
I’ve reengineered a lockbox system and understand float. I’ve literally followed the FDIC into failed banks to seize them, and my one line was, “But, hey we bought you.” Not your typical acquisition. I saw a cultural collision of acquisitions and prompted the work to create one culture.
As many do, I fell into HR through the learning and development window.
I have designed and facilitated leadership curriculum. I have jumped into the deep end of the pool to learn recruiting, earned my water wings then life vest. I have transformed processes with Lean Six Sigma (Yep, got that too) and conducted some tough, high-stakes workplace investigations.
While working in state government, I learned about issues people care about and what gets prioritized. I see the state as a system of contributing agencies that’s a bit disjointed and know every new governor makes changes; employees expect it and adapt.
I’m proud to have led a correctional system culture study; the results helped gain funding to improve employee pay and safety. I had to be a state employee, rather than just a resident, to recognize the system really is about correction: 85% get released. And I promise you cannot understand overcrowding unless you see with your own eyes.
I led the merger of two state agencies (2,200 people) and helped plan for road and air safety for a solar eclipse. I do regret not riding in a giant snowplow.
While working for a venture capital-based company, I experienced the changing of the guard (aka CEO). The shift was needed, but my job was eliminated too.
My 20-year career in HR is rich with experiences, learned functions, and depth of business knowledge. That’s my context, my value.
Sharon Rues · Founder & Principal Advisor
“We” meaning you and me, in the same huddle, working the same problem. Here’s how that goes:
Grab 30 minutes on my calendar, free, and we’ll get a real read on what’s going on. Or skip the call and start your game: join the Huddle, book the Diagnostic, or book the Quarterback Read. If you want to do some homework first, the free tools take ten minutes.
You get a recommendation matched to what we found: stay in the Huddle, move to a Game Plan, a project, the people seat a day or two a week, deal support, or a combination. Priced to the work, not a package.
Clear cadence, clear deliverables. Together we build your team’s capability, not a dependence on me.
Buyer, investor, or a deal already in motion? Skip the calendar and email me directly.
No form, no prep, no obligation. Email me or grab 30 minutes on my calendar, and we’ll get a real read on what’s going on. If SGR isn’t the right fit, I’ll tell you that too.
sharonrues@sgradvisory.com · 402.968.8017 · LinkedIn