What is an interim manager?
Well, a good place to start is the trusty old dictionary. The adjective interim means intervening, provisional or temporary.
An interim manager is therefore someone who is a manager for just a limited period of time, maybe filling in for someone who left in a hurry, is off sick or on maternity leave. Or maybe it is a specific project that needs a special skill for a limited period of time. To the outside world the interim manager looks just like a regular employee.
The advantages for the company employing the services of an interim manager are there are no long term employment issues or costs; the interim manager will normally not be an employee and will either charge the company as an independent supplier or via an agency.
The disadvantages for the company are an interim manager will usually cost more per day than an employee.
What’s the difference between an interim manager and a management consultant? The consultant is seen very much as external to the business, providing an service usually for a very specific area of expertise. A consultant might be brought in to advise on sales and marketing, manufacturing, finance or indeed any aspect of a business. An interim manager would actually be the sales and marketing director, manufacturing director or finance director.
How much can an interim manager earn? Typically between $500 to $2,000 a day (£300 to £1,200). That might sound like a lot of money… however the challenge for the interim manager is to work enough days in a year.
For one assignment a few years ago I was earning £300 per day as Interim Finance Director… OK, that’s at the bottom of the above scale but still a healthy income. The drawback was the company could only afford me 2 days per week for the first 2 months with the hope of more work later. That presented me with a dilemma: should I find another assignment or take this one and play golf for 3 days per week?
If you are an interim manager or consultant – or you’d like to be one – over the next weeks and months I’ll be showing you how to promote yourself on the Net, and also providing you with some valuable resources to help you. Stay tuned!
