Thursday, September 17, 2026

Chasing every dollar of revenue isn't a growth strategy — it's a collection plate. Here's the four-question filter Kevin uses with clients before any deal gets signed.

Twenty-six point nine percent of founders say they experience loneliness and isolation running their business, and only 18.5 percent know that mental-health resources built specifically for entrepreneurs even exist, according to The Lonely Entrepreneur's 2026 Founder Report, a survey of 227 founders across 46 countries. If you have ever sat in your own business wondering who else actually understands what this feels like, that is not a personal failing, it is close to one in four owners, by this survey's own account a small, global, self-selected sample rather than a single country's full population.

Kevin has spent over 30 years in business, including coaching 200+ businesses one-on-one, and the single most common thing a new client says in their first session is some version of I have never said this out loud before. You may know that feeling.

The Strong Owner Myth

Here is the enemy worth naming: the strong owner myth, the idea that admitting you are stretched thin, uncertain or simply tired of carrying it alone is a weakness a real business owner should not show. The same research found a real gap in who feels able to break that myth: 70.6 percent of female founders report having a support system they can talk to openly, against 52.5 percent of male founders. The myth does not just cost wellbeing, it costs decisions, because an owner who cannot say out loud what is actually going on in the business cannot get an honest second opinion on it either.

What a Coach Actually Does

A coach is not a cheerleader and not a therapist, the role sits in a specific place between the two, and it does three things most owners cannot get anywhere else:

  • 1. A standing appointment you cannot talk yourself out of — a weekly or fortnightly session is the one recurring commitment in most owners' week that nobody else can cancel on their behalf.
  • 2. A second opinion with no stake in being liked — a coach can ask the blunt question a staff member or a spouse would hesitate to ask.
  • 3. Someone who has actually built what you are building — pattern-matching from real businesses, not theory, is the difference between generic encouragement and a genuinely useful next step.

This is the exact gap the Simple-Growth coaching relationship is built to close, and it is why the first session is rarely about strategy at all, it is about finally saying the real situation out loud to someone equipped to do something useful with it.

"Kevin has been a game changer for us. I had tried a couple of high-profile US entrepreneur programs but found these just talked about mindset, whereas Kevin gives practical advice to grow your business that you can implement immediately."

— Brett Abeille

Knowing It Would Help Isn't the Same as Booking It

Knowing a coach would help and actually booking the first session are two different things, and the gap between them is almost always the same fear: that saying the real situation out loud makes it more real, or makes the owner look like they cannot handle their own business. Every owner I have worked with who crossed that gap says the opposite happened. The relief of finally being specific about the actual problem, out loud, to someone who has seen it before, is usually the first real progress they make.

Key Takeaways

  • See the real number: roughly one in four founders report loneliness and isolation, and most do not know founder-specific support even exists.
  • Notice the support gap: female founders report having someone to talk openly with at a meaningfully higher rate than male founders.
  • Know what a coach actually does: a standing appointment, an honest second opinion, and pattern-matching from real experience, not cheerleading.
  • Expect relief, not exposure: saying the real problem out loud to the right person is usually the first win, not a risk.

If this is the first time you have said any of this out loud, even to yourself, that conversation is exactly where you start with Kevin.

Be the owner who no longer carries the business alone.