Tuesday, November 10, 2026
The November 2026 WoF changes mean fewer automatic visits for many cars. Here is how NZ workshop and aftermarket owners find the real constraint, protect margin and keep customers coming back.
Last updated 12 November 2026. Published by Simple-Growth (Motherbase Limited). Market: United States.
Revenue's up again this year. You still don't feel any richer, and if someone asked what the business is actually worth, you'd be guessing. You want to be building something with real value, not just a job with more complexity and worse hours than the one you left. What you might actually be building is a business that only works because you personally hold it together every day — which, to anyone looking to buy it, isn't really worth very much at all.
In Cornerstone's 2025 National Study on Selling Your Business, surveying 750 US owners of privately held companies with revenue between $5 million and $100 million, 61% said they had never had their business formally valued. Most owners build for years without ever finding out what, if anything, they've actually built — until the day they need to know, which is usually the worst possible time to find out the answer is “not much without you.”
Entrepreneur and author John Warrillow studied what separates businesses that sell for a strong multiple from ones that don't, and built it into eight value drivers — among them, critically, how much the business depends on the owner personally.
Kevin has founded or co-founded nine businesses — some genuinely successful, some real failures. The lesson he takes from both kinds isn't about hustle. It's that the businesses worth something to someone else were the ones that kept running properly when he stepped back, and the failures were, more often than he'd like to admit, the ones that only ever worked because he personally held every piece of it together. Knowing the difference, he says, is exactly why his job as a coach is to help owners grow — and help them avoid the mistakes that quietly cap what they're building.
Try this test this week: pick one of the three value drivers above and score your business honestly out of ten. If “owner independence” scores low, that's not just a future exit problem — it's the reason you can't take a real holiday now, and the reason growth keeps feeling like more weight on the same person. Fixing it is the same work either way.
“Kevin is an absolute powerhouse! He doubled our business's profits in the first month alone with lots more of his recommendations still to be rolled out.”
Curtis Hacon
Give A Sh!T
Getting a real answer feels like it only matters if you're selling soon, so it's easy to put off indefinitely. This isn't for you if you've already scored well on owner-independence and recurring revenue, and you genuinely know what the business is worth — most owners haven't, and don't. For everyone else, the gap between “growing” and “valuable” is usually hiding in plain sight, in the same three or four places.
Because the same things that make it valuable to a buyer — independence from you, recurring revenue, loyal customers — are what make it less stressful and more profitable to run today.
A framework from John Warrillow scoring a business on eight value drivers, including how dependent it is on the owner, to show what actually makes it worth more.
A formal valuation or a structured value-driver assessment are the two reliable starting points; guessing from revenue alone usually isn't close.
Yes — a business that stops running properly without the owner in the room is typically worth far less to a buyer, whatever its revenue.
Source: Cornerstone, 2025 National Study on Selling Your Business, United States, 750 owners of privately held companies with $5 million to $100 million in revenue. Published by Simple-Growth (Motherbase Limited). Last updated 12 November 2026.
If you've never actually found out what your business is worth, that's a half-hour conversation, not a five-year plan.
Friday, October 09, 2026
Most SME owners track one number: the bank balance. The businesses that compound track four, using Kaplan and Norton's Balanced Scorecard, and catch the problem before it ever reaches the bank account.
Thursday, October 08, 2026
Thursday, October 08, 2026
Nearly half of NZ SME owners plan to raise prices this year. Only 4 percent of companies have a value proposition clear enough to justify it.
Thursday, October 08, 2026
Revenue can climb for years while the actual value of the business barely moves. Here are the eight drivers that decide which one you are really building, and why owner independence usually matters most.
Thursday, October 08, 2026
If every session with your coach leaves you comfortable, that is the warning sign, not the proof it is working. Here is why direct feedback outperforms kind feedback, backed by Gallup's data.
Thursday, October 08, 2026
A global survey of over 10,000 workers found trusted employees nearly twice as productive as distrusted ones. If your calendar fixes keep failing, the real constraint may be trust, not time.
Thursday, October 08, 2026
Most sales conversations present cheapest to most expensive. New research found flipping that order lifted revenue by 10.8 percent, with no price changes at all. Here is how to use it.
Thursday, October 08, 2026
Most SME marketing budgets are weighted toward customers who already buy. The research says that is the smaller lever. Here is where brand growth actually comes from, and how to redirect your spend toward it.
Thursday, October 08, 2026
Most SME strategy problems are not thinking problems, they are seeing problems. Here is the one-page model that catches the two mistakes that quietly kill most growing businesses before they show up in the bank account.
Wednesday, October 07, 2026
Four pillars, one real constraint and a 90-day plan. Here is how the Simple-Growth System works, plus a 45-minute test you can run this week.
Wednesday, October 07, 2026
When you are surrounded by your industry, it is hard to see the wood for the trees. Here is why an outside perspective finds growth moves insiders miss, and how US owners can use it.
Wednesday, October 07, 2026
Small businesses grow at half the rate of big ones, and it is not about budget. Techaisle's 2026 global survey reveals why depth of relationships beats contact count, and how to build your own Dream 10 this week.
Wednesday, October 07, 2026
Rising revenue feels like proof the business is winning. If your margin is quietly shrinking at the same time, you are growing broke. Here is the three-line check that catches it.
Wednesday, October 07, 2026
January feels like the obvious month to commit to a coach. It is actually the worst one. Here is why the owners who get the most out of coaching start in November instead.
Wednesday, October 07, 2026
Wrong hires are now costing Australian SMEs an estimated 7.3 billion dollars a year. The mistake almost never happens in the interview room. Here is where it actually happens.