Thursday, October 29, 2026
Jim Collins found that companies which broke away from average performance could name, with brutal precision, what they could be best in the world at. Here's the three-circle test and the goal that pairs with it.
If you cancelled every meeting on your calendar for the next two weeks, would your business actually slow down — or would some of it speed up? Harvard Business Review's review of meeting research found that about 70% of meetings kept employees from completing the very work the meeting was supposedly about. That figure covers employees generally, not SME owners specifically, but anyone who has sat through a status update that could have been a two-line message knows exactly which category they're in.
After over 30 years running meetings at agencies and inside nine businesses of my own, I've never once seen a business get more done by having more meetings. I've seen plenty get more done by replacing a tangle of ad-hoc catch-ups with one deliberate rhythm.
The enemy here isn't meetings themselves — it's the meeting calendar that grew by accident. A weekly catch-up here, a one-off project update there, a client call that somehow became a standing Tuesday slot eighteen months ago and never got un-booked. Nobody sat down and designed this calendar; it accreted, one "let's just get something in the diary" at a time. By the time a business reaches ten or fifteen people, the owner can lose a third of their working week to meetings that were never actually redesigned once their original reason had passed.
Harnish's Rockefeller Habits sets out a cadence built for fast-growing companies. At SME scale, it collapses to four decisions:
"Specific to my business requirements and takes a systematic approach. Practical, specific, and pertinent to my business."
— Simon Keepa
Redesigning the calendar means telling someone whose standing meeting you're cancelling that it wasn't actually earning its slot — an uncomfortable conversation to have alone. It's a far easier conversation when an outside adviser is the one asking the question, "what is this meeting actually for, now?", because it reads as structural, not personal.
If you can't remember the last time you cancelled a recurring meeting rather than added one, that's worth a look before this year's plan runs out of road.
Monday, October 19, 2026
A strong December can feel like proof you're growing. It can also be the reason nobody builds the pipeline that carries January. Here's the three-question check to run now.
Monday, October 19, 2026
A good coach doesn't start with your goals. They start with three numbers most owners can't answer on the spot, and that gap tells them exactly where to begin.
Monday, October 19, 2026
Most SME owners have tried an AI tool this year. Few can say, in hours, what it actually saved them. Here's the test that tells the difference, and the first step to take.
Monday, October 19, 2026
By the time a prospect calls you, they've already done most of their own research. Here's the sales approach built for exactly that moment, and why most SME pitches skip it.
Monday, October 19, 2026
Social platforms can change the rules on your reach overnight. Here's the one marketing channel no algorithm can take away from you, and why most SME owners still starve it.
Monday, October 19, 2026
A new survey says 53% of small business owners are stuck on finding customers. Here's the one-question test that finds out whether that's really your constraint, or just the easiest one to blame.
Sunday, October 18, 2026
ActionCOACH, Business Blueprint, government-backed advice and independent coaches compared fairly for Australian owners, with best-for and not-ideal-if for each.
Sunday, October 18, 2026
An executive coach develops you as a leader. A business coach works on the business itself. Here is how to tell which one an NZ SME owner needs before paying for either.
Sunday, October 18, 2026
Most SME owners can tell you their revenue. Almost none can tell you which customers are actually making them a profit. New 2026 research shows why that gap is the real growth problem, and a three-step fix.
Sunday, October 18, 2026
The average small business gets 27 percent of revenue from one customer. Here is the three-question check that tells you whether your growth is real, or just concentration in disguise.
Sunday, October 18, 2026
Coaching can return seven times its cost, PwC research suggests, but rarely from where owners expect. Here is where the real ROI on a business coach actually shows up.
Sunday, October 18, 2026
Gallup found managers think they give weekly feedback, their teams say otherwise. See why your business systems depend on a conversation most owners are avoiding.
Sunday, October 18, 2026
56 percent of stalled B2B deals end in no decision, not a lost sale to a competitor. Here is why your prospects go quiet after saying yes, and the direct question that gets them talking again.
Sunday, October 18, 2026
The median landing page converts at 6.6 percent, and most SME websites never get close. Here is what the top quartile actually does differently, and why fixing it beats spending more on ads.
Sunday, October 18, 2026
Most growth plans start with last year's number plus a guess. Here is the three-number market-sizing check that separates a real plan from a wish list.