Thursday, October 29, 2026
AI speeds up whatever you point it at. Here is how to match it to the one link in your business that is actually limiting growth, before you spend on tools.
You've got the customer who emails at 9pm, haggles on every invoice, and takes three follow-ups to pay. And you've got the one who orders on time, pays on time, and never once asks for a discount. You treat them almost exactly the same — same response time, same effort, same place on your list. If you can't say in thirty seconds which of your customers actually carries the business, you're not alone, and it's costing you more than you think.
Fairness feels like good business. It isn't the same thing as good strategy. I worked with a client who had 123 customers on the books. When we actually ran the numbers, eight of them — just 6.5% of the customer list — had delivered $266,240 of a total $630,220 in revenue, better than four dollars in every ten. The other 115 customers, treated with exactly the same time, discounts and priority as those eight, were splitting the rest. Nobody had planned it that way. It had simply never been measured.
This runs on the same logic Vilfredo Pareto noticed in income distribution over a century ago: a small share of inputs usually drives most of the result. Applied to your customer list, it looks like this.
"Kevin is a master of his craft... He is a powerhouse presenter and facilitator who brings an explosive blend of energy and expertise to every room he steps into. Participants don't just sit and listen; they leave buzzing with breakthrough ideas and simplified, highly effective growth strategies. Most importantly, Kevin leaves people profoundly inspired, fully equipped, and fiercely motivated to drive their businesses forward. He is the standard-setter!"
— Darilyn Kane, Coaching and Advisory Lead, The Icehouse
Here's the real obstacle: grading your customers means admitting a few of them probably shouldn't stay customers at all, and that's an uncomfortable conversation to have with yourself, let alone with them. Most owners know this exercise exists. Almost none run it, because without someone holding them to it, I'll do it next quarter always wins. That's the part coaching actually solves, not the maths, which takes an afternoon, but the follow-through on what the maths tells you to do next.
This isn't for you if you'd rather keep every customer happy than build a profitable business. It's for you if you're ready to find out, honestly, which eight customers are actually carrying yours.
If you've never graded your customer list, that's usually the first number we run together.
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Nearly a third of small business owners have never taken a full week off, and new 2026 data shows the ones working the longest hours are also the most likely to want out. Here is the three-question test for turning hours into real freedom.
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Over half of SMEs entering a new market in one UK study hit real problems doing it. The Ansoff Matrix maps the three safer growth routes most owners skip past first.
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
45 percent of business owners in one survey feel trapped running the business they built. Here's how the Theory of Constraints, pointed at the owner instead of the process, finds the real fix.
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
UK SME owners spend six working days a month on admin and 3.6 days on growth, one survey found. Dan Sullivan's Who Not How habit flips which question you ask first.
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Nearly half of SMEs in a 2026 survey had not raised prices since 2022. Here's the three-sentence script that makes the overdue price conversation simple instead of stressful.
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
76 of 100 B2B brands in a 2026 study fell into a credible-but-indistinguishable Sameness Zone. Here's the four-word positioning test, the Onliness Statement, that pulls a business out of it.
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Your revenue is up and your margin just fell anyway — here's the planning gap behind it. Four moves that put margin back on the same page as your growth target before next year's numbers are set.
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
A practical playbook for NZ construction and building products owners: the market, the real growth constraints, how to price and win work, and a 90-day plan.
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
53 percent of small business owners say nothing would change if AI vanished tomorrow, and that is not an adoption problem, it is an embedding problem. Here is the three-question test that shows which one your business actually is.
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
New industry research finds most senior consumer goods leaders cannot say whether their last year of promotions actually made money. Here is the Revenue Growth Management discipline that fixes it before Christmas stock ships.
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
New research shows 90 percent of small business owners are preoccupied with work outside normal hours. Michael Gerber's E-Myth explains why, and names the one shift that actually fixes it.
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
Workplace research puts the cost of refocusing after an interruption at around 23 minutes, and the average worker now fields well over 100 messages a day. Here is how to protect the hours that actually move your business.
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
Forrester research finds only 8 percent of B2B buyers name price as the biggest driver of their decision. Here is how to find out what a price objection is actually about, before you reach for a discount.
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
A new Gartner survey finds most B2B buyers would rather research and decide without ever speaking to a salesperson. If your marketing cannot carry the whole sale alone, here is the tool that fixes it.
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
New Gallup data shows only 11 percent of SME owners with staff have a detailed written plan, and most of the rest will try to write next year's in December. Here is the three-date fix to do this week instead.