Monday, October 26, 2026
A well-known coaching ROI study found a $7.90 return per $1 spent. Here's an honest look at where that number comes from, and what actually transfers to an SME owner.
A third of small business owners in a recent US survey said they genuinely don't know whether they have the tools — AI included — to grow their business next year. Not that they lack them. That they can't say either way. That's not a confidence problem. It's a visibility problem, and visibility problems are fixable in an afternoon, not a financial year.
Across the 200+ businesses Kevin has coached one-on-one, from seven-figure operators to companies turning over well into eight figures, the ones who stall almost never lack the tools. They lack an honest inventory of what they've already got, sitting half-used, versus what they're about to spend money chasing.
A US small business survey fielded in December 2025 and published by Thryv in January 2026 found 49% of owners named their ability to grow the business as their single biggest concern for the year ahead — more than tariffs, more than employment costs. The same survey found 37% had fallen short of their own 2025 expectations, and a striking 67% believed AI simply wouldn't affect their business in 2026 at all.
That last number is the one worth sitting with. Growth is the top worry, yet two in three owners have already written off the single fastest-moving productivity shift in a generation as irrelevant to them. "Not ready" and "not relevant to us" usually isn't caution — it's just not having looked closely enough to know either way.
Before you spend another dollar chasing growth, spend one afternoon on this instead:
"Kevin is a master of his craft... 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."
— Darilyn Kane, Coaching and Advisory Lead, The Icehouse
Owners are too close to their own tech stack and their own habits to see either clearly — the unused features feel invisible because they're not in the way, and the AI shortcut feels irrelevant because no one's shown them the specific task it would save them an hour on this week. That's a half-day's work with the right outside eye, not a strategic overhaul, and it usually surfaces more growth capacity than the next marketing campaign would.
You get Kevin's big-brand thinking applied to your business, so the next dollar goes where it counts.
Be the owner who knows exactly what you already have, and where your next growth dollar belongs.
Wednesday, October 07, 2026
Somewhere in your pipeline right now is a buyer whose budget has to be spent before their financial year ends. Here is how to find them before a competitor does.
Wednesday, October 07, 2026
Most SME marketing budget goes to whichever channel the owner already knows, never the one that would actually work best. Here is the simple test that finds it.
Wednesday, October 07, 2026
Most strategic plans fail quietly, from an optimism nobody questioned out loud. Here is the 20-minute pre-mortem that finds the weak spot before you commit a dollar to it.
Tuesday, October 06, 2026
What a business coach for an NZ food, beverage or FMCG brand should do: price waterfall, real constraint, velocity story and a 90-day plan.
Tuesday, October 06, 2026
73% of small business owners feel more confident than ever, yet 57% have flat or falling revenue. Here is the real constraint behind the gap, and the 15-minute test that exposes it.
Tuesday, October 06, 2026
Most SME owners know their cost per click. Almost none know their true cost to win a customer, because the real costs live in four different spreadsheets nobody has ever combined.
Tuesday, October 06, 2026
A pleasant weekly chat and a structured coaching session can look identical from the outside. Here's exactly what should be happening in the room if the second one is real.
Tuesday, October 06, 2026
Most SME task lists have no visible connection to the goal on the whiteboard. OKRs fix that gap in three simple steps, without turning your week into a spreadsheet exercise.
Tuesday, October 06, 2026
Giving away a free sample, audit or pilot feels like it removes risk for the prospect. Mostly it just removes their reason to commit. Here's the structure that converts instead.
Monday, October 05, 2026
There is no single best business coach in the USA. Here are five criteria for choosing one, a fair look at the main formats, and why an outside perspective can change what you see in your own business.
Monday, October 05, 2026
Eighty-four percent of small business owners sacrifice health or relationships to their business, new 2026 data shows. Here is the Transferability Number test that shows why, and what to fix first.
Monday, October 05, 2026
You're about to have your busiest quarter of the year. If nobody's planned for it, your bank balance is about to go the wrong way at exactly the moment the business looks like it's winning.
Monday, October 05, 2026
Ask most owners what they do and they'll answer instantly. Ask them why their business exists, beyond making money, and watch the pause. That pause is costing you customers, hires and referrals.
Monday, October 05, 2026
Ask your team to name the business's single most important goal this quarter. Five different answers from five people means you have one problem, not twelve: nobody knows what the goal actually is.
Monday, October 05, 2026
You trained your team to build rapport and never push, and your best customer last quarter still went with the competitor who pushed them to rethink the brief. Here's why relationship-selling is the weakest profile in B2B sales.