Monday, October 26, 2026
A 2026 Gartner survey found SMEs put just 12% of marketing spend into brand-building, against the 60% long-term research recommends. Here's what that costs you eighteen months from now.
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, September 30, 2026
We'll sort it in the new year is quietly stalling more small businesses than any competitor. Here is the Now-or-January Test that fixes it.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
A 10 percent discount can need 46 percent more sales volume just to break even. Here is the Quota-Protection Plan for small business sales teams.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Referred customers buy four times more often, yet most happy customers are never asked. Here is the Post-Purchase Sequence that fixes it.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Your best quarter can hide the same problems as your worst one. Here is the five-step Success Audit SME owners use to pressure-test growth before it plateaus.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
You just gave someone a raise to keep them, and they left anyway. A new US survey shows a 21-point gap between what owners think keeps their team and what actually does.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Small Business Saturday falls just 27 days before Christmas this year, one of the shortest holiday windows in years. Here's the three-step margin check to run before Q4 locks in your pricing mistakes.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Acquiring a new customer costs five to seven times more than growing revenue from an existing one. Here is the share-of-wallet audit that finds it.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Most coaches say yes to everyone who can pay them. Here is the real test for whether a business coach is actually right for your business.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
The average knowledge worker gets barely an hour of uninterrupted time a day. Here is the meeting-free day protocol that gives your team room to think.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
A verbal yes is not a closed deal, and more than 40 percent of B2B deals stall in the gap between agreement and signature. Here is how to close it.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Ninety percent of blog content gets zero traffic from Google, and most SME blogs are no exception. Here is the content-market fit audit that fixes it.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Most SME owners benchmark against competitors whose real numbers they can never see. Here is the same-quarter self-benchmark that actually predicts growth.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Organic growth is always category growth plus share change. Here is the Share-of-Growth Audit that shows whether your revenue chart is real outperformance or a rising tide.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Habit research shows real change takes an average of 66 days, not three weeks. Here is the Commitment Corridor for judging whether coaching is working before you quit right before it does.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Workers lose roughly ten hours a week to manual, repetitive tasks. Before your next hire, run the Automate-or-Hire Filter to find out if the role should exist at all.