Sunday, October 25, 2026
Free and low-cost mentoring suits some NZ owners; paid coaching suits others. Here is how to tell which fits your stage, your problem and your budget.
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.
Friday, September 25, 2026
Growth is supposed to make winning customers cheaper. For most SMEs it does the opposite. Here's the audit that catches it before it erodes your margin.
Friday, September 25, 2026
97% of entrepreneurs grew through a new partnership this year — but half can't see what's actually happening inside it. Here's the 3-step Partner Visibility Audit that closes the gap.
Friday, September 25, 2026
Most SME strategy fails not from bad ideas but from changing course before the last one had a chance to work. Here's the 90-day commitment framework that fixes it.
Friday, September 25, 2026
85% of marketers feel confident about ROI — only 32% actually measure it. Here's the simple source-tracking system that tells you which marketing really works.
Friday, September 25, 2026
Existing customers are 60-70% more likely to buy again, yet most SME sales teams never ask the second question. Here's the add-on framework that fixes it.
Friday, September 25, 2026
Most SME owners plan Q4 revenue without planning the capacity to deliver it. Here's the one-hour Capacity Reality Check that catches the gap before October does.
Friday, September 25, 2026
Waiting to hire a coach until you're "big enough" doesn't save money — it delays the point where the advice starts compounding. Here's the payback framework.
Friday, September 25, 2026
Fewer than 0.5% of businesses ever reach $10M. Here's why growth stalls again at $5-10M, and the infrastructure audit that breaks through the second plateau.
Friday, September 25, 2026
FMCG value grew 3.4% in 2025 — but innovation volume fell 5.8%, propped up entirely by price. Here's the three-question test to run before your next product launch, so growth is real, not just repriced.
Friday, September 25, 2026
Most SME owners build next year's budget before locking next year's strategy — then wonder why the numbers don't add up. Here's the sequence that fixes it before Q4 planning starts.
Friday, September 25, 2026
Holiday spending has already shifted to October — and SME owners still planning a November launch are chasing demand that's gone. Here's the 10-week runway that gets ahead of it.
Friday, September 25, 2026
Most sales teams default to the same easy offer every time, leaving your highest-margin products unsold. Here's the Full Menu Selling framework that fixes it without a new script.
Friday, September 25, 2026
Recurring meetings that never resolve aren't a communication problem — they're a decision backlog costing your business real money. Here's the 3D Decision Rule that clears it.
Friday, September 25, 2026
Calling a coach only when something breaks isn't coaching — it's crisis management with a label on it. Here's why the Proactive Coaching Cadence delivers a stronger return.
Friday, September 25, 2026
Most SME growth ceilings are self-imposed, not market-imposed — built by founder control, outdated systems, and internal structure. Here's the Ceiling Test that reveals it.