Friday, October 30, 2026
Only 30% of US owners finished 2025 with profits above expectations, down from 57% the year before. Here's the real reason growing revenue stopped meaning growing margin.
You have narrowed it to four names: ActionCOACH, EOS, Scaling Up and Vistage. Every website tells you it is the answer. The real risk is not picking a weak one. It is spending three months comparing, and another quarter living with the same constraint you started with.
A quick disclosure before anything else: Simple-Growth publishes this page, and Kevin D'Ambros-Smith coaches SME owners himself, so he is not a neutral party. That is why this is not a ranking. You get what each option is, who it tends to suit, what is publicly known about cost, and the questions to ask before you sign. Facts come from each organization's own website or the sources linked at the bottom, checked on 1 November 2026.
One fact should take the pressure off. US business coaching is roughly a US$20.0 billion industry in 2026, and no single firm holds more than 5% of it (IBISWorld, US market). There is no giant you are supposed to defer to. Fit beats brand.
ActionCOACH. A global franchise of local business coaches, operating since 1993 and headquartered in Las Vegas. It now leads with ABoS, a diagnostic platform that scores your business across six areas (Mastery, Marketing, Systems, Team, Scale and Freedom), and it offers two weeks of free coaching and a money-back guarantee that depends on you completing the agreed actions. Pricing is not published; the site says it varies with your needs. Because it is a franchise, the local coach you get matters more than the logo. Tends to suit owners who want a structured programme, a platform and a guarantee.
EOS. A management system (Vision/Traction Organizer, Accountability Chart, Scorecard, Rocks and Level 10 Meetings) taught to a leadership team by an independent EOS Implementer, with a free Organizational Checkup to start. EOS publishes no prices. One third-party estimate, from EOS software vendor Strety in July 2026, puts implementer cost at US$20,000 to US$45,000 a year for two years, but treat that as indicative and ask for a quote. Tends to suit owners who already have a leadership team and want one shared operating rhythm.
Scaling Up. Verne Harnish's growth framework. Its site claims more than 102,000 organizations and offers free self-assessments (a Scaling Up Assessment and an A-Players Assessment) plus a seven-day scoreboard trial. Pricing is not published. A trade report in February 2026 said Scaling Up and Napster were launching AI digital-twin versions of its coaches. Tends to suit owners who want to diagnose themselves for free before they talk to anyone.
Vistage. Peer advisory boards for CEOs and business owners, run by a chair. Vistage says it has 45,000 members in 40 countries and sorts programs by revenue band (US$5M and above, and US$1M to US$4M). It does not publish dues; Long Angle reported about US$16,500 a year in October 2026, plus a one-time enrollment fee. Tends to suit owners who learn best from peers and have the revenue to qualify.
Simple-Growth with Kevin. Founder-led, one-on-one coaching in Auckland or online by application, starting with a free 30-minute call, plus online programmes from $97. Kevin has coached 200+ businesses across 30+ industries, is an approved Regional Business Partner Network provider, and the +72 Net Promoter Score comes from coaching clients surveyed through The Icehouse. The method is to find the real constraint first, then fix it before you spend another dollar. The honest limits: it is not a franchise network, there is no money-back guarantee, and there is no software dashboard yet.
This is not for you if you want a guarantee or a dashboard today. In that case, take the free fortnight at ActionCOACH and judge the coach, not the brand.
"I have grown my business 5x since working with Kevin. Everything Kevin told me to do was the complete opposite of what I had been doing. Working with Kevin has truly been a complete game changer."
— Richard, Chem Suppliers
Which is cheapest? None of the four publish a price, so the only way to compare is to ask each for a written 12-month quote. Reported figures (about US$16,500 a year for Vistage dues; US$20,000 to US$45,000 a year for an EOS implementer) come from third parties and may differ from what you are offered.
Is there government funding? In New Zealand, eligible businesses with fewer than 50 full-time-equivalent staff can get a Regional Business Partner Network subsidy toward approved management training, up to 50% of one-to-one costs and capped at $5,000 a year before GST. Check the current rules on business.govt.nz, and ask any provider whether it is approved.
How was this compared? Each organization's public website was read on 1 November 2026. Where a fact is not public, we say so instead of guessing. If you spot something out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
Sources (checked 1 November 2026): ActionCOACH, EOS Worldwide, Scaling Up, Vistage, IBISWorld US business coaching, 2026, Strety, EOS implementer cost, July 2026, Long Angle, Vistage dues, October 2026, Pulse, Scaling Up AI coaching, February 2026, business.govt.nz, Management Capability Development Fund.
If you would rather talk it through than keep comparing, start with one honest conversation about what is really holding your business back.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
Most SME owners have one growth plan: get more customers. There are actually four distinct ways to grow, and the cheapest one is usually sitting in your existing customer file.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
Small business confidence just rose, but growth expectations are falling for almost everyone. New 2026 data reveals the one decision separating owners still growing from owners just waiting it out.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
A 1 percent price increase lifts operating profit by an average of 11 percent, McKinsey's Global 1200 research found, far more than an equivalent rise in volume. Here's how to raise prices without losing your best customers.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
Some coaches build a business out of being needed forever. Here's the Graduation Test: three questions that reveal whether your coach is transferring real capability, or just keeping you on retainer.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
Most owners respond to a bottleneck by fixing something else entirely. Eli Goldratt's Theory of Constraints explains why that backfires, and documented case studies show a mean 69 percent lead-time reduction once the real constraint is found.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
Roughly four in ten B2B purchase attempts end in no decision at all. It's rarely about price. Here's Alex Hormozi's Value Equation, in plain English, and why it explains almost every stalled deal in your pipeline.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
41 percent of consumers now always read reviews before choosing a business, and 31 percent won't use one rated under 4.5 stars. Here's the Review Velocity System that turns happy customers into a steady stream of five-star proof.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
64 percent of executives say they're juggling too many conflicting priorities, and most SME strategies die from addition, not ambition. Here's the three-step Strategic Short List that turns six priorities into the one that actually moves the needle.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
A third of small business owners are absorbing this year's cost increases out of their own pocket instead of raising prices. Here's the three-step Margin Audit that turns that guess into a safe, thirty-day pricing test.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
Before you approve the next hire, run the revenue-per-employee test. Some of the growth you are trying to buy with headcount is sitting in tasks AI can already take off the list.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
Owner-dependent businesses sell for roughly half the multiple of businesses that run without them. Dan Sullivan's Who Not How question is the simplest fix most owners never try.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
The tasks only one person in your business can do are a hidden cost waiting to land. Here is how to clear the backlog in an afternoon using a recorder instead of a blank page.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
Chasing every lead in the run to year end is how you end up delivering the deals that cost you the most. Here is the Right-Fit Filter that catches a bad deal before you quote it.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
Big brands never approve a campaign on gut feel alone. Here is the cheap, 48-hour pretest SME owners can run on any piece of marketing before a single dollar goes to media.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
There is no single best business coach in New Zealand, only the best fit for your stage and your problem. Here are six criteria, an honest map of the NZ options, and where Kevin D'Ambros-Smith fits.