Saturday, October 31, 2026
US owners lose 33 working days a year to financial worry, mostly from not knowing their numbers. Here's the 2-number Monday check that closes the gap.
It's 9pm and you're still working the phone. Another follow-up text, another "just checking in," another deal that needs one more push to close. You tell yourself the hustle is the job. Some nights you wonder if you can keep doing this.
Before you add another hour to the chase, ask a harder question: is the offer doing any of the selling, or is it all you?
Nine companies founded or co-founded, some very successful and some outright failures, taught me the same lesson about sales every time: an owner who has to personally convince every customer doesn't have a sales process. They have a treadmill.
The advice everywhere says the same thing: more calls, more hours, more follow-up, more grit. Nobody tells you that if every deal needs your personal persuasion to close, the problem isn't your effort — it's what you're selling and how. Hustle papers over a weak offer. It never fixes one.
Alex Hormozi's Value Equation gives this a shape you can actually work with: value equals the dream outcome times the likelihood of achieving it, divided by the time it takes and the effort and sacrifice required. Every "almost closed" deal you're chasing right now is weak on one of those four. Chasing harder doesn't fix the equation. Changing it does.
I've built nine companies, and not all of them worked. The ones that struggled always had the same tell: I was the offer. The moment I stepped back, sales slowed, because nothing about what we sold made the decision easy without me in the room. The businesses that grew without burning me out were the ones where the offer did that work instead.
"Kevin is an absolute powerhouse! He doubled our business's profits in the first month alone with lots more of his recommendations still to be rolled out."
— Curtis Hacon, Give A Sh!t
Fixing an offer feels slower than making one more call, so exhausted owners keep calling instead. It's the wrong trade. An hour spent tightening the guarantee, the proof or the first step pays out on every deal after it; an hour spent chasing pays out once, if you're lucky, and leaves you exactly as tired tomorrow.
This isn't for you if you'd rather keep perfecting your pitch than look honestly at what you're pitching.
If you're exhausted from chasing and the close rate still isn't moving, the fix usually isn't more hustle.
Thursday, October 08, 2026
Most sales conversations present cheapest to most expensive. New research found flipping that order lifted revenue by 10.8 percent, with no price changes at all. Here is how to use it.
Thursday, October 08, 2026
Most SME marketing budgets are weighted toward customers who already buy. The research says that is the smaller lever. Here is where brand growth actually comes from, and how to redirect your spend toward it.
Thursday, October 08, 2026
Most SME strategy problems are not thinking problems, they are seeing problems. Here is the one-page model that catches the two mistakes that quietly kill most growing businesses before they show up in the bank account.
Wednesday, October 07, 2026
Four pillars, one real constraint and a 90-day plan. Here is how the Simple-Growth System works, plus a 45-minute test you can run this week.
Wednesday, October 07, 2026
When you are surrounded by your industry, it is hard to see the wood for the trees. Here is why an outside perspective finds growth moves insiders miss, and how US owners can use it.
Wednesday, October 07, 2026
Small businesses grow at half the rate of big ones, and it is not about budget. Techaisle's 2026 global survey reveals why depth of relationships beats contact count, and how to build your own Dream 10 this week.
Wednesday, October 07, 2026
Rising revenue feels like proof the business is winning. If your margin is quietly shrinking at the same time, you are growing broke. Here is the three-line check that catches it.
Wednesday, October 07, 2026
January feels like the obvious month to commit to a coach. It is actually the worst one. Here is why the owners who get the most out of coaching start in November instead.
Wednesday, October 07, 2026
Wrong hires are now costing Australian SMEs an estimated 7.3 billion dollars a year. The mistake almost never happens in the interview room. Here is where it actually happens.
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.