Saturday, October 31, 2026
46% of NZ small business owners aren't paying themselves. Here's why that has to change, and the three moves that build it into a real habit, not a hope.
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.
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.
Monday, October 05, 2026
You've boosted the posts, hired the agency, rewritten the website twice, and the phone still isn't ringing. Before you spend another dollar, ask whether a stranger could explain what makes you different in one sentence.
Monday, October 05, 2026
Your competitor just launched the move you'd been 'finalising' for six months. Here's the fifty-year-old decision framework that fixes the real problem: not your strategy, your decision speed.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
EOS, Scaling Up, Vistage, ActionCOACH or Simple-Growth? A fair comparison with best-for and not-ideal-if for each option, a fit matrix and a nine-question quiz.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
What does a business coach cost in New Zealand? Published monthly and hourly ranges, cheaper options, how RBPN co-funding can help, and a checklist for judging value.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
New 2026 global research shows trust alone only earns a brand 48 percent acceptance into new territory - relevance takes it to 71 percent. Here is the two-question test that finds the real gap before you spend on expansion.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
The personal touch that built your reputation at ten staff quietly becomes the bottleneck that breaks it at thirty. Here is how to turn a habit into a system before it costs you.