Sunday, November 01, 2026
Saying yes to every enquiry feels safer than growth. It isn't. Here's the strategic choice — who you're actually playing to win with — that most SME owners never make on purpose.
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 22, 2026
Referrals just became small business owners' #1 source of new customers — up from 65% to 83% in a single year. Here's the Dream 100 system that turns word of mouth into a repeatable growth engine.
Thursday, October 22, 2026
Roughly one in four founders report loneliness and isolation running their business. Here's what a coach actually does differently, and why the first session is rarely about strategy.
Thursday, October 22, 2026
NZ small business sales rose 8.6 percent this quarter, but growth ranged from 2.9 to 16.3 percent by industry. Here's the three-number check that tells you whether your growth is actually yours.
Thursday, October 22, 2026
Only 30 percent of business change efforts fully succeed. Here's the three-part diagnosis, borrowed from strategy academic Richard Rumelt, most owners skip before fixing anything.
Thursday, October 22, 2026
Close to six in ten of this year's US holiday shoppers are already buying, in October or year-round. Here are three sales moves to make this week before Black Friday arrives.
Thursday, October 22, 2026
77.6 percent of US consumers used AI to help with a purchase decision in the past six months. Here are three moves that make your small business visible when customers ask AI about you.
Thursday, October 22, 2026
54 percent of US business owners have no real plan, and only 11 percent have anything detailed. Here's the one-afternoon exercise that gives your business a sharper three-year direction than any spreadsheet.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
Before you spend another dollar on ads, staff or software, find the one step that limits your growth. Here is a one-hour spend-gate test you can run this week.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
ActionCOACH began in Brisbane, Australia. What does its story tell US owners about where good growth ideas come from, and how to test an outside idea in your own business?
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
SME owner confidence is climbing, but for most, revenue isn't following. Here's why time isn't your real constraint, and the three-step framework that finds the one that is.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
49% of business owners question monthly whether running the business is worth it, a US survey found. Here's what changes when someone else is asking that question with you.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
Nearly half of NZ SME owners are planning Christmas trading changes, MYOB research found, and most of it is a discount. Here's how to build memory before you build the offer.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
46% of New Zealand business owners aren't paying themselves, Xero research found. Here's the Profit First fix that changes the order money moves through your business, not the hours you work.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
The share of businesses reporting serious dead stock has doubled since 2024, new research found. Here's why rising revenue can still mean tightening cash, and the three numbers that catch it early.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
42% of business owners named efficiency their top 2026 priority, a US survey found. Here's Michalowicz's Clockwork system for building a business that doesn't need you in every decision.