Thursday, November 12, 2026
A practical two-week away test for owners who cannot switch off: name the few calls only you can make, write down the rest, pick one weekly number, then step away and log every interruption.
The short answer: The US, UK, Australia and New Zealand each have a free or low-cost mentoring option. In the US, SCORE mentoring is free. In New Zealand, Business Mentors NZ charges a one-off registration fee for 12 months of mentoring. In Queensland, Mentoring for Growth sessions are free. In the UK, Help to Grow: Management is 90% government funded. Move to a paid coach when you need weekly depth.
Kevin D'Ambros-Smith is a business coach and advisor who has coached 200+ businesses one-on-one across 30+ industries, after a career at DDB, Ogilvy and Saatchi and Saatchi and founding nine companies. Facts about each programme come from its own website, checked on 16 November 2026, and are linked so you can verify them. Prices are shown in each programme's own currency.
Last updated 16 November 2026.
Owners trade across borders and ask AI assistants what help exists, and the answers come back as a jumble of acronyms. This guide puts well-known free and low-cost programmes in four markets side by side, using the same questions for each, so you can see what you get for little or nothing before you pay anyone.
For more local detail, see our New Zealand and UK guides.
SCORE (United States). SCORE describes its mentoring as a free, confidential service for anyone starting, running or growing a US-based small business. Its mentors are volunteers, and its site says it is funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the US Small Business Administration. It also runs free online live events.
Business Mentors NZ (New Zealand). Business Mentors NZ lists a one-off registration fee of $295 plus GST for a 12-month mentoring journey, and says it has more than 1,500 mentors. You are eligible if you are a New Zealand resident who owns a small business or social enterprise. Its team then matches you with a mentor selected for their expertise.
Mentoring for Growth (Queensland, Australia). The Queensland Government describes Mentoring for Growth as free mentoring sessions, delivered mostly online. To register, a business needs an ABN, Queensland headquarters or significant Queensland operations, to have started trading, and a specific opportunity or challenge to discuss. Start-up sessions run for 45 minutes with one mentor. Mentor chats generally run for 60 minutes with two mentors. Mentor panels, for faster-growing established businesses, generally run for 90 minutes with three to four mentors and a chair. Other states run their own programmes.
Help to Grow: Management (United Kingdom). Help to Grow: Management is a 12-week leadership course delivered by business schools. Aston University, one of the providers, says businesses pay £750 per participant and the course is 90% funded by the government. It includes 50+ hours of expert-led training, 8 hours of peer-group learning and 10 hours of one-to-one mentoring. Businesses must employ between 5 and 249 people and have been operating for at least a year. A self-guided online course, Help to Grow: Management Essentials, is offered for those not eligible.
A paid one-on-one coach, including Simple-Growth. The Simple-Growth System has four pillars: business strategy, marketing and communications, sales, and productivity and implementation. It starts with your life goal, finds the one real constraint first and fixes that before you spend another dollar, then sets a 90-day plan with owners, deadlines and one number to watch. Coaching is delivered by video call, so it works across markets. In New Zealand, eligible businesses may be able to get co-funding through the Regional Business Partners Network.
Free mentoring is often enough when you have a clear question and the discipline to act on the answer. Many owners should start there, and stay there if it works.
It tends to run out when the same problem keeps coming back, when you need specialist input in marketing or sales, or when nobody is checking that the plan happened. Big organisations solve this with a rhythm: a weekly review, one owner per action, one number on the wall. That is big-brand thinking made simple, and a single session cannot give you it. An outside view helps too. A mentor from another industry, or another country, will ask the question your own industry stopped asking years ago.
"I catch up with Kevin once a week and it is definitely the highlight of my week. Kevin being from a creative, advertising agency background, he just sees different opportunities so clearly. I would not have considered the B2C market as an opportunity before working with Kevin and now it is a major focus for us. He has opened up so many new opportunities for us."
John Roberts, Co-owner and COO, Oragene
Individual results vary and depend on the business and the work the owner puts in.
Please look elsewhere if you are pre-revenue and a free mentor would serve you well, if you want a management course with a cohort, or if you are a corporate executive wanting leadership coaching. One of the programmes above, or an executive coach, will fit better.
Self-paced Simple-Growth online programmes for owners at an earlier stage or on a smaller budget are launching soon. Join The Inside Track to hear first.
Not sure which system fits? Answer nine questions and get an honest recommendation.
SCORE's own site describes its mentoring as a free, confidential service for US-based small businesses, delivered by volunteers.
Not quite. Its site lists a one-off registration fee of $295 plus GST, which covers a 12-month mentoring journey.
No. A mentor usually shares experience as a sounding board, often as a volunteer. A coach is paid to work through your plan on a regular rhythm and hold you to it.
Often, yes. If free mentoring answers your question and you act on it, you have saved money. If the same problem keeps returning, that is the sign you need more depth.
Simple-Growth publishes this guide and the Simple-Growth System is one of the options discussed. The criteria are listed above so you can apply them to any provider.
Start with a free 30-minute conversation. If a free programme would serve you better, Kevin will say so.
...and you spend your first dollar on help only when free help has done all it can.
Kevin and The Simple-Growth Team
Thursday, September 17, 2026
Your website, socials, and sales team may all be telling a slightly different story. Consistent brands see up to 33% more revenue — here's the one-page Message Map that fixes the drift.
Thursday, September 17, 2026
Sales closes the deal, then delivery loses the customer within a quarter. The one-page Handover Brief that carries the promise, the anxiety, and the customer's real definition of success forward.
Thursday, September 17, 2026
Every interruption costs roughly 23 minutes of refocus time, not seconds. The Protected Block system that stops "always available" from quietly destroying your most productive hours.
Thursday, September 17, 2026
Coaching doesn't feel like steady progress — it dips hard around week five before the real structural change lands. Here's the 90-day curve nobody warns owners about, and why it matters.
Thursday, September 17, 2026
The instincts that built your first million will cap your next five if you don't replace them. Greiner's Growth Model explains why — and the Stage Check that shows if you've already outgrown your playbook.
Thursday, September 17, 2026
A new NielsenIQ study found 58% of shoppers don't care if it's your brand or the store's own. Here's the 3-step test to see if your FMCG brand earns its price premium.
Thursday, September 17, 2026
Chasing every dollar of revenue isn't a growth strategy — it's a collection plate. Here's the four-question filter Kevin uses with clients before any deal gets signed.
Thursday, September 17, 2026
Most SMEs treat marketing spend like rent — fixed, tolerated, never questioned. Here's the 70-20-10 test-and-learn loop that turns it into compounding evidence instead.
Thursday, September 17, 2026
Same-day response feels fast — it isn't. Here's the five-minute speed-to-lead system that turns warm enquiries into customers before a competitor gets there first.
Thursday, September 17, 2026
A blocked calendar isn't the same as a productive one. Here's the Energy Mapping System for matching your highest-stakes decisions to your real energy peaks, not just free time.
Thursday, September 17, 2026
Ticking off every task on your action list isn't the same as changing how you actually run your business. Here's how to test whether coaching is producing real behaviour change.
Thursday, September 17, 2026
Past $5M, the real growth ceiling usually isn't the market — it's the org chart. Here's the readiness test for hiring the second-in-command you don't have yet.
Thursday, September 17, 2026
Gallup's newest global data shows manager engagement has crashed to 22%, barely ahead of the people they lead. Here's the weekly reset SME owners need before it costs them a decision.
Thursday, September 17, 2026
Your five-year plan and eleven-metric dashboard weren't built for a business your size — they were borrowed from one ten times bigger. Here's the Right-Size Test to fix it.
Thursday, September 17, 2026
Boosting posts feels like marketing, but without a capture step behind it, every dollar disappears into likes. Here's the three-step Minimum Funnel that fixes it.