Wednesday, October 28, 2026
Big-brand positioning is a decision, not a budget. Five questions, a one-sentence position and a five-touchpoint audit you can run this week.
Owners ask me a version of the same question almost every week: should I get a coach, or just join a mastermind, a peer group, or a workshop? It's usually asked as if the two are interchangeable — different packaging around the same thing. They're not. They solve different problems, and picking the wrong one is why a lot of owners try one, don't see the shift they expected, and conclude "coaching doesn't work for me," when the real issue was the format, not the idea.
I run both: one-on-one coaching with individual owners, and group workshops and masterclasses for rooms of fifty, a hundred, more. After over 30 years in business, and 200+ businesses coached one-on-one across 30+ industries, here's exactly what each one is actually for.
A workshop or a peer group is built for three things: exposure to ideas you wouldn't have gone looking for yourself, the relief of hearing someone else describe your exact problem out loud, and energy — the kind that's hard to manufacture alone in your own head on a Tuesday afternoon. What it isn't built for is your specific business, with your specific numbers, your specific team, and your specific blind spot. A room of fifty owners can hand you forty-nine useful general ideas and zero accountability for whether you actually act on any of them next week.
One-on-one coaching does the opposite. It's slower by comparison — there's no instant hit of a room's energy — but it's built entirely around your business: your actual numbers, your actual team, the one constraint genuinely holding you back versus the three you think are. And it's built around accountability that follows you out of the room: someone who knows what you said you'd do by next Thursday, and asks.
"Kevin is a master of his craft. From creating and facilitating high-impact 'Grow Your Business in 1-Day' workshops to elite sessions for our flagship Owner Manager Programme — Kevin delivers excellence across the board. He is a powerhouse presenter and facilitator who brings an explosive blend of energy and expertise to every room he steps into. Participants don't just sit and listen; they leave buzzing with breakthrough ideas and simplified, highly effective growth strategies. Most importantly, Kevin leaves people profoundly inspired, fully equipped, and fiercely motivated to drive their businesses forward. He is the standard-setter!"
— Darilyn Kane, Coaching and Advisory Lead, The Icehouse
Here's the part most owners get wrong: they pick the format that feels less exposing, not the one their actual problem calls for. A room is easier to hide in. One-on-one coaching means someone is looking directly at your numbers and your excuses, with nowhere for either of you to look away. That discomfort is often exactly the signal that it's the right format.
Whichever format fits where you are, Simple-Growth runs both — and the first conversation is about working out which one actually solves your problem, not which one we'd rather sell you.
Saturday, October 17, 2026
Nearly 8 in 10 small business owners say long-term planning feels harder than ever. The usual fix, a better template, isn't the one that works — here's the exercise that fixes it before you build the plan.
Saturday, October 17, 2026
NZ retail lifted productivity 9.1% without adding hours, while national output per employee fell. Here's how to grow revenue before you grow headcount.
Saturday, October 17, 2026
Most owners expect a coach to fix things in week one. Here's what actually happens in the first 90 days, and why that structure is the real breakthrough.
Friday, October 16, 2026
A 2026 Bain survey found fewer than half of CEOs believe their company can execute fast enough, even with full teams and budgets behind them. Here is the weekly rhythm that turns a good plan into tracked progress for an owner running the show solo.
Friday, October 16, 2026
A bank survey found 98% of small business owners do not know their company's value. Most shrug because they are not selling. That is the mistake: the work that lifts value is the same work that lifts growth right now.
Friday, October 16, 2026
Global surveys put client satisfaction with coaching at 95 percent good or excellent. The unhappy minority almost always skipped the same three checks before they signed. Here is what to check before you do.
Friday, October 16, 2026
67% of founders work more than 50 hours a week, and most of those hours go to re-explaining tasks or double-checking work that did not need it. The fix is matching your leadership style to each task's readiness level.
Friday, October 16, 2026
Seventy-seven percent of B2B buyers call their last purchase complex, with six to ten people in the room. Most SME sales reps still pitch like there is only one decision maker, then blame price when the deal goes quiet.
Friday, October 16, 2026
Eighty-four percent of consumers say they plan to buy from a small business in the next two months. Most of that goodwill never converts, and it is not because customers do not care. It is because there is no specific offer ready to meet them.
Friday, October 16, 2026
Most SME owners are hitting their numbers, so why is confidence falling? The real reason isn't the economy. It's what's missing from next year's plan, and the three-question test that fixes it before you finalise a dollar of it.
Thursday, October 15, 2026
Owners testing something new are far more likely to expect faster growth. Here is how to find the adjacent customer segment sitting right next to yours.
Thursday, October 15, 2026
Thought a business coach was out of budget? For many eligible NZ businesses, the Regional Business Partner Network can cover a large share of the cost.
Thursday, October 15, 2026
Some SME leaders are already getting a half-day a week back from AI. Here is the simple filter that decides what to automate, augment or leave alone.
Thursday, October 15, 2026
It was not the pitch that killed your last deal. It was the four weeks of silence after it. Here is the follow-up sequence most SME sales teams never build.
Thursday, October 15, 2026
Most SME marketing stops the moment someone buys once. Here is the Value Ladder that gives your best customers an obvious next step, and why 74 percent never get one.