Keeping It Simple
The fastest, simplest ways to grow your business - no jargon, no fluff. Practical strategies that actually work for SME owners in the USA, New Zealand, and worldwide.
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.
Somewhere around month nine or ten of a good coaching relationship, a strange thing happens: the sessions that used to feel challenging start to feel comfortable. That comfort gets mistaken for two very different things — either "I've got this now, I don't need coaching," or "this coach has taken me as far as they can." Both conclusions are usually wrong. What's actually happened is that the business has outgrown the scope of the original engagement, not the coaching relationship itself.
The Enemy: Confusing Comfort With Completion
Most coaching engagements are scoped around a starting problem — fixing a bottleneck, building a first strategy, getting sales moving. When that problem gets solved, the natural next step isn't to end the relationship or quietly keep having the same conversations. It's to rescope it around whatever the business's next real constraint has become. Owners who don't rescope end up in one of two traps: they end a genuinely valuable relationship too early, or they stay in it without ever raising the bar again, mistaking familiarity for progress.
The Framework: The Scope Reset Conversation
Kevin builds this into every ongoing client relationship as a deliberate, scheduled review of what the coaching relationship is actually for — run before comfort sets in.
1. Name the original problem and confirm it's solved — explicitly, not assumed. If it isn't fully solved, that's the first thing to say out loud.
2. Identify the business's current real constraint — not the same constraint restated, but whatever is now actually limiting growth.
3. Rescope the engagement around it — different focus, different cadence, sometimes a different format entirely, built for where the business is now.
"Kevin has been a game changer for us. I had tried a couple of high-profile US entrepreneur programs but found these just talked about 'mindset', whereas Kevin gives practical advice to grow your business that you can implement immediately."
— Brett Abeille
The Execution Gap
The Scope Reset Conversation doesn't happen by accident. It requires the coach to initiate it — which means it requires a coach who is more invested in the client's growth than in the continuation of the current arrangement. Most coaching relationships that quietly fade out do so not because the client stopped needing a coach, but because neither party had the structure or the honesty to name what had changed.
The value of a coaching relationship compounds over time. The original problem was the entry point. What comes after it — the strategic challenges, the growth decisions, the leadership questions — is often where the most important work happens. But only if the scope keeps pace with the business.
Signs It's Time for a Scope Reset
- The sessions feel easier than they used to, but the business hasn't noticeably accelerated
- You're solving the same types of problems you were solving six months ago
- You find yourself not preparing for sessions the way you did at the start
- Your coach is giving you answers rather than helping you find them
- The original goal has been achieved, but no new goal has been set
Any one of these is a signal. More than two is a clear directive.
Key Takeaways
- Recognise comfort in coaching sessions as a signal to rescope, not a signal to stop.
- Confirm the original problem is actually solved before deciding what's next.
- Name the business's current real constraint, not the one you started with.
- Rescope the engagement deliberately — the relationship should evolve as the business does.
If your coaching sessions have started to feel comfortable, that's the moment to raise the bar — not walk away. Kevin works with founders at every stage of growth, rescoping the engagement as the business evolves.
Kevin D’Ambros-Smith
Kevin is the founder of Simple-Growth and a business growth coach with experience at DDB, Ogilvy, and Saatchi & Saatchi. He has co-founded 9 companies, coached 200+ business owners one-on-one, and holds a 9.5/10 NPS. Every article on this blog reflects real-world experience - no theory, no fluff.
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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
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