Friday, November 13, 2026
Three self-paced programs, three different jobs: faster sales, finishing what you plan, or deciding where the business is going. Prices, guarantees and a four-question chooser.
Last updated 14 November 2026. Published by Simple-Growth (Motherbase Limited). Market: United States.
This is a story about an owner who wants growth that actually shows up in the bank account — but who's watching revenue climb while the number that matters, what's actually left over, quietly shrinks. You did more volume this year than last. You hired. You're busier than you've ever been. And somehow there's less breathing room in the account than there was twelve months ago, which makes no sense until you realise you've been chasing the wrong number the whole time.
In a Bluevine survey of 1,067 US business owners fielded in late 2025, only 30% said their 2025 profitability came in above expectations — down from 57% at the end of 2024 (Bluevine, US, 2025–26). Revenue can grow and still leave an owner worse off, because rising costs eat the gap between price and expense faster than most businesses notice — right up until the month it actually bites. "We're busier than ever" and "we're better off than ever" are two completely different sentences, and most owners only track the first one.
Michael Gerber's E-Myth makes the core distinction most growing SMEs eventually trip over: there's a difference between working as a technician inside the business, doing more of the thing that makes money, and working as the owner on the business, redesigning how it makes money in the first place. Chasing volume is technician thinking. Fixing margin is owner thinking.
Kevin saw this directly with a solvent business where the owner was convinced the only way forward was more customers. Moving the price from $40 to $50 lifted the margin on every sale from $5 to $15 — triple the margin, on the exact same volume. That one change delivered the same profit as tripling turnover would have, for a third of the work, and not one client complained. Nobody had ever actually tested whether the price could move. They'd just assumed it couldn't, and kept chasing volume instead.
"You make success tangible. Help me go from a wish to reality. Now have clarity of purpose and belief. You made tripling the size of my business go from seeming impossible to really possible."
Lina
Good Gravy
Raising a price feels riskier than winning one more customer, even when the maths says the opposite — losing a customer is visible and immediate, while a thin margin quietly compounds in the background where nobody's watching closely. This isn't for you if you've already tested your pricing deliberately and know your real margin by heart — some owners genuinely have, and growth shows up in their account because of it. It's for the owner whose growth plan is still "get more customers," with no plan at all for what each one is actually worth to keep.
A framework from Michael Gerber distinguishing between working as a technician inside a business (doing the work) and working as an owner on the business (redesigning how it makes money) — most SME owners default to the former even as the business grows.
Compare your actual margin percentage, not just revenue, against the same period last year. If revenue is up but margin percentage is flat or down, rising costs are quietly eating the gain.
Less risky than most owners assume, when tested deliberately on the part of the business with least price resistance — one real client moved price without losing a single client complaint.
If revenue's up but your bank account hasn't noticed, that's the number to fix first.
Thursday, October 22, 2026
When offers look alike, price is all that is left to compare. What New Zealand telecoms teach SME owners about escaping the price war.
Thursday, October 22, 2026
Get more from the link that limits your growth before you spend a dollar on it. A 14-day, no-new-spend plan for SME owners.
Thursday, October 22, 2026
Score eight links in your business from 1 to 5 and the weakest, earliest link is usually your constraint. A 20-minute self-check for SME owners.
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.