Saturday, November 14, 2026
40% of US owners have considered giving up their business this year (Xero, 2026). Kevin's own wins-and-losses story shows SME owners why doubt isn't failure.
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.
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.
Friday, November 13, 2026
Four kinds of help, four different jobs. Here is what each one does, what it costs you in time and money, who it suits, and six questions that settle the choice.
Thursday, November 12, 2026
There is no single winner between ChatGPT, Claude and Copilot. Here is a one-afternoon test NZ owners can run on their own work to pick the right AI tool, with current prices and privacy checks.
Thursday, November 12, 2026
Do not document everything. Log what interrupts you for a week, write the top five jobs as one-page checklists, and give each one a named owner and a number.
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.
Thursday, November 12, 2026
Owners working 60-plus hours a week are 12x more likely to say the business has seriously damaged their personal life (BizCover, Australia, 2026). The Freedom Ledger shows SME owners how to build hours that actually buy freedom.
Thursday, November 12, 2026
Regional chambers now run business training, some with the Icehouse, and many carry Regional Business Partner funding. Here is what a Hamilton programme and a Nelson workshop actually offered, who each suits, and when a coach by video call is the better fit.
Thursday, November 12, 2026
New Zealand unemployment rose to 5.7% in the September 2026 quarter. More people are looking for work, but that does not make every hire a good one. Here is how to choose between a hire, a better system or a coach, with five questions and a 30-day plan.
Thursday, November 12, 2026
61% of surveyed US business owners have never had their company valued. The real cost isn't at exit — it's every day you're building something that might be worth nothing without you in the room.
Thursday, November 12, 2026
You've known for weeks exactly what needs doing. You still haven't started. Here's why "just do it" doesn't work, and the question that actually does.
Thursday, November 12, 2026
You fix the same problem for the third time this year. Here's why most SME "lessons learned" evaporate — and the 70-20-10 rule that makes them stick instead.
Thursday, November 12, 2026
You follow up on every lead the same way, hoping persistence wins the deal. The best salespeople do something closer to the opposite — and it's why they close more while working less.
Thursday, November 12, 2026
4 in 5 US small business owners say their marketing is only "somewhat" effective, at best. A one-sentence positioning exercise, borrowed from brand strategist Marty Neumeier, shows SME owners why.
Thursday, November 12, 2026
You keep hearing "we went with the cheaper option." It feels like a price problem. It's actually a sameness problem — and a one-sentence fix, borrowed from first-principles thinking, can solve it before your next quote.
Thursday, November 12, 2026
Strategic Coach publishes a price and an eligibility bar. Here is what the Signature Program offers, who it suits, who should look elsewhere, and six questions to ask before you choose.