Sunday, November 01, 2026
A positioning statement sits in a folder. Distinctiveness lives in the details customers actually notice. Here's the gap between knowing your difference and being remembered for it.
Choose Scaling Up if you lead a team and want a structured platform for People, Strategy, Execution and Cash, with a free assessment to start. Choose Simple-Growth if you are the owner and the first job is to find the one constraint holding the business back before you adopt any platform. They solve different problems, and some owners use both.
A disclosure first: Simple-Growth publishes this guide and Kevin D'Ambros-Smith is an independent business coach, so he is not neutral. That is why this explains who each option suits instead of ranking them, and uses only what Scaling Up says on its own homepage. Checked 3 November 2026. Market: United States.
Scaling Up describes its platform as focused on "the 4 DECISIONS methodology every company must get right": People, Strategy, Execution and Cash. Its homepage leads with "13-30x Your Valuation", offers a free call as the main next step, and shows a badge of 250+ case studies. It is built for CEOs, founders and leadership teams, and it also recruits experienced coaches and consultants to become Scaling Up coaches.
Simple-Growth starts with you, not the platform. It finds the real constraint in your numbers, then builds a 90-day plan around that one thing. Kevin has coached 200+ businesses one-on-one across 30+ industries since 2017.
The practical difference: a platform gives a team a shared framework for every decision. Coaching tells you which decision to make first. If the real problem is that you are the bottleneck, another framework is more to run, not less.
This is not for you if you want a price list to compare today. Scaling Up's homepage says "Investment varies depending on the program and level of engagement" and that pricing is covered on a discovery call. Simple-Growth quotes coaching by conversation too.
Neither publishes a price for the main engagement, so ask each provider for a written 12-month total, including what is and is not included. If you would rather start small and fixed-price, Simple-Growth also offers three self-paced programs from $97: Quick Wins, Making It Happen and Know Your Future. Here is which one fits which problem.
"Kevin has the ability to make everything so simple. He can take something that seems like a complicated task and break this down to 1 or 2 key things, so that achieving the desired outcome becomes easier and very achievable."
Christiana Thomson
Johnson&Laird Talent Management (quoted word for word)
The US Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy reported in February 2026 that there are 36,207,130 small businesses in the United States, employing 62.3 million people, or 45.9% of private-sector workers. You are choosing from a crowded field, and most of those owners are making the choice alone.
No. Scaling Up describes a platform built on four decisions that leadership teams adopt, and it also offers coaching through its own coaches. Simple-Growth is one-on-one work with the owner, starting with a diagnosis. They can complement each other.
Partly. Its homepage lists a free assessment of about 10 minutes, a free A-Players Assessment and a 7-day Scoreboard trial with no credit card required. Check scalingup.com for the current offer.
Neither is automatically better. If you have a leadership team and want a shared framework, a platform may fit. If you are not sure what to fix first, start with a diagnosis.
Yes. Kevin coaches owners online, so location is not a barrier. Book a free conversation and you will leave knowing your likely constraint and what the first 90 days would look like.
Put the same questions to every provider and compare the written answers. A provider who answers with specifics is worth another conversation.
Not sure which suits you? A 30-minute conversation will tell you, and you are welcome to take the answers to any other provider. You can also read how coaching compares with EOS.
Sources (checked 3 November 2026): Scaling Up, home page. SBA Office of Advocacy, Frequently Asked Questions About Small Businesses 2026, 3 Feb 2026 (United States). The testimonial is quoted word for word from the person named. Last updated 3 November 2026.
Friday, September 04, 2026
A business can grow revenue 40% in a year and be in more financial danger at the end of it than the start. Here's why fast growth without a cash plan is a warning sign, not a win.
Friday, September 04, 2026
The first ninety days of coaching are almost always productive. Here's why so many engagements quietly plateau around month six, and how to keep them accelerating.
Friday, September 04, 2026
If your business needs you in the room to keep functioning, you haven't built a business — you've built a demanding job. Here's how to test and fix that.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Chasing every enquiry equally is why sales teams stay busy and pipelines stay thin. Here's the qualification filter that protects your best sellers' time for leads that will actually close.
Friday, September 04, 2026
A shopper's eye moves across a shelf in under three seconds — if your packaging or marketing needs explaining, it's already lost. Here's what actually earns the second look.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Most growth plans set a revenue number and never check whether the business can actually deliver it. Here's how to build strategy around your real capacity constraint instead.
Friday, September 04, 2026
67% of SME owners fund growth mainly from personal savings, 38% from credit cards, and only 22% from a bank loan. Why that's a risk, not a strategy — and what a real capital plan looks like instead.
Friday, September 04, 2026
67.4% of small business owners know they need a price rise — only 31% have made it. Here's why pricing needs a system, not nerve, and what that system looks like for SME and FMCG owners.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Every scaling SME hits the same transition — from a business that runs on the founder's instincts to one that runs on a team making good decisions without checking first. Here's how the ones that navigate it deliberately do it.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Being "coachable" isn't a fixed trait some owners have and others don't — it's a decision made fresh every week. Here's what actually determines whether coaching sticks.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Your business isn't short of hours — it's short of decisions that don't require you personally. Here's how to find and remove the owner bottleneck, one decision at a time.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Most price objections aren't about the customer's budget — they're about a rep with no confident answer reaching for the easiest lever. Here's how to fix the sales conversation, not just the discount policy.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Chasing brand awareness on a limited budget is the fastest way to spend money without moving revenue. Here's the goal that actually fits a constrained marketing budget, and how to measure it.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Most SME strategy sessions produce energy and an impressive document — and almost no lasting change. Here's what a strategy session actually needs to produce, and how to turn it into real execution.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Only 8% of small business owners say they're fully prepared for succession, and 70% have no formal plan. Here's why succession is a systems problem, not a paperwork one — and the four-question test to check if your business is actually transferable.