Monday, November 09, 2026
80% of US small-business employees now say pay is their top reason to stay or leave. New research shows that's rarely why your best people actually stick around.
Flat out for four months, then quiet enough to hear the till. If that's your business, you've probably told yourself it's just the nature of what you do — weather-dependent, seasonal, nothing to be done about it. In the US, 78% of seasonal businesses say they face a cash flow gap of three months or longer every single year, and more than six in ten say that gap has become harder to manage over the last three years, not easier (Crestmont Capital, US, 2026, 412 seasonal business owners). It isn't just you, and it isn't getting easier on its own.
The villain is the word "seasonal" itself, used as an excuse rather than a problem to solve. Off-season revenue for seasonal US businesses falls an average of 54% below peak — a number that sounds inevitable right up until you meet a business that refused to accept it.
What you'll miss, left as it is: another ten weeks every year spent hoping the phone rings, instead of ten weeks with a plan already running.
A mountain bike park client of mine had, by the time we'd mapped it properly, eleven separate revenue streams feeding one business — not by accident, by design. One of those streams was season passes: 730 of them, with 300 already locked in from returning riders, leaving 430 to sell in a ten-week window before the season opened. Broken down, that's six passes a day, every day, not "sell as many as we can and hope." Six a day is a target you can actually manage; "as many as possible" isn't.
The same business ran one of the simplest KPIs I've ever set with a client: the on-site mechanic offered fifty customers a free bike check. One number, tracked weekly. Repairs went up. Rentals went up. Accidents went down. One small, deliberately chosen number, smoothing a business that used to run entirely on weather.
"Kevin is a master of his craft... Participants don't just sit and listen; they leave buzzing with breakthrough ideas and simplified, highly effective growth strategies."
— Darilyn Kane, Coaching and Advisory Lead, The Icehouse
This isn't for you if "that's just our busy season" is where the thinking stops. It is for you if you're ready to make the quiet months pay their way too.
If your business only really works four months of the year, that's exactly the kind of constraint we'd start with.
Sunday, November 01, 2026
Revenue can climb for years while the business quietly becomes more dependent on you, not less. Here's the growth driver most SME owners never put on their own dashboard.
Sunday, November 01, 2026
You cancelled the weekend away again. If you can't step away long enough to ask whether a coach is worth it, that's not a reason to skip the question — it's the reason to ask it.
Sunday, November 01, 2026
94% of NZ owners say they're not reaching their business goals. Not from lack of effort — from nowhere to see progress. Here's the visible scoreboard that fixes it.
Sunday, November 01, 2026
If every deal needs your personal persuasion to close, you don't have a sales process — you have a treadmill. Here's how to fix the offer so it does some of the selling for you.
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.
Sunday, November 01, 2026
Saying yes to every enquiry feels safer than growth. It isn't. Here's the strategic choice — who you're actually playing to win with — that most SME owners never make on purpose.
Sunday, November 01, 2026
Most NZ businesses are owner-run and many have no staff, so advice has to fit one person's week. Here is how coaches, consultants, mentors and peer groups differ, what is publicly known about cost, and how RBPN funding can help. Checked 1 November 2026.
Sunday, November 01, 2026
Four well-known ways to get help growing your business, compared on who each suits, what is publicly known about cost, and the seven questions to ask before you sign. Checked 1 November 2026.
Saturday, October 31, 2026
Most SME owners have a 12-month plan for the business but no vision for their own life. Here is a simple 3-step fix, plus the research behind it.
Saturday, October 31, 2026
US owners lose 33 working days a year to financial worry, mostly from not knowing their numbers. Here's the 2-number Monday check that closes the gap.
Saturday, October 31, 2026
46% of NZ small business owners aren't paying themselves. Here's why that has to change, and the three moves that build it into a real habit, not a hope.
Saturday, October 31, 2026
US owners lose 22 hours a month to financial admin and 56% get blindsided by a tax surprise. Here's the E-Myth fix that gets the books off your desk for good.
Saturday, October 31, 2026
41% of US owners say the cash-flow gap between money in and bills out is their top stressor. Here's why better follow-up won't fix it, and the three moves that stop the chase before it starts.
Saturday, October 31, 2026
63% of US small businesses say word of mouth is key to new customers. Here's how to build that into a system that still works when you're not personally chasing it.
Saturday, October 31, 2026
68% of US owners have delayed a major decision purely from fear of getting it wrong. Here's the 15-minute premortem test that gets you unstuck before you spend another dollar on it.