Sunday, November 08, 2026
Only finding out how last month went weeks later? An NBA team’s gamified sleep stats and the One Metric That Matters framework fix that this week.
It’s 9pm, the kids are in bed, and you’re doing the invoicing because nobody else can be trusted with it, right after you did the books and right before you remember the tax return is due. You tell yourself this is temporary, that it’ll ease up once the business is bigger. It won’t — not unless something about how you spend your time actually changes.
You’re not lazy and you’re not disorganised. US research from Xero’s 2026 Emotional Tax Return study puts the average small business owner at roughly 22 hours a month on financial admin alone, with 56% blindsided by a tax surprise during the year. That’s nearly three working days a month spent on tasks that don’t grow the business — they just keep it from falling over.
I’m not here to tell you to work harder. I’m here to show you the one question that frees up most of those 22 hours.
The advice most owners get is some version of “get up earlier” or “block your calendar.” That treats the symptom. The real problem is that you’re trying to be excellent at everything — sales, delivery, the books, the tax, the hiring — when excellence at everything is simply not available to one person. The villain isn’t your work ethic. It’s the belief that doing it all yourself is the responsible option.
Gary Keller and Jay Papasan built a whole book, and a whole way of working, around one question: what’s the one thing you can do such that, by doing it, everything else becomes easier or unnecessary? Applied to an overloaded owner, it’s brutally simple — the books and the tax aren’t your one thing, no matter how long you’ve been doing them. Handing them to a bookkeeper or an accountant isn’t weakness. It’s the single highest-leverage move most owners in your position haven’t made yet.
I used to be a recovering perfectionist myself — redrafting emails and decks endlessly before anything went out the door. What changed it wasn’t more discipline. It was accepting that something published at 70 to 80% beats something perfect that never leaves your drafts folder, because it can’t work for you until it’s actually out in the world. The same logic applies to admin: a bookkeeper who gets your numbers 90% right, fast, beats you doing them 100% right, late, at 9pm, after everyone else is asleep.
"Specific to my business requirements and takes a systematic approach. Practical, specific, and pertinent to my business."
— Simon Keepa, Icehouse Coaching Programme
You already know you should hand this off. The reason you haven’t is trust — it’s your money, your risk, and letting go feels like losing control of the one part of the business you can actually see clearly. That’s a real fear, not a silly one, and it’s exactly where a second pair of eyes helps: building the handover properly, with the right checks in place, so letting go doesn’t mean losing visibility.
This isn’t for you if control matters more to you than your evenings. The ONE Thing only works if you’re willing to be genuinely average at the tasks that aren’t yours to be excellent at.
If you’re still doing the books, the invoicing and the tax at 9pm, that’s the first thing Simple-Growth helps you hand off properly.
Sunday, October 18, 2026
Most growth plans start with last year's number plus a guess. Here is the three-number market-sizing check that separates a real plan from a wish list.
Saturday, October 17, 2026
Nearly 8 in 10 small business owners say long-term planning feels harder than ever. The usual fix, a better template, isn't the one that works — here's the exercise that fixes it before you build the plan.
Saturday, October 17, 2026
NZ retail lifted productivity 9.1% without adding hours, while national output per employee fell. Here's how to grow revenue before you grow headcount.
Saturday, October 17, 2026
Most owners expect a coach to fix things in week one. Here's what actually happens in the first 90 days, and why that structure is the real breakthrough.
Friday, October 16, 2026
A 2026 Bain survey found fewer than half of CEOs believe their company can execute fast enough, even with full teams and budgets behind them. Here is the weekly rhythm that turns a good plan into tracked progress for an owner running the show solo.
Friday, October 16, 2026
A bank survey found 98% of small business owners do not know their company's value. Most shrug because they are not selling. That is the mistake: the work that lifts value is the same work that lifts growth right now.
Friday, October 16, 2026
Global surveys put client satisfaction with coaching at 95 percent good or excellent. The unhappy minority almost always skipped the same three checks before they signed. Here is what to check before you do.
Friday, October 16, 2026
67% of founders work more than 50 hours a week, and most of those hours go to re-explaining tasks or double-checking work that did not need it. The fix is matching your leadership style to each task's readiness level.
Friday, October 16, 2026
Seventy-seven percent of B2B buyers call their last purchase complex, with six to ten people in the room. Most SME sales reps still pitch like there is only one decision maker, then blame price when the deal goes quiet.
Friday, October 16, 2026
Eighty-four percent of consumers say they plan to buy from a small business in the next two months. Most of that goodwill never converts, and it is not because customers do not care. It is because there is no specific offer ready to meet them.
Friday, October 16, 2026
Most SME owners are hitting their numbers, so why is confidence falling? The real reason isn't the economy. It's what's missing from next year's plan, and the three-question test that fixes it before you finalise a dollar of it.
Thursday, October 15, 2026
Owners testing something new are far more likely to expect faster growth. Here is how to find the adjacent customer segment sitting right next to yours.
Thursday, October 15, 2026
Thought a business coach was out of budget? For many eligible NZ businesses, the Regional Business Partner Network can cover a large share of the cost.
Thursday, October 15, 2026
Some SME leaders are already getting a half-day a week back from AI. Here is the simple filter that decides what to automate, augment or leave alone.
Thursday, October 15, 2026
It was not the pitch that killed your last deal. It was the four weeks of silence after it. Here is the follow-up sequence most SME sales teams never build.