Keeping It Simple
The fastest, simplest ways to grow your business - no jargon, no fluff. Practical strategies that actually work for SME owners in the USA, New Zealand, and worldwide.
Monday, October 05, 2026
There is no single best business coach in the USA. Here are five criteria for choosing one, a fair look at the main formats, and why an outside perspective can change what you see in your own business.
Every SME owner has a version of the same list — the strategic project that matters most and has sat untouched for weeks. It's not laziness. It's not a lack of ambition. It's that the task is too big to start, so it never gets started at all, and willpower alone was never going to fix that.
Willpower Is the Wrong Tool for This Job
Most productivity advice treats procrastination as a discipline problem — try harder, wake up earlier, want it more. In practice, procrastination is almost always a sizing problem. "Fix the pricing strategy" or "sort out the export plan" aren't tasks — they're entire projects wearing a task's clothing, and the brain correctly refuses to start something with no visible edge to it. The fix isn't more willpower. It's making the task small enough that starting requires none.
The 20-Minute Rule
The rule is simple: no task on your list is allowed to survive as a vague project. Before it earns a spot on today's plan, it has to be broken down to something you could genuinely finish, or make visible progress on, in twenty minutes. Not "fix the pricing strategy" — "list the five competitor prices you don't already know." Not "sort out the export plan" — "email the two freight forwarders you shortlisted last month." Twenty minutes has a start and an end. A vague strategic project has neither, which is exactly why it keeps losing to your inbox.
Sequencing Beats a Longer List
The second half of the fix is sequencing, not listing. A to-do list ranks importance. A sequence decides order — what has to happen before the next thing can even start. Owners who procrastinate on the big project usually haven't actually decided what the very next twenty-minute action is; they've just written the outcome down and hoped clarity would arrive on its own. It won't. Decide the next action, in writing, before you close the laptop each day, and tomorrow's procrastination has nothing left to attach to.
Making It a System, Not a One-Off Fix
The 20-minute rule works for a week through sheer novelty. It works for a year when it's built into how the business plans — every strategic initiative broken into a sequence of small, ownable actions before it's allowed onto anyone's plate, including the owner's own.
Got a strategic project that's been sitting untouched for a month? Breaking it into a sequence anyone can actually execute is core to the Simple-Growth System™ — get in touch with Kevin D'Ambros-Smith to get it moving.
Kevin D’Ambros-Smith
Kevin is the founder of Simple-Growth and a business growth coach with experience at DDB, Ogilvy, and Saatchi & Saatchi. He has co-founded 9 companies, coached 200+ business owners one-on-one, and holds a 9.5/10 NPS. Every article on this blog reflects real-world experience - no theory, no fluff.
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Monday, October 05, 2026
There is no single best business coach in the USA. Here are five criteria for choosing one, a fair look at the main formats, and why an outside perspective can change what you see in your own business.
Monday, October 05, 2026
Eighty-four percent of small business owners sacrifice health or relationships to their business, new 2026 data shows. Here is the Transferability Number test that shows why, and what to fix first.
Monday, October 05, 2026
You're about to have your busiest quarter of the year. If nobody's planned for it, your bank balance is about to go the wrong way at exactly the moment the business looks like it's winning.
Monday, October 05, 2026
Ask most owners what they do and they'll answer instantly. Ask them why their business exists, beyond making money, and watch the pause. That pause is costing you customers, hires and referrals.
Monday, October 05, 2026
Ask your team to name the business's single most important goal this quarter. Five different answers from five people means you have one problem, not twelve: nobody knows what the goal actually is.
Monday, October 05, 2026
You trained your team to build rapport and never push, and your best customer last quarter still went with the competitor who pushed them to rethink the brief. Here's why relationship-selling is the weakest profile in B2B sales.
Monday, October 05, 2026
You've boosted the posts, hired the agency, rewritten the website twice, and the phone still isn't ringing. Before you spend another dollar, ask whether a stranger could explain what makes you different in one sentence.
Monday, October 05, 2026
Your competitor just launched the move you'd been 'finalising' for six months. Here's the fifty-year-old decision framework that fixes the real problem: not your strategy, your decision speed.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
EOS, Scaling Up, Vistage, ActionCOACH or Simple-Growth? A fair comparison with best-for and not-ideal-if for each option, a fit matrix and a nine-question quiz.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
What does a business coach cost in New Zealand? Published monthly and hourly ranges, cheaper options, how RBPN co-funding can help, and a checklist for judging value.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
New 2026 global research shows trust alone only earns a brand 48 percent acceptance into new territory - relevance takes it to 71 percent. Here is the two-question test that finds the real gap before you spend on expansion.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
The personal touch that built your reputation at ten staff quietly becomes the bottleneck that breaks it at thirty. Here is how to turn a habit into a system before it costs you.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
Most owners check star ratings and warm adjectives before hiring a coach. Here is the three-detail test that tells you whether a review is evidence or decoration.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
The Christmas shutdown is about eleven weeks away. Here is the one-page-per-role handover document that decides whether you actually switch off this year.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
The biggest sales research study ever run found the best reps ask, they don't tell. Here is the SPIN method, and the four questions that come before any pitch.