Monday, November 09, 2026
Sales are up but the bank balance isn't following. Here's Marc Benioff's V2MOM — the one-page tool that turns a wish-list strategy into the few moves that actually protect your margin.
Plenty of SME owners have a business coach's number saved — and only dial it when something has already broken. A key client walked. Cash is tight. A senior hire didn't work out. That's not coaching. That's crisis management with a coaching label on it, and it's the single biggest reason owners underrate what coaching can actually do for their business. The data on this is clear: coaching works best as a sustained relationship, not a fire extinguisher.
The named enemy is Firefighter Coaching — engaging a coach reactively, only when something is visibly wrong, then quietly letting the relationship lapse once the immediate fire is out. It feels efficient (why pay for something you don't currently need?) but it means the coach only ever sees your business in crisis mode, never gets to build the pattern recognition that comes from watching it operate normally, and never gets the chance to help you avoid the next crisis before it starts. Research from the ICF Global Coaching Client Study, conducted with PwC across 2,165 clients in 64 countries, found that companies see a median return of seven times their coaching investment — but that return compounds with structured, ongoing engagement, not one-off sessions. The same research base recommends a minimum multi-month engagement with measurement checkpoints, because behaviour change takes repetition, not a single conversation.
You can read more on the ROI research in this breakdown of the ICF/PwC study.
1. Fixed cadence, not trigger-based — weekly or fortnightly, regardless of whether anything is "wrong." The value comes from the coach seeing patterns across months, not being parachuted in after the fact.
2. A standing agenda, not just a crisis agenda — every session covers the same three things: what moved forward, what's stuck, and what decision is coming up that needs outside perspective before it's made, not after.
3. A record that compounds — track what's been raised and resolved over months, so pattern-level issues (the ones that only show up over time) actually get seen instead of resetting every time a new crisis starts the conversation from zero.
"I catch up with Kevin once a week and it is definitely the highlight of my week. He just sees different opportunities so clearly. I would not have considered the B2C market as an opportunity before working with Kevin and now it is a major focus for us. He has opened up so many new opportunities for us."
— John Roberts, Co-owner and COO, Oragene
The honest reason most owners only call a coach in a crisis is that a fixed cadence feels like an ongoing cost, while a crisis call feels like a necessary one. But that framing has it backwards — the businesses getting the 7x return aren't the ones calling in a panic, they're the ones with a standing weekly slot where the small decisions get better before they ever become a crisis worth calling about.
If the only time you've spoken to a coach this year was in a crisis, that's the pattern Kevin helps you change first.
...and you become the owner who gets help before the crisis, not after it.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Most SME owners are fixing the wrong problem. Here's the 3-step method that finds the one constraint actually holding your growth back, before you spend another dollar.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
A third of US small business owners say they don't know whether they have the tools — AI included — to grow next year. That's not a confidence problem, it's a visibility one, and it's fixable in an afternoon.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Confidence up a quarter, down the next, tariffs easing then tightening — waiting for certainty is its own decision, and usually the wrong one. Here's a simple way to keep deciding well when the ground keeps moving.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
There's one role almost every SME owner has avoided filling for a year or more — while quietly doing it themselves instead. Here's the Who Not How framework, and the three-step test that makes the hire obvious.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
They nodded, asked great questions, said it's exactly what they need — then disappeared. Here's why warmth isn't a buying signal, and the three-message sequence that gets stalled deals talking again.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Most SME marketing describes the product and targets a demographic — and both miss why people actually buy. Here's the Jobs To Be Done framework, and how to find the job your business is really being hired to do.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Nearly half of businesses miss the target they set for themselves — and it's rarely because the team didn't try hard enough. Here's the three-number check that builds a 2027 target you can actually hit.
Monday, October 26, 2026
ActionCOACH, an EOS Implementer or an independent coach? A fair, source-linked guide for US owners, with a six-question test to match the help to your biggest constraint.
Monday, October 26, 2026
Gallup's 2026 global workplace data shows manager engagement is collapsing faster than everyone else's. Here's the research-backed 3-step fix for SME owners wearing the manager hat too.
Monday, October 26, 2026
Only about a third of seasonal businesses hold enough cash to cover their leanest months before the slow season hits. Here's the ten-minute reserve check before this year's peak trade.
Monday, October 26, 2026
A well-known coaching ROI study found a $7.90 return per $1 spent. Here's an honest look at where that number comes from, and what actually transfers to an SME owner.
Monday, October 26, 2026
Only around 20% of companies complete 80% of their strategic goals, and fewer than half of employees know what's expected of them. Here's how OKRs fix that at SME scale.
Monday, October 26, 2026
Bain research shows winning a new customer can cost up to 25 times more than keeping one you already have. Here's the CLV/CAC discipline that flips where your sales effort goes.
Monday, October 26, 2026
A 2026 Gartner survey found SMEs put just 12% of marketing spend into brand-building, against the 60% long-term research recommends. Here's what that costs you eighteen months from now.
Monday, October 26, 2026
Fewer than 5% of employees understand their company's strategy well enough to act on it. Here's the one-page scorecard that fixes it, reviewed in 15 minutes a week.