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.
Landing the big account feels like the win that changes everything — and for a while, it is. Then one day that single customer is 40% of revenue, and the business isn't being run by its owner anymore. It's being run by whatever that customer decides next.
The math behind concentration risk
Customer concentration is simple to calculate and most SME owners have never actually done it: take your top customer's revenue as a share of total revenue. Above roughly 20%, you're exposed. Above 30%, that customer effectively has a vote on your business's future — a delayed payment, a renegotiated margin, a decision to bring supply in-house, and your numbers move whether you had any say in it or not. I've worked with FMCG founders who landed a major national retail listing, watched revenue triple, and only later realised that one buyer's category review now decided their year.
Signs you're already exposed
The warning signs are rarely subtle once you look: a single customer whose head office contact you know better than most of your own team, pricing conversations that increasingly go the customer's way because you can't afford to lose the account, and a growth plan that quietly assumes this relationship continues exactly as it is. If your forecast for next year falls apart the moment one customer's buyer changes their mind, that's concentration risk, not a plan.
Diversifying without walking away from your best customer
The fix isn't to shrink the big account — it's often your most valuable relationship and should stay that way. The fix is building the next two or three accounts deliberately, on a timeline, rather than opportunistically whenever a lead happens to appear. Set a target for what the top account's share should be in twelve months, then work backward to what pipeline has to exist to get there. Treat new-account development as a standing priority with its own numbers, not something that only gets attention when the big customer already feels shaky.
Turning concentration into leverage, not liability
A large anchor customer isn't automatically a risk — it's a risk when it's unmanaged. Businesses that handle this well use the credibility of the big account to open doors elsewhere ("we supply X" is a strong door-opener with a second retailer), while actively working the percentage down over time. The goal isn't to avoid big customers. It's to make sure no single one of them can end your year by changing their mind.
Not sure how exposed your business actually is to one customer or account? Mapping concentration risk and building the diversification plan is standard SME Growth work inside the Simple-Growth System™. Get in touch with Kevin D'Ambros-Smith.
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.