Wednesday, November 04, 2026
ActionCOACH offers a coaching network, the ABoS platform and two free weeks. Simple-Growth is one owner-run coach who finds your constraint first. Here is who each suits, what is public on cost, and six questions to ask. Checked 4 November 2026.
It's 11pm on a Thursday and you're still turning it over. Take the new premises. Fire the client who drains every Monday morning before you've had coffee. Launch into the second region. Drop the product line that barely breaks even. You've had the information for three weeks. You've run the numbers twice. And you still haven't pulled the trigger, because what if you're wrong, and it costs you the thing you've spent years building?
Here's what actually gets owners unstuck. Not more confidence. A five-question test built in 1979 for strategists running the world's biggest companies, that works just as well on a two-million-dollar business as it did on the ones it was built for.
I've made this exact mistake nine times over, in nine different companies I've founded or co-founded. The ones I regret aren't the launches that failed. They're the eighteen months I spent not deciding.
The advice SME owners get on big decisions is almost always some version of "trust your gut" or "just commit." That's the enemy here, not fear, not caution. Gut instinct built your business to where it is. It will not, on its own, tell you whether a decision is actually risky or just unfamiliar.
Bluevine's 2026 research into small-business stress found that 68% of US owners have delayed or avoided a major decision such as hiring or expansion in the past year, and 21% have done it four or more times (Bluevine, 2026). That's not a confidence problem shared by one in five owners. That's a missing tool, shared by most of them.
Michael Porter built this at Harvard to answer one question before any big move: is this environment actually worth entering, defending or leaving? Five forces, five honest answers, no spreadsheet required.
Score each one honestly, out of five, for the decision sitting on your desk. Most owners find the fear was pointed at the wrong force entirely. It's rarely the competitor they were worried about.
"What we achieved in the last 3 months working with Kevin would have taken 2 years. Kevin's assistance has been very inspirational to our staff. We have achieved changes and changes of thought patterns it could have taken 2 years in normal trading conditions."
— Chris, Global Culture
Here's the real obstacle. Knowing the five forces exist doesn't stop you running them alone, at 11pm, with no one to argue the other side. You'll score your own business generously. You'll underweight the force that's actually inconvenient to admit. That's not a character flaw — it's just what happens when the person scoring the decision is the same person who has to live with it.
That's the gap a second, outside set of eyes closes. Not someone who tells you the decision is safe. Someone who's run this exact test on thirty-plus industries and will tell you honestly which force you're underscoring.
This isn't for you if you're after a guarantee before you'll move — no framework hands you that, and anyone who promises it is selling something else. It is for owners who are ready to make the decision properly, rather than not make it at all.
Run the five forces on tonight's decision and you'll likely still choose to act. But you'll know why, and that's the difference between a decision and a guess you got lucky on.
If the decision you're avoiding has been sitting there for more than a fortnight, that's the first thing we'd look at together.
Wednesday, September 09, 2026
Category managers at major retailers are making their Q1 2027 ranging decisions right now. Most FMCG founders find out too late. Here's the Buyer-Ready Proof Pack framework that gets you into the conversation.
Wednesday, September 09, 2026
Most businesses plan for Q4 in January — after it's already over. The owners who consistently outperform their peers write their Q4 plan in September, while there's still time to act on what they find.
Wednesday, September 09, 2026
A new survey shows the average small business owner is running five jobs at once — and burning 200+ hours a year proving it. Here's the two-hat framework that gets your time back within 90 days.
Tuesday, September 08, 2026
New 2026 consumer data shows most shoppers are value-seekers, not bargain hunters — yet 95% still rate brand trust as important. Here's the six-point test your FMCG brand must pass to earn the sale without discounting.
Tuesday, September 08, 2026
New 2026 grocery data shows branded FMCG products are being promoted twice as often as private label — and still losing share and loyalty. Kevin D'Ambros-Smith on why discounting harder is the wrong fix, and what pricing architecture looks like instead.
Monday, September 07, 2026
A 2026 Fed survey of 6,525 small businesses found owner confidence at a 6-year low — while actual revenue, employment and profitability held steady. Why the gap, not the economy, is the real risk for SME and FMCG owners.
Sunday, September 06, 2026
Burst campaigns reset to zero every time. Here's why a sustainable weekly cadence beats an intense one-month push, and how to protect it through the slow months.
Sunday, September 06, 2026
Most SME sales forecasts are built by adding up pipeline value — and it's almost always wrong. Here's how exit criteria, deal age, and weighted forecasting fix it.
Sunday, September 06, 2026
Most of what fills an owner's calendar isn't driving results. Here's how to run a structured 80/20 audit that identifies the real 20% — and what to do with the rest.
Sunday, September 06, 2026
One-on-one coaching diagnoses and designs strategy. A peer accountability group enforces it. Here's why the combination produces follow-through that neither achieves alone.
Sunday, September 06, 2026
Organic growth isn't the only path. Here's how well-chosen SME acquisitions can compress years of growth into one transaction — and where most owners get the due diligence wrong.
Sunday, September 06, 2026
Most SME roadmaps fail from what they never remove, not what they add. Here's the three-question kill list to run before your next planning cycle — and why pruning, not adding, is what actually frees up growth capacity.
Sunday, September 06, 2026
Paid social and search rent attention you don't own. Your email list is the one channel most SMEs already have permission to use — and almost never invest in properly. Here's how to turn it into a real asset.
Sunday, September 06, 2026
Most sales training focuses on the pitch and the close. The call is usually already lost in the first five minutes. Here's the agenda-set and diagnostic sequence that fixes it — at the team level, not just for one rep.
Sunday, September 06, 2026
Delegation doesn't fail because your team can't do the work — it fails because nobody defined what "done" looked like before the task started. Here's the four-part handoff that fixes it.