Friday, November 13, 2026
62% of US owners have skipped or cut their own pay this year (Bluevine, 2026). Profit First, and Kevin's own lesson about hiring his own coach, show owners how to pay themselves first, not last.
Last updated 14 November 2026. Published by Simple-Growth (Motherbase Limited). Market: New Zealand.
If you held back a hire, a price rise or a spend until after the 7 November election, the wait is over and the decision is still on your desk. Here is what the latest New Zealand surveys say, and a 30-day plan to restart.
Disclosure: Simple-Growth, the business that publishes this guide, sells business coaching. Kevin D'Ambros-Smith is an approved Regional Business Partner Network provider and a partner of The Icehouse. Weigh what follows with that in mind. Every figure below links to the page it came from, and this guide takes no view on the election result.
MYOB's SME survey of 502 New Zealand owners and decision-makers, run by Dynata between 17 August and 8 September 2026 (margin of error plus or minus 5%), found 41% said election uncertainty was hurting their confidence, 16% said it was lifting it and 35% said it made no difference. Asked how they were responding, 34% were reviewing budgets and cashflow more closely, 33% were reducing spending, 24% were holding more cash and 29% were looking for new revenue sources. MYOB's chief executive said many owners were "choosing to hold their position until there's more certainty".
The pattern to notice is that mood is high while expected investment is lower. Owners feel better than they are yet prepared to act. Neither survey says what is right for your business. Both are national, not small-business-only, so treat them as weather, not a forecast for your shop floor.
"Working with Kevin has pushed us to step back and look at the business from the outside. He's easy to bounce ideas off, and he keeps us focused on working on the business instead of getting stuck in the day-to-day."
Ben Leitch
Home Lab Store
That is one client's experience, not a promise of your result.
In MYOB's survey of 502 NZ SME owners (17 August to 8 September 2026), 41% said election uncertainty was having a negative effect on their confidence, and 33% were reducing spending. The survey did not report a percentage of owners who delayed a specific decision.
ANZ's October 2026 Business Outlook shows a net +52.5 confidence reading, and NZIER's September 2026 quarter survey shows a net 43% of firms expecting conditions to improve. Both are national surveys, not small-business-only.
ANZ's October 2026 survey shows pricing intentions at their highest since May. Whether you should depends on your own costs and margins. Start with your top customers by margin and check before you send anything.
Possibly. Regional Business Partner co-funding can cover up to 50% of one-to-one coaching for businesses with fewer than 50 FTE. Confirm eligibility and caps with your Regional Business Partner first.
Put a monthly dollar cost on the delay of each parked decision and restart the largest one first. Write the number you will check at 30 and 90 days before you start.
Not sure which decision to restart first? A 30-minute conversation will tell you honestly, including when you do not need a coach. For other options see the EOS or coach guide and the business coaching hub.
Sources (opened 14 November 2026): Mortgage Professional Australia/NZ, Election uncertainty weighs on small business confidence: MYOB, 2 October 2026 (New Zealand); ANZ Business Outlook, 29 October 2026 (New Zealand); Reuters via KFGO, NZIER QSBO September 2026 quarter (New Zealand); Business Mentors NZ (New Zealand); MBIE, AI-powered tools to support small business growth, 11 June 2026 (New Zealand). Last updated 14 November 2026.
Ready to find your one constraint?
Thursday, October 29, 2026
36% of NZ SMEs use AI, but the smallest firms trail by 34 points. Here is a four-question test for choosing your first AI job, and a 30-day plan.
Thursday, October 29, 2026
Nearly half of SME owners say their business doesn't have a money problem — it has a time problem. Here's the 90-day Freedom Plan to fix it.
Thursday, October 29, 2026
A business with four equal customers loses 25% of revenue the day one leaves. Here's the customer-concentration math most SME owners never run, and three moves to fix it.
Thursday, October 29, 2026
A lot of owners try the wrong format, see no shift, and decide coaching doesn't work for them. Here's what a peer room is actually good for, what 1:1 coaching is actually good for, and a 3-check way to pick.
Thursday, October 29, 2026
HBR's review of meeting research found about 70% of meetings kept employees from the work they were meant to enable. Here's Verne Harnish's meeting rhythm, sized for an SME before year-end.
Thursday, October 29, 2026
Reps close 2.9x more deals at month-end and lose 11.4x more margin doing it, one major study found. Here's why the plan is the problem, not the rep, and three fixes.
Thursday, October 29, 2026
45% of US consumers used AI for a local business recommendation this year, up from 6% last year. Here's why schema markup won't fix your AI visibility, and what will.
Thursday, October 29, 2026
Jim Collins found that companies which broke away from average performance could name, with brutal precision, what they could be best in the world at. Here's the three-circle test and the goal that pairs with it.
Wednesday, October 28, 2026
Big-brand positioning is a decision, not a budget. Five questions, a one-sentence position and a five-touchpoint audit you can run this week.
Wednesday, October 28, 2026
Which jobs should a US small business hand to AI first? Published US data, a five-check test and a 30-day plan to pick one job, track one number and keep the decisions that matter.
Wednesday, October 28, 2026
Most small business owners already believe AI works, but barely one in ten has invested in using it properly. Here is the simple ladder for turning casual AI use into real, compounding productivity gains.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Vet and allied health practices rarely have a clinical problem. Here is how to find the real constraint, keep patients returning and build a 90-day growth plan.
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.