Thursday, November 05, 2026
Busy one month, silent the next, and no idea which deals were ever real? Neil Rackham's SPIN questions surface the truth weeks before a quiet month does.
Two SME owners can both grow revenue 20% in a year and end up in completely different positions. One did it by winning a string of one-off deals that each required fresh effort to find, win, and deliver. The other built two or three mechanisms — a referral loop, a retention system, a repeatable channel — that made next quarter's growth easier than this quarter's. Only one of them is actually compounding. If you're wondering how to grow revenue without hiring more staff, the answer almost always lives in the second kind of growth, not the first.
Most SME growth is deal-shaped, not system-shaped. A big contract lands, a great hire brings in a wave of referrals, a trade show produces a spike — and then the business is back to a standing start, hunting for the next spike. It's widely documented that acquiring a new customer costs several times more than retaining an existing one, with commonly cited research putting the multiple at roughly five to seven times, sometimes more. Invesp's research comparing acquisition and retention costs is a useful reference point for any owner still building next year's growth plan primarily around new-deal hunting rather than compounding mechanisms.
The test for whether growth is compounding is simple to ask and uncomfortable to answer honestly.
1. Name this quarter's growth source — Was it a mechanism (a channel, a referral system, a retention process) or an event (a deal, a hire, a lucky break)?
2. Ask if it makes next quarter easier — Does the growth you just achieved leave behind an asset — a customer list, a referral habit, a repeatable process — that reduces the effort needed next time? Or does it evaporate the moment the deal is delivered?
3. Reinvest specifically in the compounding third — Of everything driving growth right now, identify the one mechanism with real compounding potential and put deliberate resource behind it, even if it looks smaller than your biggest one-off deal.
"You make success tangible. Help me go from a wish to reality. Now have clarity of purpose and belief. You made tripling the size of my business go from seeming impossible to really possible."
— Lina, Good Gravy
Chasing the next deal is exciting and immediate. Building a compounding mechanism is slow, unglamorous, and doesn't produce a win you can announce this month. Most owners default to the exciting option because it's the one that feels like progress, even when the numbers show it isn't building anything that lasts. This is exactly where an outside operator changes the conversation — pointing at the pattern across two or three years of results and asking the question the owner has been too busy chasing the next deal to ask themselves: what did last year's growth actually leave behind?
The business owners who keep chasing the next deal will be in the same place this time next year. The ones who build compounding mechanisms won't.
...and you become the owner who builds growth that is still working for you next quarter.
Thursday, October 29, 2026
AI speeds up whatever you point it at. Here is how to match it to the one link in your business that is actually limiting growth, before you spend on tools.
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.