Thursday, November 05, 2026
Flat revenue usually has one cause, not five. Five checks, each with one number, help you find which link is holding your business back before you hire, advertise or discount.
A major retailer or a bigger competitor offers to put your product on their shelf under their own label, at guaranteed volume, no marketing spend required — and it feels like the growth break you've been waiting for. Kevin has watched a dozen FMCG founders take that deal in the last few years, and he has watched most of them regret it within eighteen months. Private label manufacturing can be a legitimate part of an SME growth strategy. It is almost never the free win it looks like on the term sheet, and the founders who get burned are usually the ones who said yes without running the numbers past the guaranteed volume line.
Private label deals are seductive because they solve the hardest problem in FMCG — guaranteed distribution — without the years of grind that building your own brand shelf presence normally takes. But volume isn't growth if it comes at the cost of margin, capacity, and brand equity all at once. Kevin has seen businesses take on a private label contract that filled 60% of production capacity at wafer-thin margin, leaving no room to service their own branded customers during peak season — and no leverage to renegotiate once the retailer knew how dependent they'd become. The deal that looked like growth on the way in becomes a single customer holding the business hostage on the way out.
1. Cap the capacity — Set a hard ceiling on what percentage of production any private label contract can consume, before you negotiate. Most businesses that get hurt never set this number in advance.
2. Price the exit, not just the entry — Model what happens to your cost base and cash flow if the retailer cancels the contract in twelve months. If that scenario sinks the business, the contract is too large.
3. Protect the brand line — Keep your own branded product's shelf presence and marketing investment intact regardless of the private label volume. The moment your own brand goes quiet to service someone else's label, you've stopped growing your business and started growing theirs.
"Kevin has some amazing ideas around marketing, things we would have never thought of ourselves. He also helped us through the process of getting into supermarkets. He has gone above and beyond what he needed to!"
— Amy Nixon, Icehouse Coaching Programme
Cash flow pressure makes guaranteed volume irresistible in the moment, and the long-term brand cost is invisible on a term sheet — it only shows up eighteen months later, in a P and L that's grown in revenue but shrunk in margin and control. This is a decision that benefits enormously from an outside read before signature, not after: someone who has sat on both sides of exactly this kind of deal and can price the real risk before the ink dries, not once the retailer already holds the leverage.
If a private label conversation is on your table right now, get the numbers checked before you sign — not after.
...and you become the owner who grows the brand on your terms, not a retailer's.
Thursday, October 22, 2026
When offers look alike, price is all that is left to compare. What New Zealand telecoms teach SME owners about escaping the price war.
Thursday, October 22, 2026
Get more from the link that limits your growth before you spend a dollar on it. A 14-day, no-new-spend plan for SME owners.
Thursday, October 22, 2026
Score eight links in your business from 1 to 5 and the weakest, earliest link is usually your constraint. A 20-minute self-check for SME owners.
Thursday, October 22, 2026
Referrals just became small business owners' #1 source of new customers — up from 65% to 83% in a single year. Here's the Dream 100 system that turns word of mouth into a repeatable growth engine.
Thursday, October 22, 2026
Roughly one in four founders report loneliness and isolation running their business. Here's what a coach actually does differently, and why the first session is rarely about strategy.
Thursday, October 22, 2026
NZ small business sales rose 8.6 percent this quarter, but growth ranged from 2.9 to 16.3 percent by industry. Here's the three-number check that tells you whether your growth is actually yours.
Thursday, October 22, 2026
Only 30 percent of business change efforts fully succeed. Here's the three-part diagnosis, borrowed from strategy academic Richard Rumelt, most owners skip before fixing anything.
Thursday, October 22, 2026
Close to six in ten of this year's US holiday shoppers are already buying, in October or year-round. Here are three sales moves to make this week before Black Friday arrives.
Thursday, October 22, 2026
77.6 percent of US consumers used AI to help with a purchase decision in the past six months. Here are three moves that make your small business visible when customers ask AI about you.
Thursday, October 22, 2026
54 percent of US business owners have no real plan, and only 11 percent have anything detailed. Here's the one-afternoon exercise that gives your business a sharper three-year direction than any spreadsheet.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
Before you spend another dollar on ads, staff or software, find the one step that limits your growth. Here is a one-hour spend-gate test you can run this week.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
ActionCOACH began in Brisbane, Australia. What does its story tell US owners about where good growth ideas come from, and how to test an outside idea in your own business?
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
SME owner confidence is climbing, but for most, revenue isn't following. Here's why time isn't your real constraint, and the three-step framework that finds the one that is.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
49% of business owners question monthly whether running the business is worth it, a US survey found. Here's what changes when someone else is asking that question with you.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
Nearly half of NZ SME owners are planning Christmas trading changes, MYOB research found, and most of it is a discount. Here's how to build memory before you build the offer.