Thursday, November 05, 2026
Most owners do not lack ideas. They lack a weekly rhythm that turns a plan into action. A five-question check, who Making It Happen ($297) suits, who should skip it, and the real next step. Checked 5 November 2026.
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.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Most productivity advice optimises the calendar you already have. The real fix is deciding what doesn't belong on it. Here's the 90/10 diagnostic for finding — and protecting — the small share of your week that actually drives growth.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Most sales training focuses on the pitch and the close. The outcome is usually decided in the first five minutes. Here's the diagnostic-first opening sequence that changes conversion rates without changing your product or your price.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Most SME marketing leads with product specs. Buyers respond to stories. Here's the system for finding, capturing, and multiplying the customer stories you already have — with an FMCG-specific angle on letting the shelf and repeat-purchase data talk.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Most SME owners treat pricing as a set-and-forget cost calculation. Here's why price is actually the highest-leverage growth lever in your business — and the three-number method for testing whether you're underpriced.
Friday, September 04, 2026
A new study puts SME admin overload at $17,000 per employee a year — and finds AI tools alone aren't fixing it. Why systems have to come before software.
Friday, September 04, 2026
A business can grow revenue 40% in a year and be in more financial danger at the end of it than the start. Here's why fast growth without a cash plan is a warning sign, not a win.
Friday, September 04, 2026
The first ninety days of coaching are almost always productive. Here's why so many engagements quietly plateau around month six, and how to keep them accelerating.
Friday, September 04, 2026
If your business needs you in the room to keep functioning, you haven't built a business — you've built a demanding job. Here's how to test and fix that.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Chasing every enquiry equally is why sales teams stay busy and pipelines stay thin. Here's the qualification filter that protects your best sellers' time for leads that will actually close.
Friday, September 04, 2026
A shopper's eye moves across a shelf in under three seconds — if your packaging or marketing needs explaining, it's already lost. Here's what actually earns the second look.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Most growth plans set a revenue number and never check whether the business can actually deliver it. Here's how to build strategy around your real capacity constraint instead.
Friday, September 04, 2026
67% of SME owners fund growth mainly from personal savings, 38% from credit cards, and only 22% from a bank loan. Why that's a risk, not a strategy — and what a real capital plan looks like instead.
Friday, September 04, 2026
67.4% of small business owners know they need a price rise — only 31% have made it. Here's why pricing needs a system, not nerve, and what that system looks like for SME and FMCG owners.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Every scaling SME hits the same transition — from a business that runs on the founder's instincts to one that runs on a team making good decisions without checking first. Here's how the ones that navigate it deliberately do it.
Friday, September 04, 2026
Being "coachable" isn't a fixed trait some owners have and others don't — it's a decision made fresh every week. Here's what actually determines whether coaching sticks.