Keeping It Simple
The fastest, simplest ways to grow your business - no jargon, no fluff. Practical strategies that actually work for SME owners in the USA, New Zealand, and worldwide.
Most owners answer every problem in their business with the same reflex: how do I do this. It is the question that built the business in the early years, and it is the exact same question that quietly caps how big it can ever get, because there are only so many hours in an owner's week. After coaching more than two hundred businesses one-on-one since 2017, the single highest-leverage change I see an owner make is not a new marketing channel or a clever pricing move. It is swapping one question for another.
The Discount the Market Applies to You
Here is what owner-dependence actually costs, in real numbers, not just in tired evenings. Research compiled from the Value Builder System and reported by Duran Advisors found that businesses which can run without their owner at the centre sell at an average of 4.49 times pre-tax profit, against just 2.93 times for businesses that cannot, a swing of roughly 53 percent in the multiple a buyer will pay. On a business with 500,000 dollars in pre-tax profit, that gap works out to roughly 780,000 dollars of value sitting on the table, purely because the owner never got themselves out of the centre of the business. No single growth initiative reliably adds that much value on its own.
Who Not How: A Simple Switch in Plain English
Entrepreneur coach Dan Sullivan built a whole body of work around this single idea, often summarised as Who Not How. Stripped of the branding, it comes down to this: every time you catch yourself asking how do I do this, you train yourself to ask a second question instead, who could do this. Not eventually, not once the business can afford it, but as the default first question, because the honest answer is almost always that someone, or increasingly some tool, could take it on sooner than the owner thinks.
- Catch yourself mid-how - the moment you start solving a problem yourself, pause and ask who could own this instead of me.
- Score your week - for seven days, mark every task as only I can do this or someone or something else could. Most owners find the second pile is far bigger than they expected.
- Hand over one thing at a time - pick the highest-value item from the someone else pile and hand it over this month, not eventually.
"Specific to my business requirements and takes a systematic approach. Practical, specific, and pertinent to my business."
— Simon Keepa
Why This Question Is So Hard to Ask
Asking who instead of how means admitting the business might not need you exactly where you currently sit, which for most owners feels less like relief and more like a small identity crisis. That discomfort is precisely why an outside voice matters. Scoring the business honestly on owner-independence, then working through the handover one task at a time, is exactly the ground Kevin covers early with a new Simple-Growth client, because a growth plan built on top of an owner-dependent business is a plan built on sand.
Quick Wins
- Run the seven-day task audit this week and tally your only-I-can-do-this pile against your someone-else pile.
- Pick the single highest-value item from the someone-else pile and set a date this month to hand it over.
- Write down who or what could take it on, a team member, a new hire, or an AI tool, before you talk yourself out of it.
Key Takeaways
- Remember owner-independent businesses sell for roughly 53 percent more than owner-dependent ones, on the same profit.
- Swap how do I do this for who could do this as your default first question.
- Audit a week of tasks honestly to see how much really needs you personally.
- Hand over one task this month, not eventually, starting with the highest-value item on the list.
Kevin works personally with a select group of SME owners to build the systems, clarity and accountability that make growing without growing your hours possible.
Kevin D’Ambros-Smith
Kevin is the founder of Simple-Growth and a business growth coach with experience at DDB, Ogilvy, and Saatchi & Saatchi. He has co-founded 9 companies, coached 200+ business owners one-on-one, and holds a 9.5/10 NPS. Every article on this blog reflects real-world experience - no theory, no fluff.
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