Wednesday, November 04, 2026
Revenue's up but your own pay still isn't? Mike Michalowicz's Profit First method flips the order so growth finally reaches your pocket.
Anyone can get certified as a business coach in a weekend course. Almost nobody has actually built nine companies, sat in boardrooms with McDonald's, Samsung, IBM and Nestlé, and lived through the specific, expensive mistakes that no course teaches. If you're asking what a business coach actually does, or whether a coach is worth the money, the honest answer starts with a question most SME owners never think to ask: has this person ever actually built what they're advising you to build?
The coaching industry has professionalised heavily over the past decade, and certification is now treated as the primary signal of quality. Certification proves someone understands a coaching framework. It proves nothing about whether they've made payroll in a bad month, navigated a supplier collapse, or turned around a business that was genuinely failing. The best predictor of useful advice isn't a qualification — it's scar tissue. A coach who has personally lost money on a bad hire will ask you sharper questions about your next hire than one who has only ever read about hiring mistakes.
Before engaging any coach, run them through three questions that certification alone can't answer.
1. What have you built, specifically? — Not “advised” or “consulted to.” Built, owned, and been personally on the hook for. Ask for the number of businesses and what happened to each one.
2. What's your worst mistake, in detail? — A coach with real scar tissue will answer this specifically and without flinching. One with only theory will pivot to a generic answer about “learning experiences.”
3. Would they take the advice themselves? — Ask what they'd do in your exact situation if it were their own money and their own team. The answer should sound like a decision, not a framework.
"Kevin D'Ambros-Smith presented on the Icehouse Owner Manager Programme and he was brilliant… it was the most notes I have ever taken from any speaker."
— Steve Holloway, Founder, Between Two Beers Podcast
Credentials are easy to verify from a website. Scar tissue requires a real conversation, and most SME owners are too polite, or too new to the coaching relationship, to ask a prospective coach hard personal questions about their failures before signing up. It feels rude. It isn't — it's due diligence, and it's exactly the kind of question a good coach will welcome, because they know the answer is their strongest credential, not their weakest.
Kevin works personally with a select group of SME owners to build the systems, clarity, and accountability that make growth inevitable — not accidental. 30 years and nine companies of scar tissue included.
...and you become the owner who gets advice from someone who has built what you are building.
Sunday, October 18, 2026
Most growth plans start with last year's number plus a guess. Here is the three-number market-sizing check that separates a real plan from a wish list.
Saturday, October 17, 2026
Nearly 8 in 10 small business owners say long-term planning feels harder than ever. The usual fix, a better template, isn't the one that works — here's the exercise that fixes it before you build the plan.
Saturday, October 17, 2026
NZ retail lifted productivity 9.1% without adding hours, while national output per employee fell. Here's how to grow revenue before you grow headcount.
Saturday, October 17, 2026
Most owners expect a coach to fix things in week one. Here's what actually happens in the first 90 days, and why that structure is the real breakthrough.
Friday, October 16, 2026
A 2026 Bain survey found fewer than half of CEOs believe their company can execute fast enough, even with full teams and budgets behind them. Here is the weekly rhythm that turns a good plan into tracked progress for an owner running the show solo.
Friday, October 16, 2026
A bank survey found 98% of small business owners do not know their company's value. Most shrug because they are not selling. That is the mistake: the work that lifts value is the same work that lifts growth right now.
Friday, October 16, 2026
Global surveys put client satisfaction with coaching at 95 percent good or excellent. The unhappy minority almost always skipped the same three checks before they signed. Here is what to check before you do.
Friday, October 16, 2026
67% of founders work more than 50 hours a week, and most of those hours go to re-explaining tasks or double-checking work that did not need it. The fix is matching your leadership style to each task's readiness level.
Friday, October 16, 2026
Seventy-seven percent of B2B buyers call their last purchase complex, with six to ten people in the room. Most SME sales reps still pitch like there is only one decision maker, then blame price when the deal goes quiet.
Friday, October 16, 2026
Eighty-four percent of consumers say they plan to buy from a small business in the next two months. Most of that goodwill never converts, and it is not because customers do not care. It is because there is no specific offer ready to meet them.
Friday, October 16, 2026
Most SME owners are hitting their numbers, so why is confidence falling? The real reason isn't the economy. It's what's missing from next year's plan, and the three-question test that fixes it before you finalise a dollar of it.
Thursday, October 15, 2026
Owners testing something new are far more likely to expect faster growth. Here is how to find the adjacent customer segment sitting right next to yours.
Thursday, October 15, 2026
Thought a business coach was out of budget? For many eligible NZ businesses, the Regional Business Partner Network can cover a large share of the cost.
Thursday, October 15, 2026
Some SME leaders are already getting a half-day a week back from AI. Here is the simple filter that decides what to automate, augment or leave alone.
Thursday, October 15, 2026
It was not the pitch that killed your last deal. It was the four weeks of silence after it. Here is the follow-up sequence most SME sales teams never build.