Wednesday, November 04, 2026
Riding a feast-or-famine sales cycle with no idea who to chase? The CLV/CAC method turns a quiet month into a plan, not a panic.
How much does a business coach cost in NZ? Ask five owners and you'll get five different numbers, because the question itself is incomplete. The real question isn't the monthly fee — it's what an engagement costs you in lost time and lost momentum when it doesn't work. And the cheapest coaching option is very often the most expensive one, once you count what it fails to deliver.
Owners comparing coaches on price alone are comparing the wrong variable. A low-cost, low-accountability coaching subscription that gets skipped every second month costs nothing on the invoice and everything in opportunity — a year of plateaued revenue, a problem left to compound, a team still waiting for the clarity that never came. Meanwhile a properly structured engagement that costs more upfront but produces a measurable shift in six months is, by any honest accounting, the cheaper option.
Is a business coach worth it? Only if the format matches what actually changes behaviour — and that depends far more on structure and accountability than on the price on the invoice.
1. Diagnostic depth. A coach who understands your specific business, industry, and numbers within the first session is worth more than a generic mindset programme, no matter how much cheaper the programme is.
2. Structured accountability. The value isn't the conversation — it's the dated commitment checked at the next session. If nothing is tracked between sessions, you're paying for company, not coaching.
3. Applicability, not theory. Practical, specific, and pertinent to your business beats generic frameworks delivered the same way to every client, regardless of industry.
This is exactly why the Simple-Growth System™ is built around named frameworks and dated actions rather than open-ended conversation — the cost of coaching should be measured against a specific, tracked shift, not a feeling of having "had a good chat."
"One of the highlight presentations during OMP. Really enjoyed your wisdom and insight — thanks Kevin!"
— Liz Wotherspoon, Director, The Icehouse
Most owners know, once they've been through it, whether a coaching engagement actually changed anything. What they rarely do beforehand is ask the coach directly how accountability is structured, what gets tracked between sessions, and what a typical client outcome looks like in numbers. That single set of questions, asked before signing up, does more to protect the investment than any amount of price comparison.
If you've ever finished a coaching call unsure what actually changed, the problem isn't coaching — it's the structure you paid for.
...and you become the owner who can point to exactly what your coaching changed.
Monday, October 12, 2026
64% of marketers can't tell competing brands apart. Here's the one-sentence positioning formula that makes sure your customers always can.
Monday, October 12, 2026
Most SME owners already know their real edge isn't price. Here's why benchmarking competitors kills that edge, and how first-principles thinking builds a strategy around it instead.
Monday, October 12, 2026
Sunday, October 11, 2026
Coach, consultant, mentor or advisor? How the four roles differ, which one suits an established NZ business, and the questions to ask before you pay.
Sunday, October 11, 2026
Gallup's 2026 data shows global employee engagement fell to 20 percent, even in the best-performing regions. Here's the three-question check SME owners can run this week to find out where their own team really stands.
Sunday, October 11, 2026
Everyone agrees December is too close to Christmas to prospect. One sales agency's own client data says the businesses that kept going saw 19 percent more leads the following January.
Sunday, October 11, 2026
Most SME owners can describe next year's budget in detail and go quiet the moment you ask about year ten. A UK study of over 1,000 companies found that gap predicts success almost on its own.
Sunday, October 11, 2026
Most SME owners build their people plan around courses. The research behind the 70-20-10 model says courses are the smallest lever you have, and it is worth knowing how shaky that research actually is.
Sunday, October 11, 2026
A lead called within five minutes is up to 100 times more likely to be contacted and 21 times more likely to qualify than one called 30 minutes later. Almost nobody does it.
Sunday, October 11, 2026
Most SME owners think a logo is a brand. The agencies behind the world's biggest brands have never worked that way. Here is the five-layer model they actually use.
Sunday, October 11, 2026
Nearly half of SMEs have run a SWOT analysis in the last two months, yet most cannot say it changed a single decision. Here is the simple matrix that turns the list into action.
Sunday, October 11, 2026
Burger King once sold a one-cent Whopper only to people standing next to a McDonald's. Here is the under-$5k version any SME owner can run, and what a 1760s potter teaches about removing buying risk.
Saturday, October 10, 2026
Most small business owners feel confident about their sales pipeline right now. New research shows that confidence is measuring the wrong thing entirely.
Saturday, October 10, 2026
Rising revenue and a shrinking bank balance usually mean the same thing: one account doing the job of four. A simple account split fixes it before it becomes a crisis.
Saturday, October 10, 2026
A coaching style that worked in your first month can quietly become the wrong one by your twelfth. The best coaches change how they coach you as you change.