Sunday, November 01, 2026
Saying yes to every enquiry feels safer than growth. It isn't. Here's the strategic choice — who you're actually playing to win with — that most SME owners never make on purpose.
You said yes again. Another enquiry that doesn't quite fit, another client who'll argue the quote, another project that'll eat your weekend for a margin that barely covers the diesel. You know this one won't be easy. You take it anyway, because turning down revenue feels like turning down the business itself.
Here's the question worth asking before you chase one more customer: do you actually know who you're trying to win? Not "anyone who'll pay" — the specific, nameable kind of customer your business is built to serve brilliantly. Most SME owners can't answer that in one sentence, and it's costing them more than the client who argues the quote.
In over 30 years working inside global agencies and founding nine companies of my own, the pattern repeats: businesses that try to be right for everyone end up being unforgettable to no one.
Growth advice usually starts and ends with volume — more leads, more enquiries, more yeses. Nobody tells you that saying yes to the wrong customer is a decision, made over and over, that quietly sets your strategy for you. Every client you accept who isn't a genuine fit teaches your business, your pricing and your team that this is the kind of work you do. You don't drift into being the business that attracts difficult, low-margin, energy-draining customers. You choose it, one enquiry at a time, by never choosing anything at all.
A.G. Lafley and Roger Martin, who led Procter and Gamble's turnaround, built their strategy process around one deceptively simple question that comes before any other: where will you play? Not every market, not every customer — the specific arena you can genuinely win in. Only once that's decided does "how to win" matter. Most SME strategic plans skip straight to tactics — ads, offers, hustle — without ever properly answering the first question.
I watched this choice change everything for a high-end jeweller I worked with. Her mission was deliberately audacious: Rihanna wearing one of her designs to the Met Gala. It sounds like vanity until you see what it actually did — it told her, instantly, which commissions were worth her time and which weren't. Within the year, Cardi B and Stephanie Seymour wore her pieces in Paris. That didn't happen because she said yes to more customers. It happened because she got brutally clear on which ones she was playing to win with.
"I have grown my business 5x since working with Kevin. Everything Kevin told me to do was the complete opposite of what I had been doing. Working with Kevin has truly been a complete game changer."
— Richard, Chem Suppliers
Almost every owner I coach already knows, somewhere, which customers drain them. What stops them acting on it isn't ignorance — it's fear that saying no will leave a hole in the revenue nobody fills. That fear is solvable, but not by thinking harder about it alone. It's solved by building the pipeline and the pricing that make "no" safe to say, which is exactly the work a coach does alongside an owner, not instead of them.
This isn't for you if turning down revenue, even the bad kind, still feels impossible today. That's fine — it usually takes one real win with the right customer before "no" stops feeling like a loss.
If your calendar is full of customers who drain you instead of the ones who'd grow you, that's the first thing we fix.
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.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
46% of New Zealand business owners aren't paying themselves, Xero research found. Here's the Profit First fix that changes the order money moves through your business, not the hours you work.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
The share of businesses reporting serious dead stock has doubled since 2024, new research found. Here's why rising revenue can still mean tightening cash, and the three numbers that catch it early.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
42% of business owners named efficiency their top 2026 priority, a US survey found. Here's Michalowicz's Clockwork system for building a business that doesn't need you in every decision.