Sunday, November 01, 2026
Most NZ businesses are owner-run and many have no staff, so advice has to fit one person's week. Here is how coaches, consultants, mentors and peer groups differ, what is publicly known about cost, and how RBPN funding can help. Checked 1 November 2026.
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.
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.
Thursday, October 15, 2026
Most SME marketing stops the moment someone buys once. Here is the Value Ladder that gives your best customers an obvious next step, and why 74 percent never get one.
Thursday, October 15, 2026
A growth plan with no diagnosis is just a wish list with a date on it. Here is the three-part test that separates a real strategy from guesswork, before your next budget gets signed off.
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Everyone in your industry follows the same playbook. Here is why fresh eyes beat it, plus a one-hour exercise to borrow a proven idea from another industry this week.