Monday, November 02, 2026
Seven things you can check before you hire a business coach, and how ActionCOACH, Business Mentors NZ, EOS, Simple-Growth and The Icehouse compare on each. Method and bias disclosed. Checked 2 November 2026.
Saturday morning. Laptop open at the kitchen table, "just for twenty minutes." Two hours later you're still there, and everyone else has quietly given up waiting and gone without you. You weren't being lazy or careless about it — you were "working on the business," which is supposed to be the responsible version of this.
If that scene is familiar, the problem usually isn't how many hours you're working. It's that almost nothing in the business has a clear owner other than you, so every hour you protect for family quietly becomes negotiable the moment something comes up.
There's a popular idea that the fix for owner overwhelm is simply to work ON the business instead of IN it — think strategically rather than do the tasks. That's true as far as it goes, but it quietly assumes someone else is available to do the tasks you stop doing. If no one is, "working on the business" just becomes the owner doing the same work, with worse boundaries around family time, not less of it.
It's a widely shared cost. In New Zealand in 2023, 47% of small business owners reported losing time with friends and family over the previous 12 months (Xero Money Matters, 2023). That's not a time-management footnote. For almost half of owners, it's the actual, lived cost of running the business.
I block my own diary until midday Monday and mid-morning Tuesday, every single week, purely for thinking time — no meetings allowed in, no exceptions for "quick calls." I don't have fewer demands on my time than you do. I decided which hours were mine before anyone else could claim them, and I protect that decision the same way every week, not just on the weeks it feels convenient.
Based on Dan Sullivan's Who Not How thinking: instead of asking "how do I get this done," ask "who could do this instead of me." Most tasks in a small business don't actually require the owner's unique ability — they just require the owner's availability, because no one else has been clearly handed the job yet.
"Kevin had a no-nonsense approach and tackled the issues head on. Accountability was the key."
— Ashley Berrysmith, Icehouse Coaching Programme
Most owners know delegation is the real answer. They don't do it, because handing something over feels slower in the short term, even though it's the only thing that scales past the owner's own hours. The accountability piece matters more than the task list — someone has to actually check whether the handover held, or it quietly drifts back to you within a fortnight.
This isn't for you if you've genuinely built a team with real authority that you trust to run without you checking. If that's true, you've already solved this. If you're not sure it's true, that's worth testing properly.
You don't need more willpower to protect your weekend. You need one task handed over on purpose this week — and that's genuinely doable before Friday.
Be the owner whose business runs a Saturday without you, so you can be at the table with your family.
If your business still can't run a Saturday without you, that's the first thing Kevin will work on with you.
Monday, October 05, 2026
There is no single best business coach in the USA. Here are five criteria for choosing one, a fair look at the main formats, and why an outside perspective can change what you see in your own business.
Monday, October 05, 2026
Eighty-four percent of small business owners sacrifice health or relationships to their business, new 2026 data shows. Here is the Transferability Number test that shows why, and what to fix first.
Monday, October 05, 2026
You're about to have your busiest quarter of the year. If nobody's planned for it, your bank balance is about to go the wrong way at exactly the moment the business looks like it's winning.
Monday, October 05, 2026
Ask most owners what they do and they'll answer instantly. Ask them why their business exists, beyond making money, and watch the pause. That pause is costing you customers, hires and referrals.
Monday, October 05, 2026
Ask your team to name the business's single most important goal this quarter. Five different answers from five people means you have one problem, not twelve: nobody knows what the goal actually is.
Monday, October 05, 2026
You trained your team to build rapport and never push, and your best customer last quarter still went with the competitor who pushed them to rethink the brief. Here's why relationship-selling is the weakest profile in B2B sales.
Monday, October 05, 2026
You've boosted the posts, hired the agency, rewritten the website twice, and the phone still isn't ringing. Before you spend another dollar, ask whether a stranger could explain what makes you different in one sentence.
Monday, October 05, 2026
Your competitor just launched the move you'd been 'finalising' for six months. Here's the fifty-year-old decision framework that fixes the real problem: not your strategy, your decision speed.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
EOS, Scaling Up, Vistage, ActionCOACH or Simple-Growth? A fair comparison with best-for and not-ideal-if for each option, a fit matrix and a nine-question quiz.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
What does a business coach cost in New Zealand? Published monthly and hourly ranges, cheaper options, how RBPN co-funding can help, and a checklist for judging value.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
New 2026 global research shows trust alone only earns a brand 48 percent acceptance into new territory - relevance takes it to 71 percent. Here is the two-question test that finds the real gap before you spend on expansion.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
The personal touch that built your reputation at ten staff quietly becomes the bottleneck that breaks it at thirty. Here is how to turn a habit into a system before it costs you.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
Most owners check star ratings and warm adjectives before hiring a coach. Here is the three-detail test that tells you whether a review is evidence or decoration.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
The Christmas shutdown is about eleven weeks away. Here is the one-page-per-role handover document that decides whether you actually switch off this year.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
The biggest sales research study ever run found the best reps ask, they don't tell. Here is the SPIN method, and the four questions that come before any pitch.