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Waste rarely looks like waste. When leaders think about cutting waste, they often picture obvious things: unused software, bloated overheads, expensive suppliers. But in most established small and mid-sized businesses, the biggest waste isn't a single line item. It's  duplication . It's the same work being done more than once, in different places, for slightly different reasons: Two people chasing the same customer update. Three versions of the same report with different numb

Supplier spend doesn't explode - it creeps. In most established SMBs, third-party spend grows quietly. A tool gets added to solve a short-term problem.An agency is hired to ‘buy time.’A supplier contract renews because nobody wants to deal with it this quarter.A retainer continues because ‘they know our business.’ None of that is irrational. Running a business is busy. Renewals and supplier reviews often feel like admin. But over time, the result is predictable: you start pay

If it's hard to join, try, or trust you, customers won't stick around. Or show up at all. This whole blog series has focused on building sustainable, recurring revenue. But now the series closes on something foundational: Friction. The invisible blocker of growth. The silent killer of scale. And the fastest way to lose customers before you've even started. Friction doesn't just hurt retention - It destroys conversion Too many businesses treat friction as a  churn  problem. Bu

In recurring revenue businesses, the real sale starts after signup. Acquisition might get the attention. Brand gets the love. Pricing gets the debate. But in recurring revenue models, engagement is what keeps you in business. You don't just win a customer once, you have to keep earning them. One-off communications, generic journeys, and half-hearted loyalty schemes don't cut it. If your customers aren't seeing value, they disengage. Quietly. And churn follows. Why the middle

Great products fail when they're sold in the wrong way, to the wrong people, in the wrong places. You've nailed your offer. You've priced it smartly. You've defined your ideal customer. Now comes a critical, and often overlooked part of the growth engine: How, where and through whom are you selling it? In recurring revenue businesses, channel strategy isn't just about distribution. It's about  visibility, margin, control and customer experience. And if your channels don't mat

Because even the best customers won't stick around if what you sell doesn't feel right for them. You've got your customer targeting sorted. You know who your most valuable segments are (see Blog 5).You're spending wisely to acquire them. But here's the next challenge: Are you offering them something they  actually value at a price they're willing to pay, long term? In recurring revenue businesses, where every month is another chance for a customer to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’, produ

Not all customers are created equally. Here's how to focus on the ones that fuel your growth. It’s easy to believe that more customers = more growth. But in recurring revenue businesses, that’s not always true. The wrong customers churn early, cost more to serve, and create noise in your model.The right customers stay longer, buy more, refer others and grow your valuation. If you want predictable, profitable growth, customer targeting can’t just be a marketing tactic. It has

Why businesses stall when sales, commercial, marketing, product and CX aren't pulling in the same direction, and what to do about it. You can have a clear vision. You can track all the right KPIs. You can have brilliant data, powerful tools, and a loyal customer base. But if your teams aren't aligned, your growth will stall, or worse, slip backwards. I've seen it time and again: businesses spending huge amounts on acquisition, only to be undermined by disjointed messaging, di

Why recurring revenue businesses need a single source of truth and how to actually use it. Most businesses are swimming in data. Dashboards. CRM exports. Finance reports. NPS scores. Google Analytics. Attribution models. Product usage charts. And yet, the same theme comes up time and again: "We have loads of data, but we're not making better decisions." That's not a data problem, it's a  clarity  problem.Because without a single source of truth, data doesn't unite your teams

Why measuring more isn't the answer, measuring better is. When I ask teams what KPIs they track, the answer is often the same:"A lot." Volumes. Revenue. Churn. CAC. CLV. CSAT. Leads. NPS. MRR. Traffic. Conversion rate. Social followers. App downloads. It's all there. But here's the problem: Not all KPIs are created equal - and too many can actually cloud your decision-making. In a recurring revenue business, knowing  what  to track and  why  matters more than having an impres

"If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there." -Lewis Carroll (and probably every founder mid-fundraise) In scale-up life and in my experience, even large corporates, it's easy to become consumed by short-term goals - next month's revenue, next quarter's churn rate, tomorrow's board meeting. But here's the truth: If your growth isn't anchored to a clear, shared vision, you'll waste time, talent and money chasing the wrong things. A vision isn't a wall st