Business By Design

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Business by Design is the podcast for owners who want to start, scale or exit a business. Each week, Stuart Wemyss and Mena Abraham unpack the four things every business must get right: value, engine, reach and team. Using the VERT flywheel, they show how these fit together to build a business that runs without you, and how the choices you make inside the business flow through to your personal wealth, lifestyle and exit options. Every episode is short and to the point, with no fluff and no sales pitches. Go to https://www.businessbydesignpodcast.com 

  1. hace 3 días

    Ep 197: Pricing is a system, not a sticker

    Send us Fan Mail Two businesses can charge the same price today and be on opposite margin trajectories five years from now, purely because of the architecture sitting underneath that number. One gets more profitable as it grows; the other gets squeezed with every new customer. This episode is about designing that architecture on purpose. Mena starts with discounting as a diagnostic: persistent discounting isn't a sales problem but a signal pointing at one of three causes, and J.C. Penney's disastrous 2012 "fair and square" experiment shows why you can't simply switch off years of trained customer behaviour. Stuart then unpacks the traps of unit pricing, the default model most owners fall into without choosing it, from the billable hour that punishes efficiency to the petrol-station race no one wins on quality. Mena lays out the real choice between fixed, tiered and modular pricing (with Australia Post, Canva and IKEA as clean examples), and Stuart explains why scope is the boundary that makes any of them work. Finally, Mena drives home the cost base as a non-negotiable floor, using Porter Davis Homes' collapse under fixed-price contracts as the cautionary tale. Closes with four steps to build your own pricing system. If this episode resonated with you, please leave a rating on your favourite podcast platform. It helps us reach more incredible listeners like you. Thank you for being a part of the journey! Click here to subscribe to our weekly email. Work with Mena & Stuart's team: At ProSolution Private Clients we encourage clients to adopt a holistic and evidence-based approach when making financial decisions. Visit our website. Follow us: Stuart: Twitter/X and LinkedIn.  Mena: LinkedIn IMPORTANT: This podcast provides general information about finance, taxes, and credit. This means that the content does not consider your specific objectives, financial situation, or needs. It is crucial for you to assess whether the information is suitable for your circumstances before taking any actions based on it. If you find yourself uncertain about the relevance or your specific needs, it is advisable to seek advice from a licensed and trustworthy professional.

  2. 8 sep

    Ep 196: Pricing strategy: are you a price maker or a price taker?

    Send us Fan Mail Price is the most powerful profit lever most business owners never think about. In this episode, Mena and I break down the pricing strategy question that matters most: are you a price maker or a price taker? A modest price rise can lift profit far more than an equivalent cost cut or volume increase, since it drops straight to the bottom line and improves your margin without touching your cost baseThe value map: plot your competitors on price against perceived value to see whether your market is commoditised or genuinely open to premium pricing, and where the white space sitsIf you're a price taker, there are only two real levers, deliver more value than the market expects, or build a leaner engine so you can deliver at a lower costPrice is a signal customers read before they've experienced anything. Price too low and the market assumes the quality is low too, price too high without anything to back it up and you're exposedChapters  00:16 - Why pricing is the most powerful lever on profit  02:29 - Building the value map: price makers versus price takers  06:21 - What to do if you land in the price taker camp  10:15 - Price as a signal: what buyers read into it before they buy  12:43 - When value based pricing tips into unfair pricing  17:55 - This week's homework: map your own position Reference links  Last week's episode on building a brand promise is referenced directly at the open, and next week's episode on pricing models is flagged at the close. Neither title nor link is confirmed in the transcript itself, so whoever publishes this should drop in the actual links rather than me guessing at either title. If this episode resonated with you, please leave a rating on your favourite podcast platform. It helps us reach more incredible listeners like you. Thank you for being a part of the journey! Click here to subscribe to our weekly email. Work with Mena & Stuart's team: At ProSolution Private Clients we encourage clients to adopt a holistic and evidence-based approach when making financial decisions. Visit our website. Follow us: Stuart: Twitter/X and LinkedIn.  Mena: LinkedIn IMPORTANT: This podcast provides general information about finance, taxes, and credit. This means that the content does not consider your specific objectives, financial situation, or needs. It is crucial for you to assess whether the information is suitable for your circumstances before taking any actions based on it. If you find yourself uncertain about the relevance or your specific needs, it is advisable to seek advice from a licensed and trustworthy professional.

  3. 1 sep

    Ep 195: People don't buy features, they buy a better life

    Send us Fan Mail Most owners sell backwards. You built the thing, so you know every feature and inclusion, and that's exactly what comes out of your mouth when you sell it, while the customer's eyes glaze over.  They were never buying a spec sheet; they were buying a different version of their life. Sell the feature, and you compete on the feature; someone will always build it cheaper. Sell the outcome, and prove it, and price becomes the last objection, not the first. Mena breaks down the three layers every customer buys at once: functional, emotional, and social value using Canva as the case study, and why a strong offer hits all three by design.  Stuart shows how to compress that into a Core Promise: one sentence, in the customer's own words, that they could repeat without you (think Domino's, Bunnings, FedEx) plus why the proof underneath the promise is where businesses fall. Then the part owners skip: quantifying the cost of inaction, with Blockbuster's ten-year compounding mistake as the warning.  Finally, the three forms of proof mechanism- social proof, guarantee, and a FedEx masterclass that ties it all together. Closes with a four-part self-audit. If this episode resonated with you, please leave a rating on your favourite podcast platform. It helps us reach more incredible listeners like you. Thank you for being a part of the journey! Click here to subscribe to our weekly email. Work with Mena & Stuart's team: At ProSolution Private Clients we encourage clients to adopt a holistic and evidence-based approach when making financial decisions. Visit our website. Follow us: Stuart: Twitter/X and LinkedIn.  Mena: LinkedIn IMPORTANT: This podcast provides general information about finance, taxes, and credit. This means that the content does not consider your specific objectives, financial situation, or needs. It is crucial for you to assess whether the information is suitable for your circumstances before taking any actions based on it. If you find yourself uncertain about the relevance or your specific needs, it is advisable to seek advice from a licensed and trustworthy professional.

  4. 25 ago

    Ep 194: How to reverse-engineer your customer’s ‘Yes’

    Send us Fan Mail Before you can test whether people will pay, you need to know whose "yes" you're actually chasing, and most owners get this wrong in a very specific way.  In this Value deep dive, Stuart and Mena introduce reverse-engineering the yes: start from the moment someone buys, then work backwards to the buyer, the outcome, and the trigger that got them there. Mena explains why "business owners" or "SMEs" isn't a target customer at all, just a category, using Peloton, Chewy, and Lululemon to show how precision changes everything from price to product.  The test: if your customer description could be swapped into a competitor's marketing and still make sense, it's too broad. Stuart reframes the real buyer around the progress they're trying to make: the barrister who sells career risk-reduction, the Amex Platinum buyer who's buying status, not what your product does. Then the three-part filter for a genuine customer: a live trigger (Ring's fear event versus Cleardocs' life-stage moment), constraints you design around (Planet Fitness deleting the contract), and the capacity, not just desire to pay (Tesla redesigning its buyer as price fell). Plus why being deliberate about who you're not for, à la Hermès and Costco, is a competitive advantage. If this episode resonated with you, please leave a rating on your favourite podcast platform. It helps us reach more incredible listeners like you. Thank you for being a part of the journey! Click here to subscribe to our weekly email. Work with Mena & Stuart's team: At ProSolution Private Clients we encourage clients to adopt a holistic and evidence-based approach when making financial decisions. Visit our website. Follow us: Stuart: Twitter/X and LinkedIn.  Mena: LinkedIn IMPORTANT: This podcast provides general information about finance, taxes, and credit. This means that the content does not consider your specific objectives, financial situation, or needs. It is crucial for you to assess whether the information is suitable for your circumstances before taking any actions based on it. If you find yourself uncertain about the relevance or your specific needs, it is advisable to seek advice from a licensed and trustworthy professional.

  5. 18 ago

    Ep 193: Stop scaling until someone actually pays you what you want/need

    Send us Fan Mail Founders love to scale, but scaling before anyone has paid a real price for a real outcome simply converts a slow failure into a fast, expensive one. In this episode, the first in a deep dive on Value, Stuart names the trap: scaling doesn't fix a weak offer; it just gives that weak offer more customers, more overhead, and more cash to burn. Mena draws the crucial line between attention and demand. Compliments, engagement, and "I'd definitely buy that" are evidence of interest, not a sale. The only test that matters is whether someone has actually paid, in cash, at or near your target price, and heavy discounting is itself a signal the offer isn't yet standing on its own. Stuart offers a sharp three-way diagnostic for when an offer isn't landing: is the problem the segment, the offer, or the message?, illustrated with Segway, Quibi, and early Dropbox.  Mena explains how to read the data rather than your feelings, and Stuart lays out fast, cheap tests you can run this month, from pre-selling to price testing. The gate before you scale: paid customers, at the price the business actually needs. If this episode resonated with you, please leave a rating on your favourite podcast platform. It helps us reach more incredible listeners like you. Thank you for being a part of the journey! Click here to subscribe to our weekly email. Work with Mena & Stuart's team: At ProSolution Private Clients we encourage clients to adopt a holistic and evidence-based approach when making financial decisions. Visit our website. Follow us: Stuart: Twitter/X and LinkedIn.  Mena: LinkedIn IMPORTANT: This podcast provides general information about finance, taxes, and credit. This means that the content does not consider your specific objectives, financial situation, or needs. It is crucial for you to assess whether the information is suitable for your circumstances before taking any actions based on it. If you find yourself uncertain about the relevance or your specific needs, it is advisable to seek advice from a licensed and trustworthy professional.

  6. 11 ago

    Ep 192: Can you describe your business model in four sentences?

    Send us Fan Mail Here's the challenge Stuart opens with: describe your business in four honest sentences, one each for why customers pay, how you deliver profitably, how the right people find you, and how quality holds as you grow. Most owners can talk about their business for an hour but can't compress it into four sentences that survive scrutiny, and that vagueness is itself the problem. This isn't an elevator pitch; it's a decision filter that reveals where you're genuinely strong and where you're quietly weak. Mena walks through the four questions in plain language, warning that "we work hard" is not an engine answer, while Stuart uses Apple as a worked example of what clarity actually looks like. The gap between your four sentences and Apple's is precisely the work to be done. Crucially, the discipline is sequencing, not simultaneous effort: score each sentence, find the weakest, and make it your ninety-day project while the others sit in maintenance. Stuart names the expensive mistake of scaling reach before value and engine are solid, which just spreads weakness faster, and Mena shows how the sentences become a tool for saying no. The goal isn't four polished sentences. It's a business that compounds by design. If this episode resonated with you, please leave a rating on your favourite podcast platform. It helps us reach more incredible listeners like you. Thank you for being a part of the journey! Click here to subscribe to our weekly email. Work with Mena & Stuart's team: At ProSolution Private Clients we encourage clients to adopt a holistic and evidence-based approach when making financial decisions. Visit our website. Follow us: Stuart: Twitter/X and LinkedIn.  Mena: LinkedIn IMPORTANT: This podcast provides general information about finance, taxes, and credit. This means that the content does not consider your specific objectives, financial situation, or needs. It is crucial for you to assess whether the information is suitable for your circumstances before taking any actions based on it. If you find yourself uncertain about the relevance or your specific needs, it is advisable to seek advice from a licensed and trustworthy professional.

  7. 4 ago

    Ep 191: Why your business has four problems, not forty

    Send us Fan Mail The three "killers" thin margins, poor reach, and weak demand- tell you what's failing, but not what to build. In this episode, Stuart and Mena introduce VERT: Value, Engine, Reach, and Team the operating system underneath those symptoms, and the four things you actually control. By the end, you'll have a single model to run every business decision through, instead of juggling forty disconnected problems. Mena maps the four pillars onto the three killers: margins sit at the intersection of Value (what you can charge) and Engine (what it costs to deliver); Reach gets you chosen but can't manufacture demand; and Team touches everything, holding the whole system together. Stuart then explains why VERT is a flywheel, not a checklist, each pillar reinforcing the next, so momentum comes from consistent pressure on the right point rather than one dramatic push across everything. Mena shares the green flags and red flags for spotting your weakest pillar, and the misdiagnosis trap, where the symptom and cause live in different pillars. Stuart closes with the four-bucket test: a two-question filter for every decision, and a rule to focus your weakest pillar for ninety days while the rest run in maintenance mode. If this episode resonated with you, please leave a rating on your favourite podcast platform. It helps us reach more incredible listeners like you. Thank you for being a part of the journey! Click here to subscribe to our weekly email. Work with Mena & Stuart's team: At ProSolution Private Clients we encourage clients to adopt a holistic and evidence-based approach when making financial decisions. Visit our website. Follow us: Stuart: Twitter/X and LinkedIn.  Mena: LinkedIn IMPORTANT: This podcast provides general information about finance, taxes, and credit. This means that the content does not consider your specific objectives, financial situation, or needs. It is crucial for you to assess whether the information is suitable for your circumstances before taking any actions based on it. If you find yourself uncertain about the relevance or your specific needs, it is advisable to seek advice from a licensed and trustworthy professional.

  8. 28 jul

    Ep 190: Thin margins and empty pipelines are design problems

    Send us Fan Mail A thin margin and an empty pipeline both feel like effort problems, so owners respond with more hours. It rarely works. In this episode, Stuart and Mena reframe both as outputs of how a business is designed its pricing, positioning, and channels- not how hard anyone is trying. Working harder on a broken design just scales the problem and burns the founder out. Mena starts with margin, and the distinction most owners never consciously made: are you a price maker or a price taker? In a price-taker industry like mortgage broking, the market sets the ceiling and effort can't move it. She lays out the three layers that shape margin: industry, business model, execution—so you can locate your own constraint. Stuart then reframes reach as an asset you engineer, not marketing you bolt on, introducing the "trust path": why low-risk, frequent purchases convert fast while high-risk, infrequent ones need a long runway of proof. Mena names the two ways reach breaks: expensive reach that drains cash, and fragile reach where one channel carries too much, plus a simple stress test to expose it. The takeaway: redesign the system rather than push through it. If this episode resonated with you, please leave a rating on your favourite podcast platform. It helps us reach more incredible listeners like you. Thank you for being a part of the journey! Click here to subscribe to our weekly email. Work with Mena & Stuart's team: At ProSolution Private Clients we encourage clients to adopt a holistic and evidence-based approach when making financial decisions. Visit our website. Follow us: Stuart: Twitter/X and LinkedIn.  Mena: LinkedIn IMPORTANT: This podcast provides general information about finance, taxes, and credit. This means that the content does not consider your specific objectives, financial situation, or needs. It is crucial for you to assess whether the information is suitable for your circumstances before taking any actions based on it. If you find yourself uncertain about the relevance or your specific needs, it is advisable to seek advice from a licensed and trustworthy professional.

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Business by Design is the podcast for owners who want to start, scale or exit a business. Each week, Stuart Wemyss and Mena Abraham unpack the four things every business must get right: value, engine, reach and team. Using the VERT flywheel, they show how these fit together to build a business that runs without you, and how the choices you make inside the business flow through to your personal wealth, lifestyle and exit options. Every episode is short and to the point, with no fluff and no sales pitches. Go to https://www.businessbydesignpodcast.com 

Información

  • Canal
    ProSolution
  • Creador
    Stuart Wemyss & Mena Abraham
  • Años de actividad
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodios
    197
  • Clasificación
    Apto
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Business By Design
  • Mostrar sitio web
    Business By Design

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