Business By Design

Hosted by Stuart Wemyss & Mena Abraham

Business Entrepreneurship

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Episodes

202

Latest episode

Oct 2026

Language

EN-AU

About the show

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

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60 recent

October 20, 2026Episode 9025 min

Ep 202: Systems and processes for growth: Map before you fix

Send us Fan Mail Most businesses lose time, margin and customers at the handovers nobody owns. Mena and I map the full customer journey, the backbone of systems and processes for business growth, then show how to assign owners and hunt down hidden waste. Every business runs on five stages: reach, sales, delivery, billing and after-sales care. Southwest Airlines’ 2022 meltdown shows what processes nobody can see end up costing Give each stage one directly responsible individual (Apple’s DRI idea) and a defined output. “The sales team looks after sales” isn’t an assignment; “sales ends with a signed proposal and deposit in hand” is Scaling usually breaks business operations at the handovers, not inside the stages. When one owner is accountable for each handover, the founder can stop doing everything in the business Toyota’s seven wastes are a useful lens for finding the steps your processes have outgrown, such as duplicate spreadsheets or chasing information that should arrive automatically Chapters 00:00 - Zooming out from one process to the whole business 01:20 - Why you can’t fix a process you can’t see 03:27 - Southwest Airlines: what invisible processes cost 05:20 - The five-stage customer journey 07:09 - Airtasker: a journey designed end to end 09:06 - One owner and one defined output per stage 10:56 - Apple’s directly responsible individual 13:28 - When handovers fail: the bank promotion example 16:41 - Hunting waste: Toyota’s seven categories 19:52 - Auditing your core processes 22:49 - What to do next: four steps References Ep 198: Trust is the real thing your customer is buying Ep 200, the customer advocacy episode Ep 201, the founder-as-hero episode 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.

October 13, 2026Episode 8923 min

Ep 201: Business systems and processes: Why talent won't scale

Send us Fan Mail If your business still runs through you, that is an engine problem, not a people problem. Mena and I break down what systems and processes for business growth actually look like, and the four numbers that show whether yours work. Most owners start as what Michael Gerber calls the technician: excellent at the work, but stuck working in the business rather than on it. Learning to step off the tools as a business owner starts with building systems from day one Try the holiday test. If you couldn't take two to four weeks off at short notice without clients or your P&L suffering, you have an engine problem A real system has five parts: a trigger, defined inputs, clear steps, a consistent output, and an owner who keeps it current. Codify the mechanical steps the way McDonald's did, and train for the judgment calls with decision trees and escalation points To build a business that runs without you, track four numbers for each core process: cycle time, error rate, rework, and onboarding speed Chapters 00:00 - From value to engine: the next VERT pillar 01:56 - Why talented people don't scale: the E-Myth technician 04:42 - The real cost of a founder-dependent business 07:26 - The holiday test 08:17 - What a business system actually is: five parts 11:15 - The WHO Surgical Safety Checklist 12:39 - Mechanical steps vs judgment calls 16:02 - Four numbers that show whether your engine is working 19:58 - Four questions to reflect on 22:39 - Next week: map the journey before you fix it References Ep 186: The Holiday Test: Can your business run without you? The E-Myth, by Michael Gerber Ep 200, last week's episode on customer advocacy 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.

October 6, 2026Episode 8822 min

Ep 200: Referral engine framework: Buy attention, earn advocacy

Send us Fan Mail Your happiest clients are often your best source of new business, yet most owners leave referrals to chance. Mena and I walk through a referral engine framework: earn advocacy first, ask at the right moment, and make the introduction low risk. You can buy attention, but you have to earn advocacy. Fyre Festival's influencer spend couldn't cover for a promise it never delivered The right time to ask is straight after a client acknowledges the value they've received. Swap "do you know anyone?" for a question tied to the specific problem you just solved Referring is risky for the client, so position introductions as a no-obligation second opinion, make the process simple, and commit to treating every referral with the same respect If you're working out how to get consistent leads for your business, start with the clients you've already delighted. A pricing strategy for small business that protects margin funds the experience people talk about, while discounting trains clients to wait for a sale Chapters 00:00 - Why customer advocacy needs a system 02:10 - Buying attention vs earning advocacy: Fyre Festival 04:32 - The right moment to ask for a referral 07:24 - A better question than "do you know anyone?" 09:46 - Why referrals feel risky, and how to reduce that risk 14:34 - Pricing power and the advocacy flywheel 18:10 - Five questions to test your advocacy system 21:22 - Our 200th episode, and what's next: the Engine pillar References Ep 199: Why are your best customers quietly leaving? Ep 198: Trust is the real thing your customer is buying Ep 197: Pricing is a system, not a sticker Ep 196: Pricing strategy: are you a price maker or a price taker? 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.

September 27, 2026Episode 8723 min

Ep 199: Why are your best customers quietly leaving?

Send us Fan Mail Here's the uncomfortable truth: by the time a customer tells you they're leaving, you're usually too late to do anything about it. The decision was made months earlier, when they quietly began questioning the value; nobody noticed, and the cancellation email just makes you the last to know. In this final episode of the Value series, Stuart and Mena reframe churn as the most honest feedback your business receives, if you're willing to understand what's behind it. Mena explains why retention starts at onboarding, not the renewal conversation, with the goal being to make value visible as fast as possible, closing the gap where doubt creeps in (Canva as the example). Stuart offers four lenses for reading every departure: value, trust, fit, and friction, using MoviePass to show how a single churn number can hide several problems at once. Mena insists each category needs a named owner (with Ritz-Carlton's $2,000 staff discretion showing what real authority looks like). Stuart then explores when losing customers is healthy: Nike's wholesale pullback and its telling reversal, and Mena covers how to end relationships respectfully, protecting your reputation. 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.

September 20, 2026Episode 8625 min

Ep 198: Trust is the real thing your customer Is buying

Send us Fan Mail Every time someone buys from you, they're taking a risk: will you do what you promised? Trust is what gives them the confidence to proceed, and without it, a great product, sensible pricing, and sharp marketing still won't close the sale. This episode unpacks how trust is built, borrowed, and lost. Mena explains why price and frequency determine how much trust a purchase requires: a $4 coffee versus a $40,000 renovation, and why your sales process must reflect the risk the customer feels (Guzman y Gomez versus a Koala mattress). Stuart introduces the trust equation: credibility, reliability, and intimacy, divided by self-interest, with Vanguard's ownership structure as a striking example of how low self-interest can be built into the model rather than merely claimed. Mena draws the line between borrowed credibility, which opens the door, and earned trust, built through direct experience and the idea of a "trust account" where deposits and withdrawals are never equal. Stuart offers four practical ways to make it easier for customers to trust you, and Mena connects consistency back to your systems and why delivering well 80% of the time still leaves customers worrying. 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.

September 15, 2026Episode 8525 min

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.

September 8, 2026Episode 8420 min

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 base The 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 sits If 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 cost Price 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 exposed Chapters 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.

September 1, 2026Episode 8327 min

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.

August 25, 2026Episode 8228 min

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.

August 18, 2026Episode 8123 min

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.