Australia’s most respected professional services and wealth management firm.

I’ve met thousands of business owners over the years. And I can tell you, there are two kinds.

There are the ones who do. And there are the ‘gunnas’.

You know the type. Maybe you are the type – and if you’re being honest with yourself right now, that’s actually a good sign. The gunna business owner is smart. Motivated. They talk a genuinely great game. They’ve read the books, attended the events, nodded along to every piece of advice they’ve ever received.

A plan only matters when something gets done.

They’re gunna sort out the org chart. They’re gunna get the reporting right. They’re gunna reduce their own key-person risk, build out the leadership team, document the systems, create some recurring revenue, and finally have that conversation about what the business is actually worth.

Gunna. Gunna. Gunna.

Shoulda. Woulda. Coulda.

Here’s the hard truth. None of that counts. Not a single bit of it. Because in business, the only question that matters is a simple one: did you or didn’t you? Yes or no?

There’s no prize for planning to fix the thing. There’s no valuation uplift for meaning to have the conversation. The market doesn’t reward intention. It rewards execution.

And the gap between the two – between knowing what needs to happen and actually making it happen – is where most SME businesses quietly stall.

I see it all the time. An owner turns over $5 million, $10 million, $20 million. From the outside, the business looks like it’s moving. Revenue is coming in. The team is busy. There’s always something urgent to deal with.

But underneath? The foundations haven’t changed in years. The business still runs on the owner. The reporting is still messy. The systems still live in people’s heads. The key-person risk is still sitting there like a ticking clock.

And the owner knows it. They’ve always known it.

They’re just gunna fix it. Soon.

Now, I’m not saying this to be harsh. I’m saying it because I’ve been there. We all have. The ‘gunna’ reflex isn’t laziness — it’s usually fear dressed up as busyness. Big-picture change can feel so daunting that it’s easier to stay in motion on the urgent stuff than to stop and do the important stuff.

But here’s what I want you to understand. You don’t fix a business all at once. You fix it one decision at a time. One call. One conversation. One system documented. One process handed over. Small steps, taken consistently, that over time transform what your business looks and feels like – and what it’s actually worth.

The owners who build businesses with real enterprise value aren’t the ones who had the most ideas. They’re the ones who stopped being gunnas and started being doers.

So here’s my challenge. Write down the one thing you’ve been gunna do for the longest. The thing that keeps getting bumped. The thing you already know matters.

Now do it. Not next week. Not next quarter.

This week.

Because you can. It’s easy to do.

It’s also easy not to do.

And that’s been the whole problem all along.

Your choice.

Author: Peter Thurin, Keynote Speaker, Consultant, and Mentor