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Mohammed Shabeeb, national director of BNI Qatar and GCC director for ActionCOACH, outlined in a Gulf Times column published Monday how many business owners apply inconsistent explanations to their revenue performance. When sales rise, owners point to strategy, positioning and vision validation, according to Shabeeb. During periods of declining sales the same owners cite market conditions, client caution or competitor disruption. The executive quoted investor Peter Lynch as saying, “Losers take the credit in the good times and then blame the market in the bad times. Winners take responsibility regardless of the outcome.” Shabeeb maintained that this pattern of attribution leaves most owners unaware of the true drivers of revenue and prevents businesses from achieving lasting growth.
Shabeeb described marketing as a system rather than a mood. The system should bring strangers to the business, convert them into paying customers, encourage repeat purchases and generate profit in a predictable way, he wrote. If an owner cannot describe marketing in those terms then the business lacks a genuine system and operates on hope alone, according to the analysis. Unpredictable results follow from inconsistent inputs rather than from any inherent volatility in the market itself.
The ActionCOACH executive pointed to five revenue and profit levers identified by company founder Brad Sugars. Those levers are leads, conversion rate, transactions per customer, average sale value and margin. Shabeeb explained that multiplying the levers in sequence produces overall profit and that a 10 percent improvement in each compounds to increase revenue by roughly 46 percent and profit by about 61 percent. Owners who cannot identify which levers moved in the past quarter are essentially guessing rather than managing, he stated.
Shabeeb advised owners to accept responsibility for outcomes in both strong and weak periods. By measuring one lever honestly and adjusting it deliberately each week, an owner can regain control over results instead of defaulting to external excuses, according to the column. The market did not decide quarterly revenue, Shabeeb wrote, adding that the owner did. Starting with a single lever allows for deliberate experimentation that builds a true system over time.
Figures from the US Chamber of Commerce show that nearly 20 percent of startups fail due to team problems and other human-resource issues tied to poor management. Analyses of small and medium-sized enterprises across the GCC have highlighted similarly low survival rates, with the average Saudi SME lasting only seven years, according to Tharawat Magazine. These patterns align with broader findings that insufficient managerial skills and lack of formal systems contribute to business underperformance or collapse.
A comparative study on entrepreneurship in Qatar found that low levels of internal resources and managerial competencies inhibit firm initiation and growth in the country. The study noted that many small businesses struggle with innovation, distribution and scaling precisely because owners lack structured approaches to key functions such as marketing and operations. Shabeeb’s emphasis on measurable levers and systematic marketing addresses one dimension of these documented regional challenges for SMEs.
