Every business is carrying something it should have dealt with years ago. Most owners know exactly what theirs is.

Charlie leads with fix it, fund it or flog it, and the question underneath it: what are you still carrying that you probably should not be? He puts his own on the table straight away. The stationery side of the business, the part his dad started in 1989, still running its own vans and doing daily local drops, and no longer standing on its own two feet. Three national wholesalers have become one.

Matt refuses to let him flog it. His argument is that it is not a dying arm, it is an under-leveraged one. Every workwear customer should be buying stationery and the other way round, and the thing killing the margin is the van rather than the pens. Then he turns it on himself, with the service company he could be scaling and has chosen not to, and the decision he made years ago to kill off the markets that were seventy percent of turnover.

The back half is stock. Charlie's eight bottles of pandemic hand sanitiser, three years on a shelf. Matt on the barn with hay in one end, stock going into skips, and the argument about mouldy jackets. The point that lands hardest is an accounting one: if it has not sold in six months it is worth what someone will pay today, not what you paid for it.

Wins of the week are worth staying for. The first ever paid order through the new Workwear Innovation site, logo uploaded and embroidery paid for without a human touching it, and a stock bottleneck at the store fixed by someone in the warehouse asking an obvious question. Then the question of the week, in two parts, and Matt's answer to the second one is more honest than most owners would manage.

Takeaways:
📊 What a proper product line analysis almost always finds sitting at the bottom
🧠 Fix it, fund it or flog it, and why most owners quietly choose none of the three
🚩 If it has not sold in six months it is worth what someone will pay today, not what you paid
🤝 Why the van, not the product, is often the thing killing the margin
🎯 Name the part of the business you have been avoiding the decision about

Chapters:
Chapters:

(00:00) Shades, a teapot and low calorie breadsticks

(02:02) Episode 89, and how trade is going

(05:33) Doing a lot with not very much

(07:56) Back from France, and the pull of old habits

(09:50) Jacob Lockwood's new toy

(11:10) Win of the Week: first paid order through the new site

(12:41) Why Charlie has not promoted the site yet

(17:24) It does not need to be perfect, it needs to be live

(18:51) Matt: fixing the stock flow into the store

(19:49) DPD twice a week versus running your own van

(21:19) Fix it, fund it or flog it

(22:07) Where Abacus Repro actually came from

(23:20) The part of the business Charlie has been carrying

(25:31) Three stationery wholesalers down to one

(27:51) Matt: do not flog it, cross sell it

(31:35) Why Charlie has clung on for five years

(38:27) What Matt could be scaling and is choosing not to

(42:12) Killing the markets that were 70 percent of turnover

(44:30) Eight bottles of pandemic hand sanitiser

(45:15) A barn with hay in one end, and stock in skips

(48:24) Drawing sheets, nibs and a scanner nobody uses

(51:50) Walking past problems, including people

(53:05) Claude's Question of the Week

(54:17) Net realisable value, and what your stock is really worth

Follow Matt:
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You can be surrounded by staff, co-directors and customers and still be the only one carrying it. Matt reckons most owners know exactly how that feels.

Matt takes the lead on founder loneliness, and he is honest about his own. He runs the business with Rob and Sarah, but when something goes wrong it lands on him. The fact behind it is a December 2025 YouGov survey for the British Business Bank's Start Up Loans Company: 44 percent of UK smaller business owners have felt lonely or isolated running their business, rising to 56 percent for those with under ten staff. Only 38 percent do anything about it by connecting with other business leaders.

Charlie admits organised networking leaves him cold and he gets far more from reaching out directly. Matt's counter is that it was never the organisation, it is the people you meet through it, and he tells the story of a lunch that was meant to be about one specific opportunity and turned into a relationship with a man who has built and sold three companies. They also get into why hearing other owners say the same things out loud was such a relief to both of them, and Matt's theory that the better you get at this, the weirder you are.

The other half of the problem is delegation. The Sinclair rule on what your time is actually worth, a job passed down the chain twice in one morning, and Matt's view that his real bottleneck is not having enough people to hand things to. Then the question of the week: when did you last spend real time or money on growing yourself rather than your business. Matt's answer to what comes after it is the most exposed he has been on this show.

Takeaways:
📊 44 percent of UK smaller business owners have felt lonely or isolated, rising to 56 percent under ten staff
🧠 It is never the networking organisation that helps, it is the people you meet through it
🤝 The Sinclair rule: if someone can do the job for less than your hourly rate, they should be doing it
⚖️ Why your business partner cannot be your only sounding board
🎯 When did you last spend real time or money on growing yourself and not your business?

Holland's Country Clothing store opening, Lowes Farm, Friday 25th. All welcome, just drop Matt a message on Instagram if you are coming.

Chapters:

(00:00) Recording at the end of a long day

(03:47) Delegating, and Teflon Danny

(07:02) The Sinclair rule on what your time is worth

(07:41) Episode 88: the cost of doing it alone

(08:15) Why being the one in charge is lonely

(11:13) British Business Fact: 44 percent have felt isolated

(12:16) Are you in a founders network?

(13:44) Some trades have it far harder

(14:39) Why your business partner is not a sounding board

(15:44) "I thought I was a strange and weird person"

(18:25) A lunch that turned into something else

(20:54) Is prospecting for relationships a luxury?

(24:12) Paying to be in a founders group

(25:05) Win of the Week

(26:05) Charlie: theworkwearexpert.co.uk is live

(29:02) Matt: two laptops and two more hires in India

(33:03) The choke point is having nobody to delegate to

(36:26) Delegation never actually ends

(41:18) Get a mentor, join a community

(42:37) Talking honestly instead of "yeah, smashing it"

(45:36) Claude's Question of the Week

(48:28) Charlie has booked Ideas Fest

(49:32) Matt's fear of public speaking

Nearly two in five business owners could not tell you whether they made money last month. More than one in five are too embarrassed to ask.

Charlie leads with a Xero survey of a thousand UK small business owners. Thirty eight percent did not know whether the previous month had been profitable. Fifty five percent were struggling with cash flow. Twenty two percent were too afraid to ask a financial question because they felt they should already know the answer. Charlie's first response is to admit he and Tom probably sit in all three.

Matt walks through what his month end actually looks like, and the distinction that comes out of it is the useful part. Management accounts confirm what happened. KPIs are how you navigate in between. He names his three, and explains why advertising spend gets watched every single day.

Then the practical half. How much accounting rigour a business needs at each stage, why management accounts built on unreconciled data are worse than none, and why Matt reckons his own finance team is the weakest part of his business. Charlie finishes with two questions: what number have you obsessed over that turned out to mean nothing, and what number do you know you should be watching and are not. Matt's answer to the second is one most owners will recognise.

Takeaways:
📊 38 percent of UK small business owners did not know if they were profitable last month, and 22 percent are too embarrassed to ask

🧠 Management accounts confirm performance, KPIs are how you navigate between them

⚖️ How much accounting rigour a business needs at 50k net profit, at 100k, and once you carry a payroll
🚩 Why management accounts built on unreconciled data are worse than none at all
🎯 The number you can safely stop chasing, and the one you know you are neglecting

Chapters:
(00:00) Whose fault is it when the podcast breaks?
(01:00) Charlie has not read his own show notes
(02:19) Lagging, leading or lying

(03:18) Claude's Fact of the Week: 38, 55 and 22 percent
(03:57) Charlie: we probably sit in all three
(06:26) Why those numbers do not surprise Matt
(09:08) Could you say whether last month was profitable?
(11:08) KPIs navigate, management accounts confirm
(11:40) Matt's three KPIs
(12:53) How Charlie's dad ran the business
(14:09) Allocating time and resource to the numbers
(15:19) Learning accountancy through pain
(15:51) When Matt started monthly management accounts
(16:39) "But I know my numbers"
(17:31) The Formula One driver analogy
(20:15) Build the business you want to be, not the one you are
(21:38) How much accounting you need at 50k, 100k and beyond
(23:26) Are you doing quarterly management accounts?
(23:48) Bad data makes management accounts worthless
(24:24) Reconcile weekly, or daily
(25:19) Why Matt thinks his own finance team is weak
(25:48) Building now for 25 million and 50 million
(27:34) Where the KPIs still need levelling up
(29:58) Focus on the biggest bottleneck
(30:37) Win of the Week
(31:27) Matt: a conversation about a second store
(33:27) Charlie: back to the gym, and time with no phone
(34:51) Eight weeks, nine kilos, and cold plunges
(38:47) The number you obsessed over that meant nothing
(40:45) Why cash stopped being the obsession
(42:03) Turnover, and the professional money mover
(44:08) The number you should be watching and are not
(47:25) "There's loads of space in that warehouse"
(53:23) Claude's Question of the Week
(54:02) One number on the wall for the whole team

Follow Matt:
📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mrmattholland/
👨‍💻 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrmattholland/

📱 TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@mrmattholland
❌ X - https://x.com/mrmattholland1

Follow Charlie:
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👨‍💻 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-smith-1a55295b/

Nine months of the year are gone. Most business owners could not tell you honestly whether that has been a good year or a bad one.

Matt is back in the UK and frames this one as a scorecard on the first nine months before the final quarter starts. The number that sets it up is brutal. In the financial year to March 2025, 801,000 new companies were incorporated in the UK. Over the same twelve months, 726,000 were dissolved. Nine businesses open their doors for roughly every eight that close them. If you are still trading, that is not nothing.

Charlie gives the most honest account he has given on the show. The year has been a slog since January, the numbers are not what he wanted, and he struggles to name a single thing he feels victorious about. What he can say is that they have worked on the business harder in six months than in the previous five years. Matt maps it straight onto his own 2021, when five years of doubling turnover ran into a wall that took two and a half gritty years to get past, and lands on the lesson that separates the businesses that make it. You fix things while trading is good, not when it dips.

Wins of the week are a seven kilogram loss, some blunt feedback from Jacob Lockwood that landed harder than expected, a cricket league title with the top run scorer in it, and a website that has been three years coming. Then the question of the week, which asks what the version of you from the first of January would make of your business today. Charlie's answer to the second half of it is the thing most owners will recognise instantly.

Takeaways:
📊 801,000 UK companies were incorporated in the year to March 2025 and 726,000 were dissolved, roughly nine opening for every eight that close
🧠 Why the businesses that survive fix things while trading is good, not when it dips
⚖️ Matt's 2021, five years of doubling turnover followed by two and a half years of grind to get moving again
🚩 Taking on space you do not need yet, and why growing into it is the whole point
🎯 What would the January version of you be proudest of, and what would they be gutted you still have not sorted?

Chapters:
(00:00) Top Dog, Poodle, and back in Britain
(01:23) Holland's Country Clothing store opening, 25 September
(02:48) A day with Jacob Lockwood
(04:03) Number 10 in the North
(06:19) Substance over PR stunts
(09:12) Summer with the kids, and being present
(10:24) Nine months in: the honest scorecard for Q4
(11:48) Why September still feels like a new school year
(13:18) The two days that turned August around
(15:04) Signing the lease on the unit next door
(15:50) The Xero switchover that went wrong first
(16:40) Phase one of the new website, ahead of schedule
(17:31) Scaling India, and what Matt's mentor told him
(19:42) Stop and look at what you have actually done
(21:14) Six months working on the business, not in it
(23:13) Matt's 2021, when the growth just stopped
(25:00) Why you fix things while trading is good
(27:35) Trench warfare and borrowed customers
(29:23) Charlie has not finished a podcast in eight weeks
(30:43) British Business Fact of the Week: 801,000 opened, 726,000 closed
(32:49) What are your big wins of the year?
(35:34) Win of the Week: Matt is seven kilograms down
(40:42) The feedback from Lockwood that stung
(41:48) Charlie: league champions and top run scorer
(43:15) The new site is live
(46:09) Honest feedback on the homepage
(49:42) Question of the Week
(50:59) If January you could see your business today
(52:05) Matt: the shop, and the website he still has not done
(55:57) Being on a 10

Follow Matt:
📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mrmattholland/
👨‍💻 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrmattholland/
📱 TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@mrmattholland
❌ X - https://x.com/mrmattholland1

Follow Charlie:
📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theworkwearexpert
👨‍💻 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-smith-1a55295b/

Every business owner has a model they defend and a model they secretly wonder about. Matt puts the question to Charlie and answers it himself.

Recording from France for the last time this trip, Matt opens with an Alex Hormozi clip that stuck with him. A British bloke with an office fit out business, £180 million turnover, £5 million average order value, asking how to grow it. The answer had nothing to do with finding more customers, and everything to do with one question a US security door company started asking on sales calls.

From there they get into the ugly side of B2B. The £26 billion sat unpaid across UK businesses, invoice factoring and why Matt thinks it is admitting defeat, and the early settlement discount that does the same job for less. Charlie makes the case that B2B is simply a better place to build a business, better relationships, better conversations, customers who understand what you are dealing with. Then he flips it, because you never really own a B2B customer, you borrow them, and you are riding their trading conditions as much as your own.

Wins of the week cover a Sage to Xero migration twenty odd years in the making, and six weeks of Matt actually prioritising his health. There is a screen time confession neither of them comes out of well. And Matt finishes by arguing that B2B owners get lazy at winning customers, with a very specific challenge for Charlie and Tom. When the question of the week lands, both of them stick with what they know, for reasons that say more about the owner than the model.

Takeaways:
📊 UK businesses are owed an estimated £26 billion in late payments at any one time, roughly £17,000 each and 86 hours a year spent chasing it
🧠 Why one extra question on a sales call lifted a door company's average order value by around 160 percent
💷 Invoice factoring versus a 2 percent early settlement discount, and why one of them is a bad sign
🤝 B2B gets you the relationship, but you are only ever borrowing the customer
🎯 The case that B2B owners are lazy at acquisition, and the two hour lunch that fixes it

Chapters:
(00:00) Intro and a formal apology to Charlie
(02:33) Summer holidays, one car and a borrowed van
(04:53) The weather just moved our conversion rate
(05:38) Bordeaux was English for 300 years
(08:23) A four hour mileage claim done in twenty minutes
(10:25) B2B or D2C, which would you build again?
(11:41) 180m turnover and a 5m average order value
(12:30) The one question that lifted AOV by 160 percent
(14:29) Why our average order value drops every summer
(17:02) British Business Fact of the Week: 26bn in late payments
(17:42) Being everyone else's bank
(19:01) Invoice factoring is admitting defeat
(23:41) Win of the Week: Sage to Xero, twenty years later
(33:02) Win of the Week: six weeks of prioritising health
(34:51) The screen time confession
(37:55) Why Charlie has always been pro B2B
(42:27) You never own a B2B customer, you borrow them
(45:07) Why D2C brands are the hardest model of all
(47:37) B2B owners are lazy at winning customers(50:13) Question of the Week: businesses or the public?
(51:05) School uniform and the new branded items rule
(55:46) Shout out to Gareth from NC Recovery

Follow Matt:
📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mrmattholland/
👨‍💻 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrmattholland/
📱 TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@mrmattholland
❌ X - https://x.com/mrmattholland1

Follow Charlie:
📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theworkwearexpert
📸 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-smith-1a55295b/

Every business owner has a model they defend and a model they secretly wonder about. Matt puts the question to Charlie and answers it himself.Recording from France for the last time this trip, Matt opens with an Alex Hormozi clip that stuck with him. A British bloke with an office fit out business, £180 million turnover, £5 million average order value, asking how to grow it. The answer had nothing to do with finding more customers, and everything to do with one question a US security door company started asking on sales calls.From there they get into the ugly side of B2B. The £26 billion sat unpaid across UK businesses, invoice factoring and why Matt thinks it is admitting defeat, and the early settlement discount that does the same job for less. Charlie makes the case that B2B is simply a better place to build a business, better relationships, better conversations, customers who understand what you are dealing with. Then he flips it, because you never really own a B2B customer, you borrow them, and you are riding their trading conditions as much as your own.Wins of the week cover a Sage to Xero migration twenty odd years in the making, and six weeks of Matt actually prioritising his health. There is a screen time confession neither of them comes out of well. And Matt finishes by arguing that B2B owners get lazy at winning customers, with a very specific challenge for Charlie and Tom. When the question of the week lands, both of them stick with what they know, for reasons that say more about the owner than the model.Takeaways:📊 UK businesses are owed an estimated £26 billion in late payments at any one time, roughly £17,000 each and 86 hours a year spent chasing it🧠 Why one extra question on a sales call lifted a door company's average order value by around 160 percent💷 Invoice factoring versus a 2 percent early settlement discount, and why one of them is a bad sign🤝 B2B gets you the relationship, but you are only ever borrowing the customer🎯 The case that B2B owners are lazy at acquisition, and the two hour lunch that fixes it
Chapters:

(00:00) Intro and a formal apology to Charlie

(02:33) Summer holidays, one car and a borrowed van

(04:53) The weather just moved our conversion rate

(05:38) Bordeaux was English for 300 years

(08:23) A four hour mileage claim done in twenty minutes

(10:25) B2B or D2C, which would you build again?

(11:41) 180m turnover and a 5m average order value

(12:30) The one question that lifted AOV by 160 percent

(14:29) Why our average order value drops every summer

(17:02) British Business Fact of the Week: 26bn in late payments

(17:42) Being everyone else's bank

(19:01) Invoice factoring is admitting defeat

(23:41) Win of the Week: Sage to Xero, twenty years later

(33:02) Win of the Week: six weeks of prioritising health

(34:51) The screen time confession

(37:55) Why Charlie has always been pro B2B

(42:27) You never own a B2B customer, you borrow them

(45:07) Why D2C brands are the hardest model of all

(47:37) B2B owners are lazy at winning customers

(50:13) Question of the Week: businesses or the public?

(51:05) School uniform and the new branded items rule

(55:46) Shout out to Gara from NC Recovery

Follow Matt:
📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mrmattholland/
👨‍💻 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrmattholland/
📱 TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@mrmattholland
❌ X - https://x.com/mrmattholland1

Follow Charlie:
📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theworkwearexpert
👨‍💻 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-smith-1a55295b/