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Built to Keep (or Sell)
Most owner-led businesses look solid on the surface.
Revenue is there. The team is in place. Day-to-day, it works.
But when something changes — a key person leaves, costs move, a decision cuts across the business — it still comes back to the owner to hold things together.
That’s where value is really tested. And where it often quietly breaks.
This is a weekly series for owners of established manufacturing, engineering, and complex B2B businesses who know things aren’t as robust as they look — and want to fix it properly.
Each episode breaks down how businesses are actually built, where value is created or eroded, and what needs to change if you want a business that gives you real options.
Not growth tactics. Not motivation.
Just a clearer way to think about building a business you can happily own forever — or easily sell tomorrow.
Built to Keep (or Sell)
Why Most Businesses Stall below £10m
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
At first glance, it looks like our UK manufacturing and engineering businesses are growing strongly as the number of companies doing between £10m and £50m turnover has increased from 7,550 in 2019 to 9,535 in 2025.
The growth seems impressive, doesn’t it?
But don’t be fooled.
Those revenue bands don’t allow for inflation, which was 28.3% over the period. If you’d been doing £8m a year in 2018 and increased your prices at the rate of inflation, you’d have broken through into the £10m+ bracket last year without winning any new business.