One of us just doubled his floor space after six flat months. The other is about to move into a warehouse five times bigger than the one he's bursting out of, and his best metric is about to drop through the floor.

Episode 91 opens with the wins. Charlie has the keys to the unit next door, completed at 5pm on a Friday and moved in on the Monday, with three months rent free and 87 days for the new space to start paying its way. Matt's business made page three of the Manchester Evening News on the day the Holland's Country Clothing store opened, and one reader drove straight over because he used to do the milk round with Matt's grandfather.

Then the number that frames the whole episode. Matt's warehouse turns over £5,429.60 per square foot. Move into the new building with the same revenue and it falls to £1,085.92. Charlie runs the sum on his own unit and doesn't love the answer. The British Business Fact of the Week is James Dyson's 5,127 prototypes, and there's a proper look at leasing versus buying, why agents say nobody is buying commercial property right now, and the question Charlie's accountant asked before he signed.

Claude's Question of the Week asks how you make peace with signing for the person you intend to become. Matt has made a bet like this before and it didn't go to plan. Charlie explains the reason he won't settle for staying small, and it isn't the one you'd expect.

📊 Revenue per square foot shows how hard your space is working, and a move resets it overnight

🧠 More space isn't a reward for doing well, it's a statement of what you intend to build

🎯 Give new space a deadline to pay for itself, Charlie's is 87 days

💷 Buying ties up cash that could be fuelling growth, leasing keeps it working for you

🚩 Know your worst case before you sign, the size of the gamble is relative to the size of the business

(00:00) Intro(00:27) Sixteen degrees in the cold plunge

(02:19) A flat September that's actually a win

(07:52) Do you get complacent when it's going well?

(08:35) Episode 91, Win of the Week first

(09:42) Charlie's win: the keys to the unit next door

(12:04) Grow through the pain

(14:07) Nine months to buy a warehouse

(15:25) Matt's win: from Buxton to page three

(19:40) Doing the milk round with Malcolm

(22:51) Revenue per square foot

(26:26) Betting on the Business You Don't Have Yet

(28:34) British Business Fact of the Week: 5,127 prototypes

(31:27) Signing before you need the space

(36:00) Burning the boats

(42:00) Lease or buy?

(46:02) Same floor space, 20 times the revenue

(53:16) Signing before the growth arrives

(55:11) An office overlooking an empty warehouse

(59:00) Claude's Question of the Week

(1:00:49) The lease that didn't work

(1:05:51) Five stars on Shopify

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/