The 90-day log
I'm building a growth engine for owner-managed B2B service firms and running it on my own business first. Ninety days from 7 September 2026, published here every week.
The hypothesis
That a firm's own filed accounts at Companies House say more about whether it needs help winning new business than any bought list does, and that the founder is the right person to put in the meeting once the meeting exists.
Who I'm testing it on
Owner-managed B2B service firms in Surrey and Hampshire, 5 to 30 people, most of them fifteen years or more into it. Accountancy and legal practices, IT and software services, management consultancies, and training companies.
What they have in common is that expertise is the product. The work is won consultatively, usually by the owner, and there's no real sales infrastructure behind it. Retention is fine. New business is the hard part.
Two owners, two reasons
The one heading for an exit. The average age at sale in the UK is 56, down from 59 over the past decade, according to the Dealsuite UK and Ireland M&A Monitor, which also puts age combined with no succession plan behind 41% of transactions. An owner in their mid-fifties with fifteen or twenty years in the business is usually thinking about what it's worth. A firm that can win new business without them is worth more than one that can't.
The one who never cracked new business. Same firm, different motive. Revenue that hasn't really moved in years, delivery still excellent, and every attempt at fixing it has failed. They're not selling. They want the thing they've never had.
Age tells me which message to lead with. It doesn't tell me anyone wants to sell, and I won't assume it.
What has to line up
Three things in a firm's own filings before I'll approach it: years running the business, some head count reduction, and accounts filed in the same size band for years without crossing a threshold.
What gets published, whether it works or not
| Every week | Why it's here |
|---|---|
| Companies screened and qualified | Shows whether the filter is sharp or just small |
| Approaches sent, by channel | Cold email and LinkedIn |
| Replies, and what they said | Including the ones telling me to go away |
| Meetings booked and held | The number that actually matters |
| What broke | The part most write-ups leave out |