Scaling up Commercial Fit-Out Business from £5M to £15M in 12-18 Months

£15m turnover is a maths problem, not a motivation problem. You need four numbers: average job value, starts per month, win rate, and how many live jobs your team can control at once.

Think of turnover like water through a hose. More flow needs a wider hose (delivery capacity) and tighter joints (less leakage from prelims creep, unpaid variations, and retention drag).

Programme

The planned sequence and dates for the job from mobilisation to Practical Completion, usually shown week by week.

Prelims (Preliminaries)

Site running costs not tied to one trade, like the Site Manager, welfare, hoarding, temporary power, skips, security, and supervision.

Variation

A change to the agreed scope that must be priced and agreed, then picked up in your valuation.

Retention

Money held back from each payment, usually part released at Practical Completion and the balance after the Defects Liability Period (the snag-fix period after handover).

The one-page model (worked example)

Use round numbers so you can sanity-check the plan in your head. Example: Cat A or Cat B fit-out averaging £750k with a 12-week programme and a 25% win rate.

• Annual target: £15m.
• Average job value: £750k.
• Jobs needed per year: £15m ÷ £750k = 20 jobs.
• Starts per month: 20 ÷ 12 = 1.7. Plan for 2 starts per month because some starts slip.
• Live delivery load: 12 weeks is about 3 months, so 2 starts per month means 6 live jobs at once.
• Tenders needed: 2 starts ÷ 25% win rate = 8 tenders per month, about 80 tenders per year.
• Pipeline value: 80 tenders × £750k = £60m+ of priced work to feed the year.

Missing the starts number bites harder than most owners expect. One start per month at £750k lands at roughly £9m turnover for the year. You still carry the overhead you hired to run £15m.

Setting: you run a UK commercial Cat B fit-out contractor turning over £5.2m. Your plan is £15m turnover inside 12 to 18 months, with an average contract value of £742,000 and a 25% tender win rate. Site delivery won’t be the first thing that breaks, the diary will, because you run out of priced work or you drown your estimators in dead-end tenders (a price and proposal you submit).

1. Split the £60m target into channels so one route can’t starve you. Set a mix you can actually manage: £24.0m via Main Contractors, £24.0m direct Employers (the client paying for the works), and £12.0m via consultants (PMs and QSs who influence tender lists).

   That sets weekly targets of £500k Main Contractor-led, £500k direct Employer, and £250k consultant-led enquiries.

2. Define what counts as a “real enquiry”, or your numbers lie to you. A real enquiry has a budget range, a decision date, and a route to tender (how you get invited). Rule: if you can’t capture all three inside 10 minutes, log it as marketing, not pipeline.

   This stops “nice chats” inflating your forecast by £5m to £10m on paper, then turning into nothing in the diary.

3. Run a bid no-bid within 24 hours, using a hard gate. Score the lead out of 10. Only bid at 7+.

   Example for a £896,400 Cat A office refurb: budget confirmed (2), start on site within 12 weeks (2), decision maker named (2), drawings at RIBA Stage 4 level (2), and you have delivered for that Main Contractor or Employer before (2). A score of 6 means decline the same day.

4. Turn the annual target into weekly actions you can hold people to. You’re aiming to create £1.25m of real enquiries per week, not “be busy”.

   Weekly cadence that matches the channel split: 12 calls to Main Contractor commercial managers or pre-construction leads, 10 calls or emails to direct Employers, and 3 consultant meetings or warm introductions. Total: 25 outbound actions to find 1 to 2 real enquiries.

5. Use a 10-minute qualification script that forces dates and money onto the table. Ask in this order, and write the answers down.

   1) “What’s the budget range?” 2) “What’s the tender return date?” 3) “Who signs the order?” 4) “What form of contract, JCT or NEC?” 5) “How many tenderers are you inviting?” 6) “Are there any PC Sums or Provisional Sums?” 7) “Who is the QS valuing work and agreeing variations?” If they dodge two of these, you walk away.

6. Attach a dated next step to every live lead, or park it. A next step is a calendar entry, not a promise.

   Example: “Tender pack issue Fri 14th. Scope review call Mon 17th 09:00. Site visit Wed 19th 07:30.” No dates means no estimating hours.

Takeaway: the hidden constraint is estimating capacity, not marketing spend. 81 tenders a year at 23 hours each is 1,863 estimating hours, before site visits and sub-contractor chase. That is 1.1 full-time people at 35 hours per week. The pipeline maths tells you, in black and white, you must either hire a second estimator or increase your “no” rate. If you track this in Archdesk, the bid management workflow makes the no-bid gate, next-step dates, and tender workload visible in one place, so the funnel doesn’t empty while everyone feels busy.

Cashflow in fit-out is a conveyor belt. Growth means more cash stuck on the belt unless you shorten the time from valuation to money in bank.

Valuation date

The monthly cut-off for measuring work done and submitting your application for payment.

Interim Certificate

The certificate issued by the Contract Administrator stating what must be paid for that period.

Final date for payment

The last contractual date the payer can pay the certified sum without being in breach, usually set days after the Interim Certificate under JCT.

Payless notice

A formal notice under the Construction Act reducing what will be paid. Weak or late backup makes it easy for the payer to serve one.

The worked example: a £750k Cat B office fit-out, 12 weeks

You need a simple week-by-week table that plots cash out against cash in. Build it in a spreadsheet with four columns: Week, Cumulative spend, Cumulative cash received, and Net cash position. Here is how the maths works for this job.

Assumptions: total contract value £750k. Weekly spend is roughly even at £62.5k. Valuation happens at week 4, then every 4 weeks. The Contract Administrator issues the Interim Certificate 5 days after each valuation. Payment lands 21 days after certification. Retention is 5% of each certified sum. So for each valuation, the cash you actually receive is 95% of certified value, and it arrives roughly 26 days (3.7 weeks) after the valuation date.

After all three payments land, you are still £37.5k out of pocket. That is your 5% retention. Half (£18.75k) releases at Practical Completion. The other half stays locked until the DLP ends, typically 12 months later. Run six jobs like this at once and you have about £225k trapped in retention alone.

How to build this for any job in 10 minutes

Follow five steps. They work for any contract value and programme length.

1. Plot your spend curve. Break the programme into weeks. Assign weekly spend based on your tender build-up. Front-loaded jobs (heavy M&E procurement in weeks 1–3, for example) will spike early. Back-loaded jobs (bespoke joinery arriving late) spike later. Don't assume even spend unless the job genuinely runs flat.
2. Mark valuation dates. These are fixed by the contract. Under JCT, they're typically monthly from a defined start date. Plot each one on your timeline.
3. Calculate the lag. From each valuation date, count forward: days to certificate, then days to final date for payment. Under JCT DB 2016, the gap from valuation to final payment date is typically 28 days. Add your real-world slippage. If your portfolio average is 35 days, use 35.
4. Apply retention. Multiply each certified amount by 0.95 (for 5% retention) to get actual cash received. Then add the half-retention release at Practical Completion and the balance at DLP end as separate line items.
5. Calculate net position per week. Subtract cumulative cash received from cumulative spend. The lowest point is your peak funding requirement. That is the number your finance director needs.

Adjusting for slippage and late certification

Late certification is the single biggest variable. If the Contract Administrator takes 10 days instead of 5 to issue the Interim Certificate, every payment shifts a week. On the £750k job above, that turns your week-8 net position from -£262.5k to -£325k because Payment 1 hasn't landed yet. The fix is simple maths: add the extra days to Step 3 and recalculate. Do this every month with real dates, not contract dates.

Programme slippage works differently. A two-week overrun doesn't just add two weeks of prelims (say £8k–£12k on a job this size). It also pushes your final valuation later, which pushes your final payment later. On a 12-week job that slips to 14 weeks, your peak funding requirement can jump by 20–25% because the spend curve extends but the payment curve extends further.

Run fit-out delivery system

Setting: a £920,600 Cat B office fit-out in Birmingham under a JCT Design and Build sub-contract from a Main Contractor. The programme is 12 weeks and you are running two other live jobs. The risk is not "doing the work". It is starting workfaces with missing design, late materials, unaligned sub-contractor terms, no QA gates, and a chaotic final fortnight that burns your margin in snagging labour.

Weeks -2 to 0: mobilisation setup

1. Set start conditions in money, not slogans. Prelims are £63,480 over 12 weeks, so £5,290 per week or £1,058 per working day. One false start in a meeting room with 3 operatives for 2 days at £218/day costs £1,308 in abortive labour before you touch rework or programme.
2. Publish a mobilisation checklist with binary pass/fail gates. Before any trade sets foot on site, seven items must be green: (1) site access and welfare confirmed with Main Contractor, (2) H&S induction pack and RAMS (Risk Assessment and Method Statement) approved, (3) latest drawing set issued and logged in the drawing register, (4) all long-lead POs placed, (5) sub-contract orders signed with scope inclusions/exclusions, (6) valuation dates and payment terms confirmed, (7) site set-out survey complete with datum levels marked. If any gate is red, you don't mobilise that trade. A two-day delay at mobilisation costs £2,116 in prelims. A false start that triggers a week of re-sequencing costs £7,000+.
3. Lock who signs what under JCT D&B, then force gaps into RFIs. Design responsibility sits with you for the Contractor's Designed Portion, and you pass portions down to sub-contractors where agreed. An RFI (Request for Information, a formal question to close a design gap) goes to the Main Contractor the day the gap is spotted, with a "needed by" date tied to the lookahead. Three RFIs in Week 1 (ceiling void depth clash, ironmongery schedule missing, feature wall finish not selected) cost £0 to raise and can save £2,000 to £4,000 each in rework.

Procurement: commit only what can delay you

On this job you sub-let M&E at £287,400, joinery at £143,650, and data/AV at £68,250. You also place early purchase orders for long-lead items, totalling £174,600 by end of Week 0. That is 19.0% of the contract value committed before your first Interim Certificate cash hits your bank. Order deadlines are "programme need date minus lead time minus 5 working days for approvals and admin". Miss the deadline and you pay prelims while trades stand.

Sub-contractor control: onboarding and weekly grip

Onboard with one-page scope and payment facts. For the drylining package at £96,350, write inclusions and exclusions in plain words. One line like "firestopping to service penetrations by others" prevents a week-9 argument worth £7,240. Set valuation dates, payment 14 days after the Interim Certificate, and retention at 5%, so £4,818 held on that package until Practical Completion and the Defects Liability Period (the period after handover when the contractor fixes snags).

Run a Monday lookahead with a hard HOLD rule. The lookahead window is 3 to 6 weeks. Every line is either CONFIRMED or HOLD. "Confirmed" means latest drawing revision issued, materials delivered or delivery booked, and labour names and dates agreed. "Hold" means nobody starts that workface, even if the programme is shouting.

Track sub-contractor progress against programme weekly. Each Friday, the site manager records percentage complete per package against the baseline. A sub-contractor who is 10% behind programme at Week 4 gets a formal notice under the sub-contract and a recovery programme request. Wait until Week 8 to spot it and you're paying £4,200 in weekend overtime to recover two days, not the sub-contractor.

QA hold points and inspection gates

Most fit-out snag lists balloon because QA happens at the end, not during the work. Build hold points into the programme as hard gates. No following trade starts until the preceding trade passes its QA check.

Record each hold point on a standard site form: date, area, pass/fail, photos, signature. A 15-minute inspection at Week 5 that catches unfilled board joints saves 3 days of decorator rework at Week 10, worth roughly £1,860 in abortive labour plus a day of programme slip.

Weeks 10-12: snagging and close-out workflow

Start snagging at Week 10, not Week 12. Walk each completed zone room-by-room with a numbered snag list. Tag every item with trade, location, priority (A = blocks handover, B = cosmetic), and a 48-hour or 5-day fix deadline. On a job this size, expect 120 to 180 snags on the first pass if you've run the QA hold points above. Without hold points, that number doubles.

Issue snag lists to each sub-contractor by trade, not as one bulk document. The M&E sub-contractor gets their 35 items with photos and room references. The joinery sub gets their 22 items. Each sub-contractor signs off completed snags, and the site manager re-inspects before closing the item. In Archdesk, snag items raised on mobile site forms link back to the sub-contractor's package, so when you process their final valuation at Week 12, outstanding snags are visible against their retention balance of £4,818 (drylining) or £14,370 (M&E), giving you commercial grip without a separate spreadsheet.

At Week 11, compile the handover pack: O&M manuals, test certificates, as-built drawings, commissioning records, and the building warranty documentation. Chase these from sub-contractors at Week 9, not Week 12. Late O&M manuals are the single most common reason Practical Completion is delayed by the Main Contractor, and each day of delay costs you £1,058 in prelims you cannot recover.

The 12-week rhythm in one view

Takeaway

The non-obvious result is that margin protection on a 12-week fit-out is not one big decision. It is six small systems running together: mobilisation gates that stop false starts, procurement deadlines that prevent prelim burn, sub-contractor progress tracking that catches slippage at Week 4 not Week 9, QA hold points that cut your snag list in half, a snagging workflow that starts two weeks before handover, and a close-out process that chases O&M manuals before they delay Practical Completion. Run all six and you keep the £73,600 margin on this job. Drop two and you'll hand back £15,000 to £22,000 of it in abortive labour, overtime, and unrecovered prelims.

£15m turnover comes from controlled starts, hard delivery capacity rules, and cash protection that stops growth eating your margin. Below is a worked plan that turns the £15m target into specific start dates, headcount, cash buffers, and a repeatable weekly control routine you can adapt to your own mix of project sizes.

Worked 90-day plan: £15m fit-out contractor

This example assumes a firm currently running at £10m turnover, winning mostly commercial fit-out projects between £400k and £1.5m, with an average project duration of 16 weeks.

Weekly control meeting: fixed agenda

Every red item gets one owner and one deadline before the meeting closes. No rolling reds for more than two consecutive weeks, or the contracts manager intervenes. In Archdesk, the CVR view feeds the WIP and cash section directly: cost-to-date, value earned, and forecast final account update as subcontractor valuations and PO commitments are entered, so a £180k WIP gap surfaces the same week it opens rather than at the end-of-quarter reconciliation.

What to learn next

• A one-page tender qualification sheet, because declining low-margin work protects capacity for the jobs that pay for the extra overhead you're about to add.
• A mobilisation pack template, because a bad start creates weeks of re-sequencing and extra prelims that never get recovered in the final account.
• Weekly CVR and WIP reporting, because growth multiplies small cost leaks and missed valuations into six-figure gaps before month-end reporting catches up.

Scaling a fit-out business works like scaling a delivery operation. More drops only help if dispatch, cash, and quality checks scale with them. Use this 90-day plan as a starting template. Adapt the project values and start weeks to your own pipeline, re-run the headcount ratios against your actual workload, confirm the cash buffer against your real payment cycles, and then lock the weekly meeting rhythm from day one. Repeat the cycle each quarter with tighter starts, cleaner valuations, and fewer surprises.