We grow businesses.
A business-development partner that embeds in your company: strategy, systems, sales and marketing, worldwide: from the UK and China to the UAE and the USA.
Business
We embed in your business and help it grow
A business-development partner that works from the inside: strategy, systems, sales channels and the marketing to fill them, delivered by operators who still run businesses of their own. Based in London and Hong Kong, working worldwide, from the UK and China to the UAE and the USA.
20+
Years building &
running businesses
running businesses
£15m
Peak annual turnover,
our own trading business
our own trading business
500+
HK & China manufacturers
& suppliers developed
& suppliers developed
35
Largest team
directly managed
directly managed
What we do
Six levers for growth, one accountable partner
Most firms hand you a report or a website and leave. We take responsibility for the result, and work across every part of the business that affects it, wherever it trades: the UK, China, the UAE, the USA and beyond.
01
02Strategy & operations
We find the real constraint on growth and fix the structure behind it: pricing, process, decision rules and reporting, written down so the business runs without the founder in every decision.
Sales & lead generation
Websites, search and advertising built to win enquiries, with every lead tracked from first click to signed job.
Learn more → 03Automation & AI
Assistants and workflows that take the admin off your team. Proven in our own businesses first: 10–15 hours a week removed.
Learn more → 04Brand, film & content
Photography, film and licensed drone work made in-house, so the brand looks as good as the business actually is.
Learn more → 05UK & China sourcing
Our Hong Kong trading company has run since 2009: 500+ vetted suppliers across Hong Kong and Mainland China, negotiated in Cantonese and Mandarin.
Learn more → 06Cyber security & vulnerability testing
Digital security for your website and systems: authorized vulnerability assessments and testing, then the fixes, before someone else finds the way in.
Learn more →Sound familiar?
Signs the business has outgrown how it’s run
None of these mean anything is wrong with the work. They mean the structure around it has been outgrown, and every one of them has the same fix.
01
The two-week test fails
If the founder took a fortnight off tomorrow, something would go unbilled, unanswered or undone, and everyone already knows which thing. That is where the audit starts.
02
Every decision routes through one person
The team can do the work but can’t decide anything, so every question becomes an interruption and the owner becomes the bottleneck.
03
The process lives in WhatsApp
There’s no written version of how anything gets done. When someone leaves, their job walks out with them and gets reinvented, slightly worse, by whoever’s next.
04
Busy stopped meaning growing
Revenue has plateaued near the ceiling of the working week. More effort stopped moving the number a while ago, which is the clearest sign the constraint is structural.
How it works
An embedded partnership, not a project
We work as part of your team for as long as it takes to move the numbers, with one point of contact and no account managers in between.
01
Conversation
A call to understand the business and whether we’re the right partner. No charge.
02
Diagnose
A fixed-fee audit inside the business: operations, sales, numbers and digital. You keep the findings either way.
03
Build
We put in the systems, channels and content the audit calls for, to agreed deliverables and dates, and train your team to run them.
04
Run & report
We stay embedded on a monthly retainer with no lock-in, reporting on what moved, what didn’t and why.
Sourcing · P&S (HK) Technology Company Limited, since 2009
From a factory in the Far East to your door
How a sourcing order runs: found, vetted and negotiated across Hong Kong and Mainland China, checked before it ships, then delivered to the UK and Europe.
Illustration · routes indicative
Results
Work our clients can point to
Some client agreements keep names off the page. These ones are public, live and checkable.
Construction · London
Crown Building
Website, search, advertising and lead tracking for a prime residential contractor, with enquiries qualified before the first call.
Interior design · London
Katherine Varnava Interiors
Moved off a page builder onto a site the studio owns outright, with a portfolio that finally shows the work properly.
Design & build · Dubai
Xena Design & Build
An audit, then a full rebuild in five languages, with measurement in the client’s own accounts from day one.
Case · Property
The freeholder who met his match
A freeholder had started treating a residential block as a revenue scheme. We organised the residents and led them through the statutory Right to Manage process, taking 77 apartments, three commercial units and £3m+ in assets into a company the leaseholders control. Compliance, contractors, major works and the accounts now run in-house.
Pattern · Hospitality
The guest your team can’t see
A hundred-plus hotels, restaurants and venues experienced as a real, paying guest, with 100+ published Google reviews as the checkable record, then written up as an operator would: what it costs you, why it happens, and what to change first.
Pattern · Sourcing
Factory to door, seventeen years running
Sourcing, supplier vetting and negotiation conducted directly in Cantonese and Mandarin, and shipping through relationships built since 2009: 40+ international shipments coordinated, single orders up to £300,000.
“He is great at reporting, tells us what is actually happening, including when it isn’t what we want to hear, and he checks before he claims anything.”
Who you work with
Operators, not advisers
PIKOTW is led by founder Paul Singleton, whose career has been entrepreneurial rather than employed: founder and director roles across international import & export, hospitality, property, automotive and digital media. We have owned the P&L in the sectors we now work in, which changes what the advice looks like: less framework, more “here’s what actually breaks, and in what order.”
The anchor is P&S (HK) Technology Company Limited, the sourcing and supply business founded in Hong Kong in 2009 and still trading. At its height it turned over £15 million in a year, built on 500+ manufacturers and suppliers across Hong Kong and Mainland China. It is why London and Hong Kong are both home.
FounderPaul Singleton
BasesLondon · Hong Kong
MarketsWorldwide · incl. UK, China, UAE, USA
Trade co.P&S (HK) Technology Ltd
Founded2009 · still trading
Peak turnover£15m in a year
Supplier network500+ · HK & China
LanguagesEnglish · Cantonese · Mandarin
Largest team35 people
Minimum clientThere isn’t one
Straight answers
The questions worth asking before you get in touch
The honest versions, so neither of us wastes a call finding them out.
Are we too small for this?
No. There’s no minimum client size. A one-person business with a real problem is a real engagement, and the fix scales down as neatly as it scales up.
What does it cost?
The first conversation costs nothing. The audit is a fixed fee agreed before we start, sized to the business, and you keep every finding whether or not we work together afterwards. Builds and retainers are quoted from what the audit uncovers.
How long does it take?
An audit runs two to three weeks. A build is typically six to twelve, depending on scope. Retainers are monthly with no lock-in: if we’re not clearly worth more than we cost, you should be able to stop.
Do you know our industry?
Possibly not, and it matters less than you’d think. Owner-dependent businesses break in strikingly similar ways across industries. The free call is where we check yours isn’t the exception.
Will we have to replace our software?
Rarely. What’s usually missing is the connections between the tools and the discipline around them. We’d rather configure what you already pay for than sell you something new.
Remote or on site?
Both. Watching how work actually moves usually needs time in the building; everything after that works remotely. London and the South East in person as standard; Hong Kong, China, the UAE, the USA and elsewhere by arrangement.
Let’s talk about where your business goes next.
A first conversation is free and confidential. Tell us where the business is now and where you want it to be.
hello@pikotw.com