Cube Corner – October 20

Welcome to this month’s Cube Corner. Is it just me or is this year just flying by?

With all the challenges across the business world, the months are racing past. It has been an interesting month catching up with my clients, many of whom are still working on a hybrid of home and office schedule, which certainly doesn’t look like it will change in the immediate future.

I am sure I am not the only one – I have a perfectly fine home set up – but I miss the daily interaction of colleagues at the various companies I work with.Luckily I have a hot desk availability with Vince and the team at Rivervale, which helps as I am in there 2 or 3 times a week. I would be interested to see how other solo workers are coping with their current arrangements.

Thank you to Bud Johnston at Rivervale for the invite to the Search 7 Golf Day up at Mid Sussex Golf Club. There were 19 teams in action during the day in challenging conditions of horizontal rain. Congrats to Gavin Willis for hosting such a great event. Golf seems to have temporarily taken the place of the usual networking meetings and this one generated a number of conversations with various companies, which I have been following up on since.

Sam Thomas has also been running a midweek golf league, which has been a really fun event to be involved with. 12 businesses on a Thursday afternoon hosted up at The Dyke Golf Club. It’s a great format of 9 holes, 4 players playing two singles matches and then back in for a drink and prize giving. It has also produced a number of new contacts in a really relaxed environment, perfectly hosted by Sam of course. I would highly recommend getting involved for the next events.

It was great to catch up with a few football people this month. I had a trip down to Eastbourne Borough FC to meet with CEO, John Bonnar and Manager, Danny Bloor. It was really interesting to hear of some of the challenges they currently face with no crowds allowed in at Priory Lane due to Elite level status and very little income in the way of Commercial Revenue, whilst still having a players wage bill to cover. The club were hopeful of government funding to assist with the shortfall. I was delighted to also meet up again with Ken Benham at Sussex FA and to understand a little more of the remit of the SCFA and the challenges they are facing, as well as overseeing football, coaching and child protection at all levels across Sussex.

With another lockdown now in progress it looks like another month of online meetings. Rivervale have had to close the showroom to retail customers but continue to operate remotely for the sales team and it is business as usual in the service and MOT Centre. The team have adapted to a contactless arrangement with collections and deliveries for customers to ensure they can continue with ‘normal’ service.

I hope you all have a productive month and stay well during the next few weeks. Hopefully we can all get back together and network safely in the not too distant future.

Paul