FATHER P CLIP

Bringing hope, peace and unity to the good brethren of business supplies

The Good Father is looking forward to his holidays – even if he can’t quite leave the world of stationery behind…

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hings are going to be different this year. Last spring and summer the government paid us all money to sit in the garden in our swimsuits and drink - we didn’t have to worry about prospecting, or getting up early, or going to an office, or what amount of business we were doing. The only thing we had to do was source PPE and make no money on it it because the local newsagents and grocery shops had got a huge stock of it, which was somehow cheaper than our offering.

It leaves me wondering what we are going to do this summer. I think we might return to the way it used to be when everyone wanted to go abroad during the summer and at least we could forecast business more accurately.

I’ve already got my holiday booked; I’m going to the Caribbean for a couple of weeks in July, safe in the knowledge that I won’t be leaving our stationery world behind altogether. Every time I go away, no matter where in the world it is, I seek out an office supplies business and try to get to know the people who work there.

Usually they are friendly enough and, after a couple of days of ‘phoning the police and putting out a restraining order on me, they usually come around and we can talk for almost a full fortnight about how they operate, what they sell, how much they charge for paper and how they go about it. It’s amazing that the same problems occur the whole world over and I’ve witnessed many a foreign office supplier lose his mind over shortages and delivery problems.

I always come back refreshed, and armed with many ideas, so I gather everyone together and compile a slide show of my holiday and all my findings. Everyone looks forward to it and they often say it’s the best eight hours of their year.

It’s certainly strange times in our industry and the best thing to do is to stay positive - so, if anyone wants to see my eight-hour presentation, please do get in touch.