In Your Shoes - John McClarey

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John launched Business Fives in April 2016 and is now celebrating their second birthday in business. Having been involved in corporate events throughout my professional career I decided to set up my own company and marry my passion for business events with my love of sports.  We are considered a socially conscious business and supporting the work of charities in Scotland is a huge driver behind out business with 10% of all our revenue going to charity. 

In the world of events no 2 days are the same and there is constant daily changes to overcome and as we interact with a huge volume of businesses throughout Scotland we get to meet a lot of people and find out more about a wide variety of companies. 

Business Fives is an Edinburgh based business, that recently hosted its first event in Dundee, which has created a new, exciting atmosphere and network for professionals to meet new connections in a relaxed environment, whilst promoting active lifestyles through playing sport.  Utilising Scotland’s national obsessions; football and golf - we actively encourage all levels of ability to participate, promoting health, fitness, wellbeing and community engagement; all whilst raising over £40,000 for a broad range of Scottish charities.

 

Kicking Off

Mondays are normally spent clearing up any work from the previous week and create a to do list for the week.  Whilst running my own business I’ve developed the ability to multi task on several projects at once as well as keeping up with the daily marketing, event planning and business development activities. 

I’ve recently read a book called Sacred 6 which encouraged me to be more efficient with my time and prioritise my to do list, the more specific I can be with tasks the better defined my time is.  It also focuses my attention on our company mission and keeps this at the forefront of our activities.  Our mission is simple to “create a positive atmosphere where professionals can relax and have fun while meeting new connections.  To make a positive impact on communities by supporting the work of charities and encouraging corporate social responsibility.”

My Monday consisted of getting on top of emails and our social media campaigns.  I also had some planning for next weeks events to take care of which involved liaising with our golf venues and sporting ambassadors we work with.   I finished the day with a 2 hour Skype call with an ICT Advisor as part of our involvement in the Scottish Enterprise Digital Boost scheme, a further to do list was created with tasks around our website and developing our customer experience online.

Clear Fairways

Tuesday was a rare clear day in the diary that enabled me to make some headway on future events.  In event management we’re constantly in touch with a wide variety of customers and our aim is to keep current clients happy so I start off our summer season marketing by getting in touch with past participants to make them aware of the new dates for summer 2018. 

We also have golf events later this month so part of my day is spent getting profiles live on our website for the participating golfers and companies as well as touching base with some of the potential clients who were giving the events their consideration. 

Although I am out and about meeting new people quite often, days at my desk are broken up by walking our dog, Molly, she’s an energetic Cockapoo and always a great way to clear your head for half an hour at lunch while she chases a ball around! 

On the Pitch

My Wednesday starts off early, I’m usually at my desk for around half 7 with breakfast and a cup of tea.  I reply to outstanding emails from the day before and send out some new ones that I haven’t got round to yet before jumping in the car to travel through to Glasgow. 

The first meeting is with a former professional footballer who is currently studying sports marketing at University of Stirling, we’ve been given funding from Santander to part fund places for three internships this summer which is a huge boost for the business. 

The second meeting is with Glasgow Sport, Glasgow Life and Sir Robert McAlpine regarding a charity football day we are event managing for them which is coming up in June to raise funds for Maggies Cancer Charity.  The meeting was around the event planning aspects and running through the logistics of how the event will run on the day.   The drive back from Glasgow was treacherous in the April snow blizzard, the joys of living in Scotland.

I finished the day with an evening coffee with the Corporate Partnership Manager from the Edinburgh Childrens Hospital Charity as they have recently benefitted from the Business Fives winter season and they were keen to find out more about how they could get involved in our events.

Business Development

With 5 events coming up ahead of the national final for Business Fours we have still spaces to fill in the events throughout the country.  Our business development efforts are varied from content creation for trade press through media partners like the Insider, maintaining an active social media presence, keeping in touch with clients and prospective clients by email or phone, advertising and meeting people at events.

We’re finalising a media campaign with Bunkered, a popular golf magazine that includes some advertising across their Scottish website portfolio, editorial and social media promotions and putting together the artwork and content always gets the creative juices flowing.

I got a phonecall for a game of football in the evening which I duly accept to get me out of my usual Thursday evening run. 

Rounding Up

My Friday isn’t a typical Friday this week as we have a mini outing at Gleneagles planned however the snow played havoc with that so we opted for the Fairways at St Andrews instead, that’s the beauty of events, things can change quickly and there is always another solution. 

The morning is spent at my desk replying to emails and finishing off projects that I had prioritised for the week which including adding player profiles to the Business Fours website.  I also used the time to set up interviews with 4 other potential new recruits this summer for the following week.