Make Hay While the Sun Shines

For anyone running a small business, there are times of the year when everything seems to happen at once, and for me that period is the height of the UK cricket season. Between April and probably late August is what someone recently referred to as 'silly season'. Everything comes along at once, and people still expect your off-season lead times, so it's a hugely challenging period.

As a one-man band, the summer months are a balancing act. On one hand, it's fantastic to see so many bats coming through the workshop for repairs, refurbishments and general maintenance. On the other, it creates a constant race against the clock for all 18 weeks of the league season - at least here in Oxfordshire.

One interesting thing I've noticed this season is how quickly buying habits can change. For example, when fuel prices jumped a couple of months ago, new bat sales seemed to fall off a cliff almost overnight. At the same time, repair enquiries & orders increased noticeably. That's completely understandable when household budgets come under pressure, extending the life of a bat you already own often makes more sense than investing in a new one. In many cases, a well-executed repair can add years to a bat's playing life, so it's nice to be able to offer an option that keeps people on the field without the expense of replacing their bat altogether. I guess this is the beauty of being a bat maker & repairer.

One thing I always try to do is turn repairs around quickly. If a customer gets their bat to me early enough in the week, I do everything possible to have it repaired and back with them by Friday, ready for the weekend's cricket. Something that used to kill me when I was younger was having my bat away for repair over a weekend when I could have been using it, and this has stuck vividly in my mind. Bat makers have been nicely assisted by the warm weather so far this summer, which allows glues to dry more quickly - This allowed me to get some time back, however, the recent rain we've had requires extra caution, particularly when it comes to handles, for example.

The challenge is that during the busiest weeks, there are only so many hours in the day. While the workload increases significantly, the reality is that there's not quite enough work to justify taking on regular part-time help, especially not in the current economy, let alone a full-time member of staff for just a few months of the year. As a result, the only real option is to put the extra hours in myself. Then you throw a couple of customer appointments into the mix, perhaps an emergency trip to Screwfix, and suddenly I've missed my courier collection and all the affected bats are a day behind schedule. That can mean some pretty silly days, and it's not unusual to find myself in the workshop late into the evening trying to get another repair completed or another bat sanded before calling it a night. The downside is that after a particularly long day, I sometimes find myself limping into the workshop a little later the following morning. In some ways, it almost cancels out the extra hours worked the day before.

On top of this, the workshop isn't the only thing demanding attention during cricket season, as I'm still trying to play the game as much as possible while the body is willing. I aim to get to the nets twice a week and tend to play every weekend throughout the summer. During the middle of the season, that often becomes two games a week, meaning even more time spent on the cricket field and less time in the workshop. When you add it all together - workshop hours, customer repairs, appointments, net sessions and matches - the calendar fills up pretty quickly. There are certainly moments when it feels relentless, perhaps even never-ending, but it's also the time of year that reminds me why I started doing this in the first place.

Helping people keep their favourite bats going, bringing tired bats back to life, making some new beauties, and still getting out there to enjoy the game myself, is what cricket is to me. So if you've ever wondered why messages sometimes get answered a little later than usual during these months, this is why. It's not because I'm ignoring anyone, it's because I'm either buried under a pile of bats, or hopefully I've got one in my hands somewhere outside the workshop.