In today's blog we catch up with Gary of 4Sports Group at the end of another week.

"Another week draws to a close; again each of us at 4sports wondering "can it really be Friday already/"

It can be fun running a small business, but not whilst suffering with a trapped sciatic nerve!

The joy of having someone else putting your socks on and tying your shoes at 7 in the morning, my sons take it in turns … loving being woken during ½ term!

A week full of Easton College, Norfolk FA, Active Norfolk & Norfolk School Sports, mixed in with the one-off orders: a chef's jacket needed that same day for a press release, and "can you engrave this plate for my mum?" requests.

February was meant to be one of our slow months, wasn’t it?

Our year flies by; we sell staff & workwear all year, spiking, in theory, in the Spring and Autumn.

We need the sun to shine in the Spring so that jackets are discarded for TShirts & Polo shirts, and then the reverse in the autumn.

Cricket Kits dominate February to May, kicked out by Football to the year's end.

Trophy madness runs through from now to the Summer - a mix of end of Season Awards and Summer competitions – 15000 supplied last year!

This Spring we have football invading Cricket, with 20 kits ordered through the FA for the 10 prestigious Cup Finals with 3 played at Carrow Road … thought "come on you ‘Yellows’" we need the points any points anyhow!

I am very lucky with my team; H, the trophy legend popping in all weekend to add another 50 plates to the engraving machines … thankfully they don’t need a rest (unlike me come the end of another 6 day week) with Dan, Jack, Sarah & Tom happy to open the workshop on a Saturday if needed.

Next week will be another wonderful mix of deadlines, new clients and boxes of garments needing to be embroidered and printed, trophies needing engraving and a birthday to fit in … if anyone reading this needs any of the above pop into see us 4 a chat over a cuppa – I need a break!

PS I try not to break the ‘golden rules’ I really do … I can still hear my father's voice as to car buying advice ‘never buy a car in the rain or at night – don’t drive it, wash it!’ so Tuesday evening my 17 year old (taking his test next week’ tells me that we have to go and see a car now as it had only been advertised that day, yes he checks the www daily and the seller had 3 people viewing in the morning. The car had alloys, go faster lights and a colour coded spoiler.

We went; we drove it, we checked it by torch, and bought it, collecting it last night in the dark – thankfully it looked beautiful in the early dawn light and I have a very happy son!

Thankfully my youngest is 6 months away from starting his lessons …"