Bohemia Village Voice

Clive Gross - putting fizz into local businesses.

Help is available for local entrepreneurs who need advice in getting their businesses off the ground. Clive Gross (pictured) is a business coach for the Hastings area working under the auspices of Bizfizz, a government-funded project set up to provide a national network of business coaches wherever they are needed. Clive is based at Summerfields Business Centre but works on an outreach basis in order to serve the kind of people of who don’t normally attend the workshops and seminars run by the centre itself.
  ROCK BANDS
Clive has a varied business background that includes a spell doing marketing and PR for local leisure trusts. Originally from south London, he has also managed rock bands and run a small record label. Six years ago he moved to Eastbourne, where he opened a coffee shop and gallery. Clive began a two-year tenure as a Bizfizz coach just before Christmas last year and already has 25 clients drawing on his wide experience. He is keen to point out that the service he provides is free, and there is no limit on the amount of time he can spend with any one client. ‘As long as the need is there, I’m available to help,’ he says. ‘The idea is to use people’s energy and creativity to help regenerate the area from the ground up.’
UNDERWEAR 
Clive’s main areas are Ore Valley and Central St Leonards, but he is available to anyone in the Hastings area. Among the range of clients Clive has been working with locally are a woman with plans to open a retail underwear shop, a paper and document restorer, and a woman starting a daytime nightclub for adults with children.
FIRST
The Bizfizz project has been running since 2002, and there are now 15 coaches nationwide. Clive is the first in the South-east, but there are plans to increase the network if the project succeeds.
n Anyone interested in free business advice and support can contact him on 205509  or 07771 645263 (mobile) or by emailing:
clive.gross@bizfizz.org.uk