Stephen Barnes

Starting a business can be both exciting and overwhelming – where do you start, and will it be a success? Below is my checklist for those looking forward to the challenge of starting a business. Will it be a hobby or a business? All businesses start as a small business and a lot of small businesses […]

The world is changing at lightning speed and the way we conduct business and engage with clients and customers is also changing at lightning speed. Traditional marketing – making cold calls, placing large print media advertisements and interruptive advertisements on TV – was all about the company finding the customer. These marketing techniques were interruptive […]

In my previous article, Oops… my business made a pricing mistake, I outlined pricing mistakes businesses commonly make.  Knowing the mistakes should help you identify and avoid making the same mistakes but what do you do after you discover you’ve made on? Fix 1 – Know your target customer or customers A really useful strategy in […]

In my recent article, How to work out what price to charge, I discussed how pricing is one of the most crucial decisions business owners and managers must make, while touching on the eight rules for pricing effectively… But what happens when you get pricing wrong and how do you recover from pricing mistakes? In this […]

“There are only two types of companies: Those that have been hacked and those that will be hacked.” – Robert S. Mueller, III, former Director of the FBI and now Special Counsel into the Russian interference of the USA election, made this famous quote. But almost by the time he made it, it was out of […]

Broadly speaking, leaderships teams bring to the decision-making table not only a collection of business skills but also a unique set of personal views, informed by each member’s circumstances, including the tribes they belong to.  Of course, each member has a range of legal and fiduciary duties to the business. This includes the duty to […]

The price that is set for products and services is one of the most crucial decisions business owners and managers must make in a business. Entrepreneurs, new businesses and small business often give too little thought to this highly complex matter and the consequences can be dire. Pricing requires thought and an understanding of the […]

The summer holidays are quite often the only time of year when business owners have the freedom to think about their business without getting caught up in the day-to-day running of it. Following a reflection on the year that was, thoughts usually turn to how to grow and develop the business during the forthcoming year.  If […]

The price that you set for your products and services is one of the most crucial decisions you have to make in a business.  Pricing requires thought and an understanding of your customers or clients, the market, the environment and your competitors.  Here are four pricing mistakes you need to avoid: One: The first mistake […]