Near my house is a typical city road. Not a busy one, it contains shops, restaurants bars, a few small offices and barber shops. In fact it has four.

The road is less than a mile long so they have their work cut out to make a living. When you look closely you find that they are different.

1. One is a standard barber shop. It has one or two men working in it and operates a wander in, no appointment system. They are fast, efficient, cut a lot of hair in very little time and seem to be always open. If you want your hair cut at 11:00pm on Tuesday, someone will be there to serve.
2. Another specialises in Afro-Caribbean hair styles and other ethnic hair cutting
3. Another is run by a woman and she specialises in mens hair. I have no idea whether she is good at haircutting but wow, does she know a lot about football. She is an obsessive Portsmouth Football supporter and is an expert on every player from every league from the last 10 years. She has personally memorised every players club transfers and the managers they served. Men happily queue up here for cheap hair cuts, football banter and, of course, football on the radio
4. Another is a salon. They have nice chairs, young female hairdressers, grooming products, a colouring room, oak panelling and a comprehensive hair product selection. Oh and they are at least twice as much as all the other hairdressers on the street

They all make a living. Well they seem to have been around for a long while at least.

The reason this is all suddenly interesting is that I wandered out to get some milk tonight and passed a shop being refurbished. Someone has clearly rented a nice space and by the looks of things is spending a fair bit of money on shop fittings, mirrors, chairs. Yes, we have a new barber shop opening up.

I don’t know the person opening. I assume they can cut hair. I assume they have some start up money. I hope they have done some thinking as they embark on this new venture. Do they have anything different or interesting to offer potential customers? Are they going to try and pry customers away from their existing loyalties with offers of cheap deals?

I hope they have done their homework. As many of you will know, it hurts a lot and personally when a small business goes wrong. I have a worry that there is no room for a barbershop quintet. Do any of you have any suggestions for the new owner/manager. Maybe I should drop a few through the letter box if it is not too late

Apologies to anyone searching for our apps on the Apple Store during August. It seems we inadvertently lost them from the site. Both the Leadership Coach and the Professional Coach apps are back on and working fine. 

Playing on the office stereo this week: ‘Traveller’ by Jerry Douglas. The musos among you may know that if you talk about the Dobro as an instrument, there is one true master. Jerry is an inspirational player. His new album blends blues, folk, rock and country and features guest appearances from Eric Clapton, Alison Krauss, Mark Cohn, Mumford and Sons and Paul Simon. Love it and wish he would pop to the UK and give lessons to deserving consultants.