Ms Badger, who runs a successful SME consultancy business, told delegates at the annual event that by following a number of simple rules they could grow their businesses.

"It's really important to undertand who you are, what you provide and what the hell makes you different," she said. "If you want to do it there's only one person who can step up and do it and that's you."

The reality TV star, who has also enjoyed success in front of the camera through her hit show 'Badger or Bust', said it was also vital that owner-managers realised that an integral part of running a business was understanding their staff to ensure they got the best out of them.

Ms Badger said bosses should ultimately look at themselves and their shortcomings if a business was failing and not blame staff.

She was also keen to emphasise that although her appearance in the second series of BBC show The Apprentice had thrust her into the limelight, she had gambled everything to appear on the series and left a highly-paid sales director role with a plc.

She told the audience at the event, which was held at Barnsley Metrodome how her consultancy business had worked with 358 SMEs since its launch four years ago, more than 300 of which were still trading.

She also runs the Ruth Badger Training Academy which offers advice to small businesses.

She also emphasised the importance of sales to a business and time management.

"I actually believe sales is about not making the same mistakes again. You take decisions and you take risks. Do you always take the right ones? No.

"As a business owner it's really important to take control of the company. Business is simple. Attitude is the be all and end all for business."

Carol Cooper Smith, director of Barnsley Development Agency, one of the main sponsors of BarnsleyWorks with Barnsley Work and Skills Board, said the event was important to foster a spirit of enterprise in the region.

Ms Cooper Smith said sectors such as manufacturing and food and drink were flourishing in the wake of Barnsley's mining background.

She said: "We want to capitalise on the burgeoning spirit in the town. This event is an event for Barnsley by Barnsley.

"We've got an economy that's 30% driven by the public sector (in Barnsley) and that's got to change. What we need in Barnsley is much more of an enterprising spirit but that's coming."

More than 50 exhibitors, including SMEs, universities and advice bodies, attended BarnsleyWorks.

Delegates also heard from speakers including Rob Wilmot, director of BCS Digital and one of the brains behind internet service provider Freeserve; Dr Mike mcCaig of Bull, who spoke about greener ICT; and Imran Farooq, managing director of MMC Learning, gave an insight into digital marketing.

By Ian Briggs - Deputy Editor, Yorkshire-The Business Desk.com 

Ruth provided a unique insight into her sales approach and shared the method of how she sells with delegates. The masterclass delivered over 15 years of real sales experience in one morning! Each delegate walked away having developed sales skills that could have a real impact on performance of their business.

Stuart Wells, Director of Management Development Programmes explained that the small business masterclasses have been designed to challenge delegates, stimulate thinking and catalyse awareness. “Selling Badger Style” was a superb example of one of our business growth masterclasses. These sessions are specifically designed to meet the needs of small businesses and to provide owner managers with the tools to improve their businesses and develop them as individuals.

More information on the management programmes at Salford Business School can be found at www.business.salford.ac.uk or by calling Stuart Wells on 0161 295 3385.

Small firms often look at their accountants to provide them their figures, when really they need to get close to their figures

One thing every business should ask themselves in the first quarter is what their break-even point is. If they don't know it then they need to stop and work it out. Out of all the businesses that I've been into 70% don't know their break-even point. They can tell you what their budget is and what their forecasts are, but not one of the most important figures.

The start of a new year is also a great opportunity to review sales targets. A business in the Midlands I'm working with is not doing very well at the moment and what they're focusing their staff on is last year's performance.

Every single week they are coming out with staff sales figures, and they are all 30-40% down. The staff are completely de-motivated because of this communication about their performance compared to last year.

I'm also focused on the internal infrastructure of businesses before they go out and generate leads; a lot of businesses fail because they can't convert their leads. People talk about numbers and figures, but the most important thing is conversion. If you put ten leads in and convert five, then I want to know how we are going to put in ten leads and convert eight. It is vital to make more out of what you've got.

Companies can go out and have fancy marketing and a great strategy but it's no good if potential business comes in and then falls down at the first hurdle.

All businesses must stock-take on where they are in order to progress in 2010, because I think this is the year that businesses are going to recover.

Every business owner took a deep breath on the 2nd of January last year as we walked into the new year, as nobody knew what to expect. This year people need to be more focused, more aggressive and proactive. If they do these three things, applied with common sense and understanding their figures, then they will have growth in 2010.

on young apprentices. Over the next 10 weeks the National Apprenticeship Service

will provide up to 5,000 Apprenticeship Grants for Employers of 16 and 17 year olds

(AGE 16 and 17). The grant of £2,500 is to enable employers to offer 5,000 new

Apprenticeship places and take on an unemployed 16 or 17 year old apprentice

immediately. The £2,500 grant is in addition to the costs of training which are

already met by the National Apprenticeship Service.   

As I started my career in 1994 on a Youth Trainee Scheme which was the old name for an Apprenticeship I really do see the value of giving a young person the chance of building your business and their career.

It is not very often I champion the Government but I think these grants are a great idea and as an employer you would be a fool not to take advantage of a burst of young energy into your business.

There are currently lots of young people looking for Apprenticeship opportunities so to find out more call 08000 150 600.

Two thirds of UK high street retailers give non publicised discounts to customers who are brave enough to haggle, according to a report published last week by moneysupermarket.com.

In the study of UK retailers and consumers, 61 % of shop owners and managers report that the recession has made them more likely to offer ‘non sale’ discounts to close a deal.  Yet almost a third of retailers claim that customers rarely haggle with them and only 15 % report that they have a strict ‘no discounts’ policy.

Indeed a third of UK shoppers state that they have never tried to negotiate a price down on something they were buying, with the majority stating that embarrassment holds them back from trying to get a better deal.  Only 10% say that they haggle on a regular basis.

Yet of those who have tried haggling, they report being successful on two out of three occasions and, on average, negotiated a 13.5% discount.  Just 7 % of hagglers received a straight no from the retailer and 73 % of people who asked for free items to be thrown in with a purchase were successful.

The products that consumers feel most comfortable negotiating on are electronic items such as TVs, DVD recorders and stereos.  In contrast, just 8% of people negotiate when buying insurance or purchasing a car and only one in 20 haggle on their mobile phone contracts – ultra-competitive industries well-known for offering discounts or price matching.

To see this in practice, moneysupermarket.com sent eighteen volunteers out on to the shopping streets of London to try haggling for themselves. They visited over 120 stores including House of Fraser, M&S, H&M, TopShop, PC World, Boots, independent retailers and market stalls. 

Twelve out of eighteen volunteers managed to haggle successfully in a high street store and were granted discounts of between 5-20%. Consumer electronics stores and independent retailers were found to be the most open to haggling and, as expected, market stalls proved to be great negotiation territory. The way that you dress also appeared to have a bearing on the discount possible with 80% of the experiment’s successful hagglers being smartly dressed.

High street chains, department stores and supermarkets proved less haggle-friendly with many quoting central pricing policies.  However, there are exceptions to the rule with House of Fraser offering a non-publicised 20 % discount on the purchase of two Jaeger men’s shirts.   Tesco also offered a five per cent ‘at till’ discount on a case of champagne.  Haggling also threw up a large number of poorly publicised in-store discounts that would otherwise have been missed.

Populus research among UK retailers backs up these findings with 81% of independent stores saying they are open to negotiation on price.  Perhaps surprisingly, 73% of the UK department stores polled and 71% of high street chains say they are happy to give discounts at their discretion.  Only 31 % of supermarkets are willing to give a non publicised discount.

The recession has taught small company owners many vital business lessons, such as the need to diversify, the importance of an accurate budget and that the quality of a deal is more important than the volume.

When the economy was performing well people were worried about the number of deals that they got through the door, how quick they got them in, delivered them and got them back out. However, I've seen a definite shift in business towards concentrating on good quality business deals.

I've never before heard the word ‘margin' mentioned so often and in such an educated way in the last six months than I have in the last five years. The downturn has taught businesses to focus on the right deals. I said one of my favourite sayings to a business the other day: some of the best deals that you do are the ones that you don't do at all.

The downturn has taught businesses to focus on the right deals - some of the best deals that you do are the ones that you don’t do at all

This business had seen their margin squeezed down to a stage where all a particular contract meant for them was activity. They were working to a breakeven point, there was no profitability in the deal.

Firms must accurately calculate the cost of a product. The naive person works out how much it costs to put together; the business person works out all the labour costs and the margin that needs to go into it to turn a profit.

One of the biggest lessons the recession has taught companies is the need to diversify their business. A lot of firms were reliant on a few big contracts to carry them through, but this meant that if one contract ended it seriously affected a company's turnover and cash flow.

Since June last year we've helped 101 businesses back from the point of administration - if we hadn't have helped them they would have gone bust. The most common denominator was that the firms did not have a budget, or if they did it was not accurate with what was coming into the company in the current times.

A budget is actually very simple to do. It's just a case of being very aware of your figures, working back from that and understanding what the business actually needs to achieve on a daily basis. This is an absolute must in the current economic climate and more SMEs are aware of this than they have ever been.

I actually think that small businesses are the best place to be right now in the current market place. I am a champion of small and medium-sized companies; they are the backbone of this country and the lifeblood of the business community.

Small firms can make decisions quickly to adapt to changing market conditions and ensure that their business is stabilised. Decisions like this can take several weeks to be approved and implemented in larger organisations, and this can make the difference between a firm surviving or going under.

Although I'm not convinced by those talking about ‘green shoots' of recovery - we will know when we are beginning to emerge from the recession when the base rate rises and loan-to-value with mortgage lenders starts to go up - I do not expect the economic situation to get any worse.

If small business owners have weathered the economic storm so far then - as long as they don't forget the lessons that the recession has taught them when the deals begin to come in - they should survive thanks to the measures that they have implemented.

and yes I have checked and my staff are all bright eyed and bushy tailed for work!

The big stores have got their seasonal stock out with 80 days still to go.. At least there's no excuse not to get loved ones just what they wished for. But first of all I'll settle for my Halloween costume and then fireworks before I get too carried away.