Recent items from PRIME Business Club
The PRIME Initiative provides free information, events and training to help older people get back into work by starting their own business - also known as “becoming self-employed”.
PRIME has another web site at www.primebusinessclub.com that provides practical information and guidance to such “olderpreneurs”. Meanwhile this site here is for those seeking background on the charity itself, its work and campaigns - including potential supporters.
The charity’s activities are needed because the over-50s face huge problems of unemployment and age discrimination in the conventional job market. HRH The Prince of Wales recognised this huge labour-market failure - which is common to all developed countries, when he founded PRIME (the Prince’s Initiative for Mature Enterprise).
In the UK almost one person in three aged between 50 and state pension age is workless. Of these less than 10 per cent are retired on adequate incomes. The remaining 90 per cent are on incapacity benefit, registered unemployed, caring, made redundant or retired with an inadequate pension.
PRIME was set up to assist older entrepreneurs across the whole of the UK. It is currently active on the ground in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Wales it works through PRIME Cymru, PRIME’s sister organisation, with whom PRIME works closely under our joint President, Prince Charles.
PRIME’s work with olderpreneurs complements the Prince’s other enterprise charities, which are more associated with youth.
PRIME seeks to help anyone aged over 50 in the UK who wants to start their own business or set up a social enterprise with other people. It can only provide the vital work of giving people back their financial independence, self-reliance and dignity with your support, help and donations. For details of how you can help, see Support us.
You can get a feel for the work of PRIME by reading the articles and blogs on this web site. To find specific items use the search box at top right, or to see the most recent items go to News. There’s more about the charity itself under About.
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PRIME, the charity founded by Prince Charles to help people over the age of 50 across the UK to get back into work by starting their own businesses, has appointed Richard Martin as Chairman Designate. He will take over from the existing Chair Pauline Norton in the summer.
Pauline says “I am delighted that Richard will [...]
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Plans to deal with pension shortfalls by encouraging people to work for longer received a dash of cold water today. Three-quarters of us could be too ill to work, Professor Sir Michael Marmot of University College London warns in a new report.
All but the richest Britons suffer years of ill health. People in [...]
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In all the events and reports on worklessness that have come out over the last couple of weeks youth unemployment is always the central theme. But the evidence on youth unemployment is a bit like jelly - bright and brash on the surface, but 95 per cent water. You can’t use it to support anything. [...]
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Influential voices are calling for the current “default retirement age” of 65 to be scrapped. The latest call comes from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which has said that workers should be able to stay in their jobs beyond the age of 65. The EHRC polled 1,500 workers, and found that a relaxation [...]
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Just before the Christmas break the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) launched its latest White Paper Building Britain’s Recovery - Achieving Full Employment. Straight after the break we have The Prince’s Trust YouGov Youth Index 2010 survey. This includes the claim, which is already well-established in the popular mind, that young people are hit [...]
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Here’s a short fascinating research study by the Kauffman Foundation, which funds many education and entrepreneurship programmes in the United States. It’s fascinating not least because US trends often end up happening here eventually.
According to the Foundation’s research it’s people in the 55 – 64 age group who are now responsible for the highest rate [...]
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Over 300 delegates from older people’s organisations poured into the Scottish Parliament at the bottom of The Royal Mile in Edinburgh on Friday 2nd October. This was the first Older People’s Assembly in Scotland of this size, and is certainly more than England, Wales and Northern Ireland have produced. There are a range of forums, [...]
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The Guardian has published a long piece called “Starting a business - what the over-50s need to know“. Businesses started by people in their 50s are more likely to succeed than those begun by 20- or 30-somethings, it says, and author Patrick Collinson goes on to interview some examples of olderpreneurs.
PRIME’s free roadshow [...]
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I still have people saying to me that the over 50s are risk averse. And so - the implication often is, that we should not bother with providing enterprise support for them.
Up to now my answer has had to be two-fold.
Firstly, if we use the word “prudent” in place of risk-averse, we get a whole [...]
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Cecile Trijssenaar has secured the first loan under the Zopa-PRIME Olderpreneur loan scheme. She is using it to help her set up her dating site TopMatch West London, which she hopes to have live in August.
Cecile, who is just 50, requested £13,000 to buy into and develop an online dating franchise called TopMatch, which she [...]
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Anne Walsh, 53 from Manchester, went from BT operations manager to quirky craftswoman, when she applied for voluntary redundancy.
BT operations manager Anne Walsh was the breadwinner for a disabled husband and three children. Fed up with her office job, Anne promised herself she would change her life when she turned 50. Anne applied for voluntary [...]
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Upward Curve PR has chosen PRIME as its Charity of the Year 2009 to 2010. “We are so pleased to be able to offer PRIME PR support”, says Helen Ashley of Upward Curve. “We chose them because we felt that with our aging population and the current recession, the charity’s focus is particularly relevant.”
“The over-50s [...]
