PRIME business club

This 6 hour beginner’s workshop will help you come up with and develop your ideas.
You will then begin to make a decision on whether you would like to work for yourself. 

The workshop will include understanding your strengths, likes and dislikes.
Staff from local organisations will be invited along to talk and will also be available on a one to one basis.

A free lunch will be provided on the day.

To book your place on this workshop please contact Faye Banerjee on:0800 783 1904
Email: faye.banerjee@ace.org.uk

Location

About a quarter of the people who have contacted PRIME over the last two years kindly filled in a form giving some details about themselves. The responses have now been analysed and here’s what you told us.

The results were independently analysed for PRIME by Professor Mark Hart from Kingston University Business School.

The purpose of this kind of formal monitoring exercise is twofold. Firstly it re-assures our supporters that PRIME, a charity, is reaching the people it should be reaching. And secondly it enables us to spot gaps where we should be doing more.

Of course this isn’t the only way we get feedback. Indeed, you are very welcome to email us at any time or post comments in the forums.

On the 1st of July 2007 the prohibition on smoking that has been in place in Scotland for well over a year and in Wales and Northern Ireland since April finally arrives in England.

For most businesses it won’t involve more than putting a few notices up - but there are penalties for failing to comply so it is worth checking what is required.

There are separate official guidance sites for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. They all contain brief summaries of the law, frequently asked questions and officially-approved no smoking signs you can download for free.

The ban affects almost all enclosed places of work and indoor premises open to the public. Strictly speaking it will be illegal for workers to smoke - or to permit customers or other members of the public to smoke - even if they all want to.

Vehicles used for work by more than one person must also be smoke free. And they must display No Smoking signs.

There some exceptions - residential accommodation, designated rooms in hotels, submarines and - bizarrely, refueling vessels.

In Northern Ireland interpretation of the law has already been relaxed to allow actors to puff away “if the artistic integrity of the performance makes it appropriate for them to smoke”. In Scotland this concession was only achieved after a struggle.

So England will probably get the law with some of the rough edges knocked off - but there is no guarantee of this. Basically, from the 1st of July smoking at work will be forbidden across the UK - but with some local variations.

Does the law apply to sole traders? It does if you work with someone else indoors or have customers or suppliers visiting you regularly in your enclosed space. But if you work entirely on your own, particularly in your own home, you are permitted to make your own decision.

Meanwhile the BBC is reporting that Cherie Blair has been hired by an erotic nightclub to challenge the smoking ban about to come into force in England.

“Dave West, who runs the HeyJo nightclub in London, believes the ban will breach the rights of staff and his guests.”

Finding New Futures is a free workshop especially for older people considering setting up their own business. It explores the pros and cons of different routes in to business including taking up a franchise.

Please book early to ensure your place.

Freephone: 0800 783 1904
or email faye.banerjee@ace.org.uk

Please click on the linK for hotel location map

Printable details

This year’s Startups Awards boasts a new category especially for people who have set up their business after the age of 50. Sponsored by Yellow Pages, the “Silver Fox” (yuk!) award is open to anyone over 50 that has set up a small business within the last three years.

There are 16 other categories you might also be eligible to enter in, including retail business, online business, green business and micro business (less than five employees), plus there’s an overall winner-of-winners category sponsored by NatWest that gets a £5,000 prize.

The Startups Awards are one the UK’s most established awards, and the winners usually attract good publicity. Normally you have to pay £45 to enter, but the first 100 “Silver Fox” entries are free, courtesy of Yellow Pages, if you enter the promotional code V2SUA1.

You can request an entry pack online. Be sure to enter the promotional code V2SUA1 in the relevant box. You can enter in more than one category

All entries must be received by July 13, 2007. Short-listed entrants will be notified in August ahead of the awards ceremony at the end of October. Read about previous winners here.

PRIME is hiring. We are looking for someone to get a new project going for us in the Black Country area of the West Midlands.

Full details and application pack on our other web site.  

STOP PRESS

We’ve found someone, so the position is now filled.

But PRIME  is a member of the Prince’s Charities group. There may be vacancies from time to time in our sister organisations. You can click through to the relevant pages here.  For opportunities in the royal household click here.