If you are planning to use the sale of your business to fund your retirement, there’s some good news on the way. Changes to capital gains tax expected to be announced by the Chancellor should see you retain all of the money you make up to an expected threshold of £100,000. The details have not - – - read more >

The customer is not always right, argues this article from Business Week. If they are taking up too much time sometimes it’s better to part company and put the effort into finding new business. “All that time and energy I had spent on resolving conflict was now spent on getting new customers”, reported one business - – - read more >

The world is full of people who can’t sell or don’t want to – often for good reasons. Usually it’s because they don’t want be the sort of person who they think it’s necessary to turn into to sell things. They may have real examples in mind – obnoxious sales-men or -women they have encountered - – - read more >

easyJet founder and serial entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou is entering the serviced office business with a chain of easyOffices targeted especially at start-ups. The first opens in London on the 14th of November 2007. Other offices are expected to follow swiftly in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Like other easyGroup businesses Stelios has given his serviced offices a - – - read more >

Yell.com has published a very encouraging piece of research into businesses started by older people. The survey focuses on business owners over 50 who have set up in the last five years, who it calls “senior startups”. Overall this is a strikingly contented group, with 44 per cent of respondents reporting that they are now - – - read more >

Here are five case studies of entrepreneurs over 50 from the Yell.com web site. All are finalists or winners of the Yellow Pages-sponsored ‘Silver Fox’ category at the 2007 Startups Awards, except Brian who won in 2005. Myreen Young MY Skincare Ltd Southampton, Hampshire Ann Litster Hands on Cleaning Clevedon, North Somerset Gary Sheffield Alpine - – - read more >

The Treasury has announced the figures that will be used to calculate Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit next financial year, which starts in April 2008. The figures should be of interest to many self-employed people, because those running new businesses often have incomes low enough to qualify for tax credits. The tax credit - – - read more >

Date: Wednesday 07th November 2007, 6pm to 9pm Venue: The Ramada Jarvis Hotel, Norwich Status: PRIME event 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 - – - read more >

Here’s an interesting collection of stories from New Zealand of people who set up their own businesses after being made redundant. Refreshingly, what has happened to these people since has not been written up in the usual relentless “success story” style. For example, where people have motives other than the desire to get rich (for example - – - read more >

The Economist summarises the latest thinking on the subject by big companies, including some such as 3M, Nokia and Google that are undoubtedly very good at innovation. Just about everybody seems to agree that it’s not the idea itself but the hard work that follows afterwards that matters. But some are thinking too about the - – - read more >

There’s an interesting discussion on this American weblog that brings out clearly the differences between being an employee and having your own business. The author Maria Langer actually has two businesses – something that is quite common when you are self-employed as two activities can often complement each other. One of her occupations is unusually - – - read more >

PRIME’s central office in London will be out of operation between Friday the 5th and Monday the 8th of October 2007. This is to allow further repairs to be made to the electrical system badly damaged in the flooding back in July. Neither email or our normal telephone number will be operating. However PRIME’s programme - – - read more >