PRIME business club

The excellent home-business web site Enterprise Nation is now accepting entries for its 2008 home business award. The closing date is Friday the 15th of August 2008, and the winner will be announced on the 1st of September.

The free competition is easy to enter, requiring just 200 words under each of three headings on the entry form. Your business needs to be home-based and located in the UK.

The prizes are not huge, but varied and interesting - for example a year’s free use of a virtual assistant (secretarial) service, 10 days use of a central London meeting venue, accounting software, a computer printer and a coffee machine. The event is also very likely to attract good publicity for the winner.

Older entrepreneurs were the topic of Westside Radio’s Friday morning business programme. Presenter Pooja talked to Annabel Rhodes of cosmetics start-up Rhodes to Heaven, and to Laurie South of PRIME. You can listen to the programme on The Big Dream blog.

Computer giant Dell has introduced its Small Business Excellence Award to the UK, in conjunction with the Daily Express and British Chambers of Commerce.

The awards are aimed at companies employing less than 100 people that can show they have used technology to deliver “superior customer value and experience” and improved customer relationships.

Prizes include £15,000 in Dell products and services for the top UK winner, and nine other UK Finalists will get a Dell laptop and membership of their local Chamber of Commerce.

Closing date for entries is 31 May 2008. You can apply online on the Dell site. There is more background about the contest at the British Chambers of Commerce web site.

These awards have been running for five years in the US. This is their first year in the UK. The top UK winner will also get a crack at the global £25,000 prize.

Barclays is now accepting entries to its fourth annual Trading Places business awards.
You can enter if you have been trading for between three months and three years, live in the UK and have an annual turnover of under £1 million. The closing date is the 30th of May 2008

This award differs from most in that it’s about overcoming adversity. So if you have got your business going after a struggle it might be worth entering. Here are the stories of last year’s finalists.

The winner and runner up receive £10,000 and £5,000 respectively from Barclays Bank, and a selection of Microsoft business software. For more information about entering ring the awards office on 0800 085 3203 or visit www.barclays.co.uk/tradingplaces.

Philip Black has recently been made redundant at the age of 57. This programme in the Radio 4 Learning Curve strand follows him round London Olympia, talking to various exhibitors at the One Life Live show about what if anything they could do to help.

Back in the studio, presenter Libby Purves interviews Laurie South of PRIME, asking him whether self-employment can really offer a solution to Philip and people like him.

Listen to full programme

Most small business owners would reject the offers made on TV’s Dragons’ Den, according to a poll by accounting software firm Kashflow. Almost two-thirds of the firms participating felt they could get a better deal elsewhere. The Dragons typically offer cash in return for taking a hefty equity stake.

The research revealed that business owners do not believe that the deals offered by the five Dragons represent good value for money. Instead they would turn to a bank in the expectation of getting a more reasonable rate on a loan, or private backers in the hope of retaining a larger percentage of their own business in an equity deal.

Of those who would take the offer, the most popular reason was to benefit from the experience of the Dragons, followed by the opportunity to grow fast and the PR benefits.

Full story

UPDATE: Missed the programme?
Watch it here.
Plus extra bits not transmitted.

On Friday the 8th of February 2008 at 7pm BBC 2 is showing “Too Young to Retire” - a special edition of The Money Programme about people who are building successful businesses in their 60s and 70s.

One of the older entrepreneurs featured is chartered accountant Dick Pyle, who set up a truffle farm in France using an innovative adopt-a-truffle-tree business model. Customers pay £149 per tree - and then get all the produce from it. You can also visit your tree, or give trees as presents. He was just coming up to 60 and about to retire when he came up with this scheme.

Presenter Valerie Singleton also talks to sisters Penny Walker and Annabel Rhodes, who set up their own natural cosmetics business Rhodes to Heaven in their sixties. They are shown taking their products to the next stage, selling them into an upmarket High Street chain.

From the BBC press release:

Former Money Programme presenter Valerie Singleton sets out on a journey around Britain to meet some of the oldest entrepreneurs in Britain. She examines if age is a hindrance or help to a new business career and hears the experiences of those men and women who have decided it’s never too late to start.

Statistics show that those who are over fifty and find themselves out of work have only a one in ten chance of being re-employed. So the option of starting up on your own is very attractive and may even be essential.

Valerie Singleton meets a variety of entrepreneurs who are finding success in new fields. There are the sisters in their sixties who started a range of organic beauty products and are working to get high street distribution for them. Then there is the illustrator who has built up a highly successful online greeting card business. There is also the sky-diving septuagenarian who has set up a children’s charity. Finally she meets a retired PR executive who is now trading in truffles.

She also seeks the advice of the UK’s oldest employee and employer - who are both still going strong despite being over one hundred years old.

With expert input on what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur from “The Apprentice” star Sir Alan Sugar, and Peter Jones from Dragons’ Den the programme examines just what are the advantages and disadvantages in being an older entrepreneur.

Three stories of older entrepeneurs are now on the BBC web site. All set up businesses in their fifties and sixties.

Myreen Young, an aromatherapist from Southampton, launched her own range of skin-care cosmetics at the age of 54. Two years later it appears to be going strong, with 30 salons across the UK also selling the MY Skincare branded products.

Ann Litster, 52, from Somerset set up her own cleaning business, also two years ago. At the time she had recently become unemployed and seriously needed the money. Her firm Hands on Cleaning now employs over 20 people.

The BBC’s third interviewee was Graham Siggs (more on his story here). He started his electrical testing business Huntspat in Cambridgeshire after being retired from the civil service at the age of 60.

“To find work at 60 is very difficult. I saw many high-flyers from the civil service end up stacking shelves,” Graham told the BBC.

The winner of PRIME’s November draw is Mr Robert Finch from Manchester. He wins a £100 in M & S vouchers, plus a bumper bundle of PRIME rock.

PRIME is holding a final prize draw in the run up to Christmas. To enter, just answer the seven quick questions in our “rock quiz”. We are again giving again £100 in M & S vouchers, plus sticks of rock with PRIME written through it! And maybe a Christmas card.

Enter here.

On another subject, if you haven’t thought about your pension arrangements yet, PRIME’s advice is to go and talk to an independent financial adviser who is familiar with self-employment issues. You can find a list of IFAs by region and speciality here.

Just in case you think we might be trying to sneak in a mention of the subject few self-employed people seem to want to think about - pensions, we are.

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 Training Centre
Rye, East Sussex

Ken Bird

Dwrpur Pure Water Ltd
St Clears, Carmarthenshire

Brian Plunkett

Trichocare Diagnostics Ltd
Ridgmont, Beds

Female entrepreneurs showed off some of the businesses they had set up at a recent event hosted by Barclays Bank. All the women had been on short courses for the over 50s run by London Metropolitan University.

The programme has been running over the last three years, with the typical course lasting for 10 days spread over 20 weeks - this part-time format allowing the women time to actually start their businesses.

Among the new enterprises created are several in the care and alternative health sectors, educational games, dog clothes and importing African musical instruments.

“Businesses set up by older people not only provide a living for the business owner, but are one of fastest growing groups of start-up businesses in London”, said Hilary Farnworth, manager of the project. 

Grandad’s Back in Business is a new four-part TV series that goes out at 9pm on Monday nights. Each programme follows an older candidate – aged between 50 and 65, as they try to break back into the industry in which they once worked. Pitted against them is a younger candidate looking for their first break. 

In the first episode, 60-year-old unemployed hairdresser Raymond goes for a full-time job at a top London salon. He is up against 17-year-old Rebecca in a month-long probationary test.

Who got the job? If you’ve got access to a cable or satellite time-shifting service you may still be able to view the programme. But here’s a clip that doesn’t spoil the ending.

Next week two comedians, one aged 62 and the other 25, compete for a year-long contract at a comedy club.

Reaction to first episode with Raymond and Rebecca (note: contain spoilers).

 James Walton at the Daily Telegraph

Nancy Banks-Smith at The Guardian

A new small-business award has been launched for those who live on Merseyside, backed by the Liverpool Daily Post and Dominique Faversham Group. The prize is 12 months’ mentoring and support, and a loan of up to £100,000. There are three age categories, including one for people aged 50+. The closing date is noon on the 1st of October 2007.
More details at

www.thesearchmerseyside.com

Enterprise Nation, whose podcasts you can see listed lower down the page, has launched a new award for home-based businesses. The closing date is the  17th of September 2007, and the winner will be announced on the 1st of  October.

The free competition is easy to enter, requiring just 200 words under each of three headings on the entry form. You need to have been going for at least six months and be located in the UK.

The prizes are modest, consisting mainly of publicity. But Enterprise Nation has attracted some good judges including designer Wayne Hemingway, Rachel Bridge of the Sunday Times and Ann Carter-Gray of the renamed DTI - now called the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform. This should help secure some good coverage.

Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of Easyjet and Easygroup, has teamed up with charity Leonard Cheshire and the British Chamber of Commerce to introduce a new £50,000 award. It is aimed specifically at people who have achieved business success despite having a disability.

The deadline for entries is the 14th of September 2007. To be eligible you need to have been trading for under three years, have a turnover of over £10,000 per year and personally own at least 40 per cent of the business. You must also identify as a disabled person and show how the prize money would benefit the business.

The prize - a single cheque for £50K, will be handed over by Stelios personally as part of the British Chamber of Commerce’s Awards ceremony at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum on the 29th November. More details and an entry form can be found at www.disabledentrepreneur.org

“Self employment is the only viable option for many disabled people as it offers flexibility and helps bypass much of the prejudice that sadly still exists in the workplace”, said Sir Stelios . “With 50 per cent of disabled adults out of work, helping to remove the barriers disabled people face to being in business is essential.”