PRIME business club

The Pitch 2009 is a competition run by Sift Media, the company behind the useful BusinessZone.co.uk small business web site. Its aim is to find “Britain’s most innovative small companies”. The winner gets a package of business support including practical help on PR, marketing and doing business online valued by the organisers at £50,000.

To enter, your business must be based in the UK, established for less than three years and employ no more than 20 staff. If you are just starting you don’t have to be fully up and trading yet, but “you must be able to demonstrate a sound business plan and evidence that there is a proven market for your product or service”.

According to the application form “the judges will look for innovation, engagement with customers, sound financial and business planning, and an understanding of where the opportunities exist in the market for your product or service”.

The entry form is a Microsoft Word document that you can download here. Any queries contact Sift Media’s Rita Andrews on 0117 915 9619.

Shortlisted entrants get to attend their nearest regional heat, where they pitch to a live panel Dragon’s Den style. These are taking place on 9 June 2009 in Bristol, 17 June in Manchester, 23 June in Glasgow, 8 July in Birmingham and 14 July in London.

The final will take place in central London during Enterprise Week, the week of 16-22 November 2009.

The application closing dates for the regional heats are as follows:

• Bristol: 18 May
• Manchester: 25 May
• Glasgow: 1 June
• Birmingham: 15 June
• London: 22 June

Entries are now being sought for next year’s awards for women-owned businesses in the North West of England. There are six categories (including the ageist Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award - must be under 30 years of age).

The prizes are £2,000 per category, with £1,000 to the runner up, and a top prize of £5,000 for the overall winner. Plus of course the value of the publicity winning may bring. The closing date is the 31st of November 2008.

You can download the entry form (a PDF) here.

The categories you might be eligible for are:

• Business Start-up of the Year
• Social Enterprise of the Year
• Growth Business of the Year
• Business and Professional Services Sector
• Overall North West Business of the Year

The North West region includes Manchester, Liverpool, Cheshire, Lancashire and the Lake District. The awards are sponsored by the development agency for the region, the NWDA.

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

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.