Online Surveys – Zoomerang.com To date, PRIME has used the word Olderpreneur alot.  However, we’ve found that over 50 entrepreneurs themselves are split about about whether they like it, but we’re not sure exactly how opinion divides.  PRIME is reopening the debate and is currently looking into whether we should remove it completely from all our communications.  What do you - – - read more >

Do people really all use Facebook now? Do they use Skype for free phone calls from home, and expensive mobiles like the Apple iPhone when on the move? Are video and audio popular enough yet to be worth including on a business web site? And what about eBooks – is anyone reading them? We’ve now - – - read more >

Olderpreneurs are not being put off by the recession. A higher proportion are going ahead and giving self-employment a go than five years ago. And the gender gap is narrowing – a higher proportion of women are going ahead than five years ago, These are among the results of a follow-up study PRIME has completed - – - read more >

Date: Thursdays 15 July - 19 August 2010 Venue: London Metropolitan University, 84 Moorgate, EC2M 6SQ  Are you self employed, a sole trader or small business? Have you been affected by the recession? Do you need to develop and grow your business? The Centre for Micro Enterprise at London Metropolitan University are running a Business Rescue Programme.  It is a six - – - read more >

Date: Monday 10 May 2010 Venue: Fielding Johnson Southwing Basement New Lecture Theatre, The University of Leicester,  University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH  Registration: 12:00hrs / Starts 13:00hrs Doug Richard’s School for Startups is running an event on starting and growing a successful business. Doug has offered PRIME Business Club members (i.e. anyone who has registered for a free start-up pack - – - read more >

The City Business Library has just moved, and is running a series of free events of interest to small business startups in its swanky new but historic premises. Located in the City of London near Moorgate, CBL is the largest specialised public reference library in the country dedicated to practical business information. You can use - – - read more >

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 the - – - read more >

It’s the position up and down that’s the giveaway, as much as the girth according to a survey commissioned by Debenhams and reported in The Guardian. The last time most men are able to fasten their trousers around anything resembling a natural waist is at the age of 39. After that, the only way is - – - read more >

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 - – - read more >

Here we go again. George Osborne has announced plans at the Conservative Party conference to make us all keep working longer before we can draw our State Pensions. While this might a seem logical way to save public money it misses the same key point as most similar proposals to raise pension age. It assumes - – - read more >

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 events - – - read more >

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 - – - read more >

This week has seen a rash of media stories saying that youth unemployment is running out of control, in reaction to the official labour market statistics released in August. But the real story contained in the Office for National Statistics latest figures was rather different. Though both groups have a hard time in a recession, - – - read more >

Lots of interesting charts about how the UK’s population is using the Internet, phone and other digital media in Ofcom’s annual communications market review. Fast Internet access, or “broadband”, is now obtainable almost everywhere in the UK, so the key measure is adoption, or how many take it up. Overall take up of broadband reached - – - read more >

What sectors will suffer worst as people cut back their spending in response the economic downturn? Ofcom polled people as part of it’s recent research into technology use, and produced some interesting answers. When asked which items they were likely to cut back on in the recession, 47 per cent chose to cut back on - – - read more >