Expanding PRIME in 2009

PRIME’s £2 million corporate partnership with Bank of America has received a great deal of publicity in the last few days. And quite right too. Bank of America is the first major corporation to stand up and say “We believe in the potential of people aged over 50: we are going to invest in PRIME so that the entrepreneurial spirit of older people can be realised”.

We anticipate that Bank of America will be the first of many corporates to get it –  that in an ageing society olderpreneurship is vital for global competitiveness.

But what are we spending the money on?

First of all we are appointing two mentor coordinators, one in the South and one in the North, to recruit, train and manage volunteer mentors. Many of our clients want a mentor who can help them make that jump from thinking whether self-employment is something they can do, to getting their business underway. Having someone to turn to at that time is something PRIME’s clients have really appreciated where we have been able to offer a mentoring service.

Then we are appointing two trainers. We want to provide a range of introductory road shows across the country as well as more detailed workshops. At the end of November we ran a beginners roadshow in Belfast and some more detailed seminars and we were able to help over 130 people. How marvellous if we could emulate that in 20 more cities in the UK in 2009!

Bank of America is putting £0.5 million into our new Prince of Wales Enterprise Endowment. We are looking to see this grow as other corporates and individuals donate to the fund. The Enterprise Endowment will eventually provide a range of financial help to olderpreneurs. We intend to start with a micro-loan scheme for those who cannot raise money from traditional banks. This will be launched around Easter 2009. In the meanwhile we are appointing a loans officer to put everything in place.

STOP PRESS. The Zopa-PRIME Olderpreneur Loan scheme is now available – more details on our client-support site.

Hectic but exciting times. PRIME is making progress - but offers of help are always welcome. Please see SUPPORT US.

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