A BATTLING Malvern woman who was made redundant at the age of 53 has sprung back into action by selling clocks aimed at teaching children the time.

Sue Shackleton, of Albert Road North, decided to take the plunge and go into business for herself after losing her job from defence technology company QinetiQ in April.

Her brother Roger, who lives in Sydney, has a small internet business selling a children’s wall clock, which he originally designed to help his own youngsters learn the time.

To help him expand the business she took a course designed by the Prince’s Initiative for Mature Enterprise to help over- 50s into self-employment following redundancy.

The pair then came up with the plan of developing it into a worldwide enterprise, which culminated in easyreadtimeteacher.

com and this year they plan to start marketing it to primary schools.

She said: “I never imagined that I would be setting up my own business in my 50s, but I had a strong desire to become self-employed, to be in control, and not to be subject to the whims and changes of having someone else as my boss.

“The course was very useful to me and my brother because we worked through a lot of the worksheets and exercises together online.

“It helped us really button down our costs and develop the business.”

Now the Prince’s Initiative is holding another course in Malvern, offering advice and mentoring to budding businesses.

Starting on Thursday it covers areas such as researching a business idea, planning finances and how to market and sell a product or service.

Speaking at the course will be another local success story – Malcolm Victory, of Malvern Wells, who was named the Prince’s Initiative senior entrepreneur of 2012, after taking the course to market his Rotaire Dryline, which keeps rotary clothes lines dry whatever the weather.

To find out more, contact prime.org.uk/courses or 0845 862 2023.