HIGHEST RATE OF ENTREPRENEURS, AMERICANS OVER 50

John and I are both over 50, but we’re not ready to retire yet.  We operate 4-5 businesses; we work from home.   What we’re doing, working from home, is more common today than it’s been in America for some time.

In America today more folks over the age of 50 are starting new businesses than ever before.

“‘The United States might be on the cusp of an entrepreneurship boom—not in spite of an aging population but because of it,’ the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation stated in a report last year,” U.S. News & World Report, “A New Wave of Entrepreneurs,” Oct 2010.

Workers over 50, with years of work behind them, may understand better how to deal in the job market.  They may have the benefit of business connections made during their work years to help them anticipate and deal with challenges that discourage younger workers.  Greater financial resources can also help them survive better than their younger counterparts.  And they may have more of a stick-to-it attitude in the face of problems.

The highest rate of success in entrepreneurship belongs to the over 50 age group.  With life expectancy increasing we may see entrepreneurs in the 70s age group in the future.

BUSINESSES STARTED BY OVER 50s MORE SUCCESSFUL

Not only are over 50s starting more businesses than younger counter parts, start-ups with older owners are more likely to survive:

“Firms surviving through 2008 were much more likely to have primary owners older than age 45,” according to the Kauffman study.

 EXPERIENCE IMPORTANT IN STARTING NEW BUSINESS

Anyone beginning a business is wise to stay close to his prior experience. Go after ventures that build on what you’ve already done, or what you’re already passionate about.  Hobbies, long-term interests promise more success than new schemes. What skills have you developed?  The old question, “What do you love?” can be a guide to a new path.

Older entrepreneurs may pursue a new business because of financial need, or they may simply love bringing something new to life, overcoming a challenge, and making something happen.

Many over 50 want to remain active.  They may not want to be seen as spectators at the game we call, “Life.”  They choose, rather, to be fully engaged. 

John and I aren’t ready to retire from everything yet.  There’s too much to experience, and too many new skills to learn.  We’re stretching to learn computer skills and new approaches to health.  New learning is part of what makes life interesting.  Learning from the mistakes we make, seeing progress.  That’s what keeps us going.

Janice

P.S. I’m learning now how to do videos.  Just finished the video for the Home Page, after doing and redoing it 5-6 times…At the tip top of this page click “Home” in the upper left corner and you should be at the Home Page with my new video.

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My husband and I are both over 50, and we’re not retired.  We work at home. 

No corporate boss any longer.  Who’s the boss?  We look in the mirror every morning.

We’re involved in many activities in our town; our lives are full.

I love to garden.  I’m on the Board of a Center in town for developmentally disabled adults.  I love to cook and fix most meals from scratch.  We have two grandchildren we visit whenever we can, and I have friends I keep in touch with by writing and email.  I also love to read, and I’m active with our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture program.) 

In other words, just like you, there are many details in my life.  That’s the hardest part about working at home.  There are so many really good activities that I want to work on.  If I’m building a business, though, it’s important I spend a consistent amount of time building that business.

Designing a plan for building the business and disciplining myself to stick to it.  Determine what needs to be done each day, the single daily action, and sticking with it until it’s finished.  How easy it is to get diverted from what I need to do.

I’m trying Dave Lakani, 45-minute focus  http://boldapproach.typepad.com/.  Here in a nutshell is the 45-minute focus:

• For 15 minutes: Check email, follow-up on personal or office details.  Use this 15 minutes to catch up on details, clean your desk, etc.  Work fast; it’s only 15 minutes. Allow yourself to check your email only twice a day; it can be a real time-waster! 
• For the remaining 45 minutes pick a task that must be completed today and focus completely on that job.  Phone rings, email signals, interruptions: ignore them all.  For 45 minutes focus on only one task and bring it to completion. 

I’m realizing that in the past I didn’t mean to, but I trained my mind to jump from one interesting idea to the next.  At the end of the day I’ve traveled all over the globe, in my mind figuratively, and not brought any one thing to completion. 

I’m building a business so I need to change that. I want to reeducate my mind to keep focus.  My demon mind jumps from one interesting topic to another.  I need to corral that mind and keep it where I want it to be.  Lakani’s  45-minute focus is good.  His webpage http://boldapproach.typepad.com/ is worth looking at, too.

What are your thoughts?  Want to share?

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The recesion might be worldwide, but it’s not on the Internet.  There’s more buying and selling going on now on the Internet than ever before.

Check out Internet social sites, Twitter, Facebook, Better Networker, Squidoo.  There’s not much talk of falling stock market, recession, doom and gloom.

People are checking the Internet for ideas. A new economy is surfacing, one not as dependent on corporate jobs. Folks are forging their own futures, working for themselves.

Dave Pollard says in his great book, Finding the Sweet Spot,

“That system has let us down badly. It is in the interest of those who control the current economic system, those with the established wealth and power, that we not knlow there is a better way to make a living than working for them doing meaningless work as wage slaves..”                  

 Folks are talking abut writing blog articles, sharing business ideas, giving value in their postings, having fun building their own jobs, working at home.

O.K.

How can YOU create your own Internet Empire using mostly free or low-cost socialnetworking sites, Squidoo, FaceBook, Better Networker, and Twitter?

You’ll be writing content, stories about your life.  Don’t  worry if you don’t know anything about Squidoo, FaceBook, Better Networker, Twitter.  If you’d like to talk, we’re here to help.

What are your thoughts?  What to share?

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How many Gen Y’ers can’t find a job even with a college degree?    

 How many baby boomers can’t retire and are thinking about workng at home?

Hw many real estate agents are sick of their jobs and are looking into starting a business at home?

How many banking professionals are sick of commuting to the city daily, only a face in the crowd?

Where are they going looking for answers?  Who are they asking for help?  Who or WHAT?

They’re asking Google. 

Googling the magic Search Engine in the sky!

What if they Googled and found YOUR articles and blog postings?

What if they liked what they read?  What if what you wrote answered their questions?

What if enough people contacted you that you didn’t have to call friends and family or buy opportunity leads and cold call them for your business?

How good would that be?

You could show them how you built a business using the Internet.  Talk with them about how you worked through the glitches of starting your business at home.  Provide support and help to others.  Show them an Internet training course.  Help them get started, and they’re going to want to know more about your business: What you do.  What products you sell.

They’ll ask you what you recommend, and you’ll become their expert, the one they go to for answers.

Service comes first to build friendships.  Build business relationships from the friendships.

What are your thoughts?  Want to share?

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If people are using the Internet as a Giant Search Engine to get answers to problems, you want to be on the answer end.  If your Blog posts are addressing their problem there’s a chance you’ll have their answer!

If you have their answer they may check back for your other posts and become a regular reader of your Blog.  If you keep feeding them value, good ideas, suggestions they can use, eventually, they might contact you to talk personally.

This is how it can work. You forge an online relationship and built trust.  Whatever email you send they’re likely to open because they recognize your name, and they trust you.

Today’s Internet marketing offers value, helps someone solve a problem, provides a service.

Talk about your life, your daily work.  A situation you’ve found in developing your business at home.  Talk about how you solved a problem, or avoided one with a client.  How do you and your business partner, working at home, split up work tasks?  Do you work in the same office?  Do your chldren help you with your business?  

Answer problems, give value to those working at home and they’ll return to you for more communication.  Keep it personal; stories that relate to our struggles are what all of us want.

What are your thoughts?  Want to share?

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We’re over 50, and we’re not retired.  

We’ve been in the business world and decided we’d rather be flexible and work at home.  In today’s economic climate that seems like a good choice.

Being an entrepreneur over 50 comes with its own challenges.  One of those can be learning the computer.  Neither of us grew up in the computer age so we’ve had to learn to market and connect with people using the Internet. 

I’ve learned, and you can, too.  I found an Internet training course that showed me how to use social networking sites such as a Blog, Twitter, and Squidoo to connect with people.  The webinars are recorded so I learned at my own pace, following tutorials posted online.

You may find you enjoy the challenge of stretching your brain, learning something new, and keeping up with new technology.

We can brainstorm with you if you’ve left the J.O.B. market are are thinking about working at home.  Starting a business at home is challenging, no doubt about it.  It’s challenging any time, but can be even more challenging when you’re over 50.  But, it’s also fun to learn new technology.  Prior business experience is an asset it today’s world.  You can use that prior experience to push you ahead in today’s market.

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