to answer to a boss anymore, especially someone a lot younger than you.
Third, your degree of comfort with computers and technology, though possibly greater than mine, is most likely not equal to the average teenager’s comfort with, and grasp of, today’s technology. This point was driven home to me in a TV commercial for insurance from AARP. Teenagers today listen to music on iPods; the AARP commercial offered as a gift for responding an AM/FM radio—“old technology,” as my 18-year-old son would call it.
Fourth, you are somewhat overwhelmed by the Internet. Every day you hear about some new gimmick for making money on the web. One day it’s “tweeting.” The next day you open a business magazine to an article saying every entrepreneur must have an RSS feed, a blog, online videos, or a Facebook page. You know nothing about any of them, and truth be told, none of them has much appeal to you.
Fifth, if you are over 50 and thinking of a new career, you are not alone. Every 7.5 seconds, another baby boomer in the United States reaches age 50, and they intend to keep working. According to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics, the number of workers age 55 and over is projected to grow almost 47 percent by 2016.
Starting your own home-based business can help you with the first two problems described above, and, with Start Your Own Home Business After 50 to guide you, the third and fourth problems won’t in any way hinder your dream of starting your own business.
In fact, after reading Start Your Own Home Business After 50, you will be able to accomplish the following:
•Survive and thrive in a prolonged recession.
•Decide whether starting a home-based business right now is for you—and understand why working at home is so advantageous for over-50 entrepreneurs.
•Find a home business opportunity that can deliver the income and lifestyle you desire in your preretirement or retirement years.
•Generate an income stream or cash reserve from your new home business to replace what you may have lost in any of the recent stock market meltdowns or from no longer having a salary.
•Determine the target market (the types of customers) you want to reach.
•Create or source products and services that your target market needs, wants, and will buy.
•Effectively market and promote your product or service to attract new buyers.
•Generate repeat orders, referrals, and recurring revenues from existing customers.
•Set up and operate your new business from the comfort of your own home or apartment.
•Comply with laws, regulations, and codes governing the practice of your type of business.
•Generate enough income to quit your regular job and “retire” from the 9-to-5 corporate world for good—or earn enough money to supplement Social Security and other retirement income.
•Live off the income from your new business and leave your retirement nest egg entirely intact.
•Double your business by using the Internet to spread the word about your products and services and attract customers online.
•Increase your productivity and efficiency with the right hardware and software without having to become a techie.
•Create a business that does well enough to provide for you even during a recession or other economic or industry downturn.
•Set up a virtual company where assistants, vendors, and business partners all work off-premises and are connected to you by phone, fax, and Internet.
A research study I conducted on the over-50 generation (www.Marketing2Goms.com) found that older people place a priority on doing what they want to do vs. what someone tells them to do. That’s no surprise. When you are a kid, you do what your parents and teachers tell you to do. As an adult, you are told what to do by your boss. By the time you are 50, you have been doing what others have told you to do for half a century. You’re sick and tired of it. You want to be in control. If you have a full-time job, however, you aren’t in control because other people tell you what to do and when to do it.
With your own home business, you call the shots. You are the boss. You make the decisions. You set your own hours. You choose who you will work with and how you’ll spend your time, and you keep the bulk of the profits from the revenues you produce. Plus, with a laptop and wireless Internet connection, you can work where and when you want. No more being chained to a desk; you can run your business from your RV as you travel the country. You can sell products or perform services you’re passionate about and earn an income that even an executive, doctor, or airline pilot might envy.
The bottom line: Following the advice in this book can take you from a job you don’t enjoy and financial uncertainty to a career you love—as an entrepreneur following your dreams. You can learn how to earn in a few months what you now make in a year. If it happened to me, it can certainly happen to you, too. Let’s get started…
1
The Over-50 Entrepreneur
“For many, achieving the American dream means taking control of their destiny, quitting their 9-to-5 job, and opening the doors to their very own business,” writes Ed Hess in a July 2011 article in SIPA Hotline. These brave entrepreneurial souls have long shaped American enterprise, and today they’re playing the very important role of helping to drive the nation’s economic recovery. President Barack Obama has called small business the “backbone of our economy,” as small businesses create two out of every three new jobs in America. About half of all Americans work for companies with fewer than 500 employees, and, according to the Small Business Administration, small business accounts for 50 percent of U.S. private, nonfarm, gross domestic product.
Yet, starting your own business at age 50 is a vastly different undertaking than starting a new business at age 20 or 30 or even 40. Over-50 entrepreneurs have many advantages compared with their younger counterparts, but they also face some disadvantages. This chapter will examine some of the pros and cons of starting a business after you have passed the half-century mark.
(Note: When I discuss the differences between being a 50- vs. a 30-year old entrepreneur, I must by necessity make generalizations, since I don’t know you personally. So please, don’t be offended if some of the descriptions don’t quite fit you!)
Why is starting a business at age 50 so different than starting one when you are 20 years younger? There are several reasons, some of them positive and some of them negative. Let’s lay out the advantages and the challenges in a table so you can visualize them easily before we examine them in detail below.
DISADVANTAGES
ENERGY LEVEL
Energy levels between different generations vary. For most of us, our mental and physical energy wanes gradually as we age. That’s not to say that, at 54, I don’t have plenty of energy for my two businesses: freelance copywriting—which I’ve done for decades—and Internet information marketing, which I started a few years ago. But my store of mental and physical energy now seems more finite. Many friends, acquaintances, and colleagues in my age group tell me that they too are beginning to slow down and need to take things easier.
When I was in my 30s and 40s, I routinely worked 12-hour days and absolutely enjoyed doing so, because I love what I do. I’m a workaholic—pity me. There was nothing I liked better than to sit at the keyboard, typing away writing copy for a client, or for a book, column, newsletter, or article.