Tag: Boomer Entrepreneur

When I Finally Grow Up, I Will Be a Consultant!

If you are an over 50 “industry-expert” who is downsized or forced into “retirement” you may be able to turn your knowledge into dollars. Consultants make money from selling what they know. Oh yes, there are plenty of jokes about the increase in the number of consultants when the economy is poor, and yes almost anyone can claim to be a consultant. A good consultant, however, not only knows his or her subject but also has passion and a drive for excellence. Other characteristics a good consultant will possess are:

Business Acumen – understanding how a business operates, what drives decisions, and what make the industry unique.

Pragmatism – looking at solutions from all angles before designing, recommending, or implementing a solution.

Professionalism – committing to the highest standards of ethics, integrity, and confidentiality.

One can consult in almost any subject but the areas in current demand are: Accounting, Advertising, Auditing, Business, Business Writing, Career Counseling, Communications, Computer Consulting, Editorial Services, Executive Search, Gardening, Grant Writing, Human Resources, Insurance, Marketing, Payroll Management, Public Relations, Publishing, Taxes, Writing Services.

If you are indeed qualified by your experience and expertise to be a consultant, some other things to consider before getting out your Rolodex and hanging your sign include asking yourself…..

Are there any certifications or special licensing I will need? In some states professional fund raisers must be registered with the state before beginning your business. The National Society of Fund Raising Executives offers a certification, however it is not required for consultants to have this certification. If you thinking about becoming a computer consultant, regardless of your skills, some potential clients may want to see a collection of Microsoft certifications.

Do I like to network ? Networking is essential to the success of any type of consultant business. Begin building your network of contacts immediately.

Am I organized enough to be a consultant? Not only must you organize the data you collect or are given, you must have excellent time management skills, and an ability to organize your day.

If being the expert and solving a client’s problems is appealing, here are some steps to help you get started.

1. Renew old acquaintances and refresh your recent contacts in your chosen industry. This might even include contacting the company that downsized or “retired” you to see if they use former employees as consultants.

2. Write out your mission statement of what you intend to help your customers achieve with your consulting help. Keep it under 25 words!

3. Go through your files and look for letters of commendation, awards, etc. Contact friendly outsiders who have expressed a willingness to write testimonials in your behalf.

4. Examine any special insurance, bonding, etc. you will need in your chosen field, such as errors and omissions insurance. Find vendors and get cost quotes.

5. Decide on a business name and get a professionally-designed logo. If you are on a tight budget, you can get matching business cards, letterhead, and envelopes through online sites. Consider: Zazzle.com, vistaprint, US.moo.com.

6. Create a website that is simple in construction and professional in appearance. You can customize a template offered by a web hosting company, use software such as Dreamweaver or MS FrontPage, or find a local developer to work with.

7. Decide if you will need a one-page Letter of Agreement or will need an extensive contract to conduct your business. If you will need a formal contract, find a local business attorney to work with.

Share Your Knowledge and Expertise.

February 4, 2014
Starting a Business – Video Wednesday
Are you thinking of starting a business ……

If you are seeking ideas for what type of business to start do try shadowing someone who doing something you are interested in like a bed and breakfast or wine bar. The suggestion for doing an informational interview is also a great suggestion, but you may want to interview someone who is operating a business at least 50 miles from where you might start your business, so you do not appear to be a competitor.

No ideas at all!
- Look at a copy of the noncredit course being offered at your local community college. Some of these course may suggest a new business idea.
- Visit www.fabjob,com Check out the dream careers and purchase any books you are really interested in.
- Consult a Profiting from Your Passions coach for one or more sessions. Explore you passions, skills, interests, assets and who will want what you have to offer.
October 9, 2013
Job Loss After Age 50 – FRET or Start FRETTING

change

Recently at a lay-lead service at a local Unitarian Universalist church, the lay leader, Don Rawding, gave a sermon on “Change”. After discussing some less than adequate ways of dealing with change such as deny it, lash out at every person, situation and event involved with it, ignore it and hope it will go away, get stubborn and refuse to change, he suggested the best thing to do was FRET: Face reality, Reflect, Evolve, and Thrive.

Job loss and “forced retirement” are changes that many older but not old workers must deal with. Many workers need to have income throughout their 50s and 60s and maybe even into their 70s. Others want to work for a variety of reasons: colleagues, they still enjoy their professional work, their job gives their life meaning, structure. If we have a job at this age we’re advised to keep it since we will see more SSI income if we wait and retire at 70!

Hit with job loss, many do take these less than adequate strategies.   “Those higher ups will see their mistake and hire me back in no time.” “It’s all the fault of ______ (fill in the blank).” “I’ll just keep posting resumes on Monster and someone will eventually hire me.” “One of these days my lucky number will come up.”

FRET struck me as a good model for dealing with this change. Face reality. Older workers with great up-to-date, in demand skills do sometimes get new jobs in their fields at pay comparable to their former jobs. But age discrimination is real. Older workers are seen as more expensive, not up-to- date on skills, and 30 and 40 year old managers do not want to hire someone who is the age of their parents! If you want a job, the research suggests that nonprofits are the most likely to hire you, but your skills must still be a good fit.

own your own business

Face Reality – I have a collection of books going back at least 20 years. The advice in almost all these books is that if you lose your job in your late 50s or 60s, start your own business.   A few books published between 2004 and 2007 projected that older workers would be needed and ageism would become a thing of the past within a few years because of the smaller generation that is coming along. The authors of these books did not foresee outsourcing, the potential of computers, or the Great Recession.

accomplishments

Reflect – What have you accomplished thus far in your life? What gives you a sense of pride and accomplishment? It does not have to be what you did in the work force? It may be the family you raised or what you have contributed to a church or some other organization. It may be a hardship or a trauma that you have overcome. What skills have you used? Is it important that you continue to exercise these skills? It may be useful to write down your accomplishment s and skills. There is something about seeing things in writing. Is there anything that is unfinished that is still important to complete?   Are there areas of life that need to be enlarged? Maybe you were a workaholic and have forgotten what leisure and play feel like!

Evolve – Make some changes in your life. Do you need to develop your computer skills, exercise, lose weight, get training or a certification? Is it time to try something new or go back and enjoy some activity that you have not done in years?   You may very well have 20 to 30 years of good health ahead of you.

Thrive – What will happen if you successfully combine the fruits of your reflection and evolving actions.

OOPS – For some individuals, there may be too much of a gap between FRE and T. What if you have no idea what thriving will look like for you?   Keep the idea of thriving in mind and add “TING”. Start FRETTING.

sitting meditation

Take Time (the second T) More reflection. Give yourself the time to figure things out. Don’t rush into any decisions.   What do you want your life to look like at this point?    Where do you want to live? Is it time to downsize to a smaller house? Move to another area of the country or the world. You need or want income, how much do you need or want?   How much work time and leisure time do you want? Is there something that you have always wanted to do? Do you have a passion, expertise, talent that can become a new career?   Are there problems that you see in your community, your region, your country, the world that you can solve?   If you have never figured out what you want to do when you grow up, now is the time!   If this is too much to consider on your own, some career counselors, and many life, career, and retirement coaches can help you with your self-assessment.

Innovate. If you do not want to be underemployed, you probably have to consider starting your own business. Consider the problem that you can solve, the service that you can deliver, the craft that you make. What makes it different from the other solutions, services, crafts that are there?    How can you make yourself standout? Better service, a more targeted niche? Some type of customization?   Check out your competitors on line in and in real time.   It is good to have competitors – it means that people are willing to spend money on what you are offering!

Network. Use your virtual and real time connections. There is FaceBook, LinkedIn, and Twitter as well as Blogs. There are the associations and organizations that you belong to in real time.   Networking can help you market and sell or get any help you may need.

giving

Give.   Give of yourself. Give samples; have a free gift on your website. Let people know who you are. Practice generosity. When you are thriving adopt a charity. Give a percentage of your sales to Trickle Up or a similar organization. According to the psychologist Eric Ericson you are at the psychosocial stage known as generativity, a stage of life characterized by finding meaning through enriching the lives of others. A generative person constantly envisions a better world for themselves, their families, and their society. What do you imagine when you picture the good that will outlive you?

What Do You Imagine?

August 9, 2013
Encore Entrepreneur vs. Encore Entrepreneur

Approximately 25 million Americans between the ages of 44 and 70 are interested in starting new businesses or nonprofits in the next five to ten years. According to the U.S. Small Business Association, 15 percent of workers between the ages of 50 to 64 are self-employed, and that figure increases to 25 percent when considering entrepreneurs who are 65 and older. A 2010 survey by the Kauffman Foundation found that Americans 55 to 64 start business ventures at a higher rate than any other age group. In 1996 approximately 14 percent of 55 to 64 year olds were entrepreneurs, now almost half the working members of this age group have started their own businesses.

Ken Haley

So what do we call these older, new entrepreneurs? The press, book authors, academics love to label people! They sometimes call them boomer entrepreneurs and they are now also calling them encore entrepreneurs.

Boomer entrepreneur is obvious. Encore entrepreneur? It’s time to enter a fuzzy, new stage of life – the encore years and the accompanying encore career. This new stage of life can begin anytime after 40 and can last well past 70.

Marc Freedman has popularized the idea in his books Encore and The Big Shift, in which an encore career means a new second career that an individual would feel good about, and would use their experience in a meaningful way to improve the quality of life in his or her community. Marci Alboher in The Encore Career Handbook concurs with this concept of an encore career.

Using their books and definition, an encore entrepreneur then would also be a social entrepreneur. Social entrepreneurship is defined as using entrepreneurial techniques to achieve social change. It includes nonprofits and for-profits businesses with a social purpose. By this definition, all those 55 -64 years of age who start businesses that do not include a social purpose and improving the quality of the greater community are not encore entrepreneurs. Boomer entrepreneurs, yes, but not encore entrepreneurs.

So much for definitions. The popular press is calling older entrepreneurs, encore entrepreneurs. If someone is making a transition to being an entrepreneur after the age of 50, the author of this blog also considers them to be an encore entrepreneur. My guess is that any older entrepreneur is starting their business for profit as well as to do something that brings them meaning and pleasure.

Two examples!

Example 1

Feather a Bee – photo on a Ken Haley cell phone case

Channel 9 in Eugene Oregon considers photographer Ken Haley to be an encore entrepreneur. Ken does incredible nature photography, but he is not a social entrepreneur. He hopes his photographs will inspire a response and if they sell, that’s a plus. He sells cards, posters, prints, and cell phone cases. His work can be found at http://www.redbubble.com/people/kensabe

Example 2

Judi Thompson-Henderson

Judi Townsend-Henderson became an encore entrepreneur in her mid-40s, creating a mannequin recycling business. Her recycling business is credited with saving 100,000 pounds of mannequins from landfills in a single year. Learn more at http://mannequinmadness.com/.

I will be using both terms. If you are over 50, look for blog posts on Encore Entrepreneurs, Boomer Entrepreneurs, and their half-time variation – halfpreneur.

July 22, 2013