When I was young it never occurred to me that I might still be working in my late sixties. I thought I would be elderly [1], like on those ‘bent bananas’ road signs, and kindly, like a granny, but well past my sell by date. You know what? This is a stereotype I don’t fit and neither do most people I know.
I CAN CHOOSE WHAT I WANT TO DO
I can apply my skills, qualifications, years of experience and hard-earned emotional intelligence to current business problems. I don’t earn anywhere near what I did when I was a full-time business owner/consultant, but as a pensioner I don’t need to.
I can work on projects or contracts that interest me, at times that suit me (there are still deadlines but they are manageable), while having time for family, friends, and hobbies. My successful track record has given me confidence, and clients are happy with my work. I have been able to carve out a place for myself in the business world, doing what I love, and doing it well.
Read MoreIt’s ironic that these are the same people who have been told so often that they are no longer needed at work. Two years ago, the Centre for Ageing-Better warned, “…experts say ageism in recruitment could be the final straw which prevents many of this group ever returning to work.” They refer to a study in which people described their experiences of seeking work in their 50s and 60s as “frustrating” and even “soul-destroying” [1].
Where have all the workers gone?
Read MoreIf you have an idea for a business, you’ll have a much greater chance of success if you spend time researching your market first. Here are a few tips to get you started.
I HAVE AN IDEA FOR A BUSINESS. WHERE DO I START?
This is the starting point for most new entrepreneurs.
You’ll be surprised at the wealth of useful information you can gain through market research. Although you will already know something about your market, customers and competitors, it’s likely your information is incomplete, and that you don’t know how to apply it to setting up your business.
The key is to be systematic about your research, to have a market research plan, and to document your findings.
Read MoreConcerned about your age?
If you’re worried about your age, you should know that your chances of success are significantly higher if you are aged 50+[1] because of the valuable skills, experience, and contacts you have gained during your lifetime and career.
What about your personality?
I’ve been reading up on the essential attributes of successful entrepreneurs and employees and there’s a lot of overlap. For example (deep breath): adaptable, ambitious, communicator, conflict resolver, eager to learn, innovative, open minded, people skills, positive, proactive, problem solver, resilient etc. These attributes are common to successful people and we all have the potential to be successful.
Entrepreneurs (including business owners who employ others and those who only employ themselves) seem to have additional attributes such as: calculated risk-taker, comfortable with failure, confident, financial understanding, intuitive, passionate, robust work ethic, etc.
How important are these characteristics and how do you know whether you have them or could gain them? Let’s explore these terms.
Read MoreJust do a search on ‘business risks’ and you will find an endless number of them: cyberattack, business interruption, economic slowdown, price increase, bad debt, pandemic risk, distribution and supply chain issues, increased competition and more.
Managing risk is an essential part of business survival. If you identify what could go wrong, evaluate which risks should be dealt with and implement strategies to deal with these risks you will be better prepared to overcome them. And your business is likely to survive.
But should you risk starting up at all?
Read MoreThis post was inspired by a client who is looking to change her networking group because she hasn’t received a good enough return from her current one. I decided to find out more about her options and share this information with you.
Whether you are starting your business or growing it, meeting up regularly with others in business can help you establish relationships, discover opportunities, share information, find potential partners, and gain new customers. There seems to be an endless number of these groups, and I was surprised to learn how much business is generated by them.
Read MoreYou may currently be working or returning to a job that no longer works for you. Perhaps you are worried about redundancy, or have recently been made redundant. You may be looking for a new job in earnest, but the lack of response and rejection letters are getting you down. If you are over 50, then you are probably getting more rejections than others.
Have you thought about working for yourself?
It really is worth considering, especially if you are in a situation where your only other option is long-term unemployment or low paid work with no prospects. And working at a job you don’t like isn’t only stressful, it is possible you won’t be working there much longer
So, what have you got to lose?
Read MoreThere are times when normally self-assured people can lose their confidence. Attractive, educated, excellent CV – what more do they want?
They have been made redundant and despite countless attempts, they can’t find employment. They aren’t sure they are capable of setting up and running their own business but decide to try because they need to earn an income. They often continue jobhunting at the same time.
At first they don’t admit or even realise that ageism is part (or all) of the problem, but after awhile they accept that the reasons they have been given for not getting the interview or the job, or lack of response when they try to find out, are often just ageism in disguise.
Turning this situation around takes persistence and self-belief.
My latest blog post was inspired by some of my coachees, who lost their self-confidence after being made redundant, and describes how I think business coaches, including myself, can help.
Read MoreWhile I’ve been offline, the world has moved on. Now it’s time to catch up.
TOUGH TIMES
It’s been quite a while since I stopped working on Silver Startups, for personal reasons. During this time, we’ve had the coronavirus, the lockdown, the NHS in chaos, and an array of government schemes to help employees and businesses keep going. Many months and another national lockdown later, it’s clear that the economy will get worse before it gets better.
Read MoreOn 14.02.20, my husband went into hospital for an MRI scan. He is still there.
About a week later he was diagnosed with a rare type of cancer. This post isn’t about the cancer, the hospital or the traumas we continue to experience. It is about how my Silver Startups project is helping me to cope with this shocking situation.
Read MoreI wrote How Hard Can It Be to Become a Blogger? last September because I was surprised at how hard it actually is to become a blogger. In that post, I revealed my disappointing visitor/follower statistics and expressed my determination to carry on regardless. I mean, it’s not like I’ve failed, I just haven’t succeeded yet 😊.
But it’s not all about marketing and I don’t want to just write about topics that interest me, they need to be of value to my target readers, ie people over 50 who are unemployed, retired, approaching retirement or economically inactive, who are thinking about or are setting up a business.
So, I’ve been on the case, apart from the Christmastime chaos, when I spent my time shopping, cleaning, feeding people and managing the relationship between my toddler grandson and my puppy. (Hint: they both wanted my exclusive attention.)
Read MoreI started Silver Startups because I wanted to become a blogger and I wanted to do this because I love writing. It’s as simple as that.
I’m not creative enough (sigh) to be a fiction writer – possibly because I have spreadsheets instead of blank pages in my head. On the other hand, I always loved writing business plans, market analyses and promotional literature for clients, so I decided to use some of these skills to set up a blog.
My aim was to write helpful posts for later-life entrepreneurs, but I soon realised that I needed to engage with people, so I started to offer coaching. Finding people to coach hasn’t been easy, but if my posts are to have any value it is absolutely necessary for me to learn more about what seniors need. So, I help my coachees to start up, and they help me learn more about how to help them. It really is win-win!
Read MoreStarting a small business isn’t easy, but I’ve found that many first-time entrepreneurs have the most difficulty managing finance. While Excel may be useful at the start, isn’t really suitable once your business starts to grow. If you are finding it difficult to quickly manage your day-to-day business using Excel, then it’s time to move on. Today there is a huge range of free and affordable software available for freelancers and small businesses. These programs can help you reduce errors in your calculations, help you understand your business’s financial position at any time and the reports they generate are useful, if not crucial, for budgeting, forecasting and devising growth strategies. Further, if you run a VAT-registered business with a taxable turnover above the VAT registration threshold (currently £85,000) you are required to keep digital VAT business records and send returns using Making Tax Digital (MTD) - compatible software[1].
But how do you choose the right accounting software for your business?
I have always advised clients to consult their accountants, who may be able to recommend software that works with programs they have, and even help set it up. But what if you don’t have an accountant or someone to advise you? With so many products to choose from, how can you pick the right one? I have spent some time researching this topic and it wasn’t easy to do! Not only are there many accounting programs to choose from, there are also many review sites and they don’t always agree with each other! Nevertheless, I have learnt a lot from this exercise.
Read MoreWhat is it like to be unretired? Well, unretired is what you are when, having retired and deciding you didn’t like it, you returned to part-time or occasional work.
I don’t like the word ‘retirement’, probably because I never liked the word ‘work’. Is cleaning house only work if you are paid for it? If you retire, does this mean you stop cleaning your house? Well, apart from removing these terms from the dictionary, I don’t have the answer but I do have experience of being ‘unretired’, as I describe below.
Read MoreI set up Silver Startups in January 2019 to lift my spirits after discovering I didn’t like being retired, and to further connect with the world outside the little village where I live. It took months to design my website, create content and learn enough about social media to launch it. My main purpose was to be a blogger – to observe the world of older people seeking new beginnings through entrepreneurship, understand their challenges, and then write insightful posts they would hopefully find useful.
But I soon realised that reading articles, papers and newsfeeds wasn’t enough. And as much as I enjoy studying market trends and consumer behaviours, I need input from real people to fully understand their needs and how to make my blog posts relevant.
My challenge was to find these people. As a volunteer for the Prince’s Trust I already mentor young entrepreneurs, and I have years of experience as a consultant and coach working with business owners and managers, but where would I find people in my target demographic (i.e. people aged 50+ who are unemployed, approaching retirement or retired)? And what would I do once I found them? I added a coaching service to my website and started searching for them on Facebook and Twitter.
Read MoreI first became interested in the home care market when I was a mentor for a young woman who launched a care business whose clients were mainly funded by the local authority. Her main problem was cash flow – she didn’t have enough cash to pay her growing number of carers while waiting for social services to pay her either on time or even a few months late. To help her chase payments, I ‘broke the rules’ a few times, by stating I was calling on behalf of the Prince’s Trust. Well, I am a Prince’s Trust mentor, but people reacted as if I was calling on behalf of Prince Charles, resulting, amazingly, in prompt payment!
But our luck finally ran out. My mentee had to take on freelance work just to pay her carers, and in the end, she gave up and returned to full time employment.
I am exploring the home care market once again because it is rapidly growing, with increasing demand and insufficient supply. I believe that it can offer opportunities for people who want to be self-employed, and those who want to start a small business or community enterprise. There are huge problems in this sector, however there are signs that many of these problems can be overcome by adopting innovative approaches as described below.
Read MoreI’ve just returned from caring for my ill and now grieving mother in Canada.
Too Tired to Even Tweet
When I arrived, M, my mum’s elderly partner of 30 years was in intensive care, and my mum was very slowly recovering from the same virus that put him in hospital. Both also suffered from life-limiting illnesses and were frail. Eventually, M passed away.
The emotional and physical demands put upon me to bring some order to the household chaos were huge. After handing over to my sister and returning to the UK, I have been reflecting on the lessons learnt from my experience.
Read MoreMy parents brought me up to be obedient, accommodating and pleasing. I mean, they tried.
They decided that the best future for me was to marry an affluent protector, to have children and to care for my family.
Although not uncommon at the time, this was a seriously flawed strategy and I didn’t agree with it.
I eventually left my family, my country (Canada) and a string of heartbroken suitors behind, explored some of the world, lived in Paris and Algiers and settled in England, marrying an Englishman.
The opportunity to assert myself finally came when I split from my husband (for whom I worked, unpaid). No child support, two very young children, a new job and an opportunity to succeed. I worked obsessively and studied at night. The driven side of my nature had been unleashed and although I was in a challenging situation, my freedom energised me, and I was OK.
Today I am grateful for those challenges. They showed me that the only protector I need is me, and I am perfectly capable of achieving whatever I want.
This post is not about events in my past, it’s about managing my present and future.
Read MoreWe all research products and services online and often make our buying decisions based on what we read. In business, getting these decisions wrong can set you back financially, hinder your progress, or both. This post was inspired by my shattered illusions, disappointments and surprises with social media over the past few months.
ARE LIES THE NEW TRUTH?
I have learnt that to gain any useful knowledge online, you need to treat everything you read with scepticism. Has lying become the new normal? Liars get away with it because they know some of us are either naive or too busy to check out the facts.
Online research informs most of my blog posts and I always find:
False or unsubstantiated claims in support of a product, service, company or individual
Sales pitches disguised as expert analyses
In previous posts I have exposed ways that companies provide misleading or false information about themselves and also how ‘expert reviews’ are mostly published by affiliates that gain a commission from the sites they review. Although it’s really important to be aware of these practices, I now realise that some of the measures I use to evaluate companies, products and services, such as consumer reviews, likes and number of followers can’t be trusted either.
Read More