Yes, You Can Start a Business in Retirement. That’s the title of a piece that caught our eye on the website of our partners over at NextAvenue.org. It’s by Chris Farrell and he should know: he’s an “unretirement” expert with a book called, Unretirement: How Baby Boomers are Changing the Way We Think About Work, Community, and the Good Life
Entrepreneurship is often viewed as an elite venture reserved for superstars of Silicon Valley and other risk takers blessed with a rare combination of youth, insight, pluck and luck. So if you’ve toyed with the idea of starting a part-time business in retirement, you might have concluded: Nahhh.
The reality about entrepreneurship, however, is largely a mirror image of the stereotype. Older Americans are actually well-suited to join the start-up culture, whether they are pushed into starting a business in retirement (a layoff, age discrimination) or pulled into it (pursuing a dream, wanting to be the boss). And it’s getting easier, as I’ll explain below.
By definition, older workers bring decades of experience and networks of contacts they’ve developed over the years. Older households frequently have more money to tap than younger ones. And, of course, you’re never too old to innovate and create. Fact is, self-employment can be a savvy way to phase into retirement— embracing a part-time, flexible work schedule.
“Older people with experience have an entrepreneurial edge in a knowledge-based economy,” says Ting Zhang, economist and associate director at the Jacob France Institute in the Merrick School of Business at the University of Baltimore.
There is nothing “rare” or “exceptional” about entrepreneurship, either. That’s what columnist Emma Jacobs recently concluded, reflecting on five years writing a weekly column for The Financial Times, Working Lives. “Conducting hundreds of interviews in researching these articles, I have been constantly surprised by the entrepreneurial spirit of ordinary people.”.
The range of businesses “ordinary people” start is remarkably diverse, too. “The last 20 years we’ve really adopted the Silicon Valley image of entrepreneurship, but it’s one specific, narrow type of entrepreneurship,” says David Deeds, Schulze professor of entrepreneurship at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis. But in reality, Deeds adds, “You see people of all ages trying all kinds of things.”
Don’t get me wrong. Starting a business is hard work, with plenty of stressful nights wondering if your idea will find a market and whether invoices will get paid. Still, the numbers support the view that entrepreneurship is a sensible course for many older Americans looking for meaning and money.
For instance, although 55-to-64-year olds made up roughly 15-percent of new entrepreneurs in the 1997 Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurship, that figure swelled to 24 percent in Kauffman’s 2016 index. (Start-up activity among 20-to-24-year-olds fell from 34- to 25-percent over the same time period.)
And according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report, Self-Employment in the U.S., the self-employment rate among workers 65 and older (who don’t incorporate) is the highest of any age group in America: 15.5 percent. In sharp contrast, it’s 4.1 percent for ages 25 to 34. Looking ahead, another factor could boost the attractiveness of “retiring” into entrepreneurship: A rich, growing ecology of knowledge, advice and support for would-be entrepreneurs.
According to the Kauffman Foundation, in 1975, colleges and universities offered around 100 formal majors, minors, and certificates in entrepreneurship. By 2008, there were more than 5,000 entrepreneurship courses, and over the past several years, entrepreneurship has been the fastest-growing curricular, co-curricular and extracurricular activity on college campuses.
Of course, these courses are largely geared toward traditional students. But Ivory Tower entrepreneurship centers are increasingly linked into local communities, as cities and towns welcome ways to nurture entrepreneurs. There are now also nearly 1,000 Small Business Development Centers housed at colleges and state economic development agencies providing free business consulting and low-cost training.
In my reporting about entrepreneurship over the past few years, I’ve started wondering if America is having a back-to-the-future moment when it comes to retirement and work. At the turn of the century, says Richard Sutch, economic historian at the University of California, Berkeley, the self-employment rates for the male labor force rose with age, from virtually zero at age 16 to over 30 percent by age 70, he adds.
Self-employment may well have been a form of partial retirement or phased retirement for a significant portion of Americans in the pre-Social Security age. Similarly, entrepreneurship today may hold the most attractive combination of meaning and money for an aging population.
© Twin Cities Public Television – 2016. All rights reserved.
I’ve started my own business: I self-published my novel Pride’s Children, and decided to call my tiny publishing empire Trilka Press.
I learned enough graphic design – to make covers and such.
I learned enough HTML for formatting for both ebook and print.
I learned self-editing and proofreading – to ensure a quality product.
And I’m learning marketing as I go, as most indies do.
At this point it’s just me – but there is always the possibility of adding people to the team as necessary to publish more books.
It’s a real trip to go from idea to published book on Amazon – the work of many years – and worth every minute.
With the power of the internet and the wisdom of decades of experience, the opportunities are almost endless. First, I started investing in online businesses that require real work and I loved it! Now I’m sharing on my blog my view that web-based business is both fun and highly profitable. It’s the greatest time ever to be alive!