If you read my How does it feels to be 20 years late on entrepreneurship? article earlier, now I’m taking things to the max by saying something about senior entrepreneurship. Here in Eastern Europe, I believe that 99.99% of the people don’t even imagine that they could start a business at the retirement age, mostly because people here are missing balance in their work life and don’t have any mental resources to start over again later in life.
But things are a little different elsewhere. I’m not sure if it’s related to the recession, or the need to have supplemental income at the retirement age or just having enough time to take the entrepreneurship path, but you can find plenty of articles about aged entrepreneurs.
Dane Carlson’s Business Opportunities Weblog is quite good in showcasing senior entrepreneurship stories. Like for example the story of Wayne Hauschild, the owner GameDaySigns : “I represent a small but growing segment of American small business, the Senior Entrepreneur. Later this year I will be 61 years old and am very excited about my new career. My company, GameDaySigns, produces licensed College spirit merchandise.” . Or you can read about having a start-up at age 72 – that’s more than I expect to actually live.
Karen E. Klein does a quite good job talking about Entrepreneurship Instead of Retirement: “To start a business at midlife, decide how much money you’re comfortable risking, assess your skills and passions, then ease your way in”
Of course, being +50 probably means a lot of experience, having some savings ready to invest and probably a little more time to tryout your entrepreneurship skills. And while I wonder if after a life of work it makes sense to work some more, I’m positive that waiting for the retirement age to start a business is … bad business.
What do you think?
