Entrepreneurship isn’t just for the young. Older adults are finding that starting a business can be the perfect way to turn a lifetime of experience into something meaningful, take control of their time, counter workplace ageism, and in some cases, make a lot more money.
“In the U.S., the U.K., Ireland, and Australia, 50+-year-olds are launching more start-ups than any other cohort,” shares Kerry Hannon, the author of Never Too Old to Get Rich: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Starting a Business Mid-Life. Hannon has been researching and interviewing older entrepreneurs for over a decade and is an enthusiastic cheerleader for those who want to strike out on their own. She’s also realistic about the challenges of building a business at any age.
Starting a business at an older age isn’t just about money, she emphasizes, though it can be a powerful motivator. “Getting rich can, and should, be also about the inner richness that comes from creating a new product or service that changes lives and our world and gives back,” Hannon writes. “It’s the richness of doing work we love, alongside people we respect.”
Here, seven entrepreneurs share the key advantages they discovered in starting a business in their 50s and 60s.
1. You can build on extensive experience
Kathy Kristof started her website SideHusl.com—an independent review site of online platforms that allow consumers to make money in the gig economy—at age 58 in part because she knew it was a perfect fit for her many years of experience as a journalist. In the course of researching opportunities in the “gig economy,” she couldn’t find any sites that offered independent and comprehensive reviews.
“When I started digging in to learn more about individual opportunities, I ran across a host of truly abusive sites that hid their exploitative terms,” she shares. “I hated the idea that my kids and their friends could get conned into working for rotten platforms.”
To launch her website, Kristof used her business experience to her advantage. “Thanks to years of reporting about businesses, I knew how to put together a business plan. And, because I spent decades taking my own personal finance advice, I was in a position to help fund the startup,” she says.
Take an inventory of your skills and connections and look for new ways to apply them to your own business. Experience counts and even governments are taking note of that. “[Japanese] Prime Minister Abe has created a new initiative called ‘Agenomics’ to harness the knowledge and resources of the largest and fastest-growing aging population in the world,” writes Elizabeth Isele, founder and CEO of The Global Institute for Experienced Entrepreneurship, in the foreword to Hannon’s book. And “Finland is the first country to declare experience is its number one natural resource!” she adds.
2. You have a great network
When Brian Weisfeld’s daughter was 8, he observed her frustration as she tried to sell Girl Scout cookies and run a charity bake sale. Wanting to help his daughter and other girls develop an entrepreneurial mindset, he decided to create a brand that would empower girls. Five years later, Macmillan Publishers published The Startup Squad, the first book in a series, which he coauthored with Nicole C. Kear.