Starting a business later in life
Collaborative Post
It’s never too late to chase your entrepreneurial dreams. If you have a business idea that you think could be successful and enjoyable, you should pursue it. Starting a business later in life may come with extra challenges but could also come with extra perks. This post offers a few tips on how to start a business later in life.
Use your experience
Being older gives you a wealth of experience to draw on. Ideally, you want to be able to chase a business idea that makes use of this experience. You may be able to use your experience to gain credibility in your field. If you’ve worked in marketing for 30 years and are now ready to start your own marketing company, you can make this a selling point that will give you the edge over a young marketer. Having lots of experience in a field will allow you to consider problems that other younger entrepreneurs have never come across. This isn’t to say that you can’t break into a new industry and still thrive – in such cases you may still be able to use experience from a range of places. However you’ll need to be prepared to learn new skills.
Assess your finances
A challenge you may encounter when starting a business later in life is applying for business finance. Banks and lenders may be less willing to offer a long-term loan simply because of your age. You may have savings that you can use, but you may want to be wary about spending your entire retirement fund. It may be worth getting financial advice and seeing what your options are when it comes to funding your business. Some businesses are relatively cheap to launch, but others may require a lot of investment. There may be specialist VC firms or specialist lenders out there willing to put money into your business and a financial advisor may be able to help you find them.
Do your homework
When starting a business, you need to do a lot of research. If you’re already retired, make the most of the free time you have to thoroughly research all aspects of your business. First, try to familiarise yourself with the necessary business admin. This could include getting to grips with accounting. You should also research the types of licences and insurance schemes you may need for your industry such as specialist builders insurance. Take the time to shop around for these schemes. Next, do your market research and try to work out how to promote your company and make it unique. All of this thorough research will allow you to create a solid business model to rival your competitors.
Embrace modern tech
Modern technology will help you to make your business faster and more efficient. Determine how tech savvy you are and whether you need to develop your knowledge of digital tech. If you don’t have the patience to get to grips with web design or social media, you can always hire a digital marketing company to do this for you. That said, you’ll need to understand how to use some basic software and gadgets. Take a course if you feel you need it.
Don’t overexert yourself
While being older gives you superior wisdom, you need to consider the fact that your energy levels aren’t the same as when you were younger. Be wary of working long hours and putting yourself under immense amounts of stress – your body won’t be able to deal with it as well as when you were young. Take things at a sensible pace and know when to reject work or hire help.
