Would you be surprised to learn that the numbers of older men & women are on the rise in establishing new small businesses? They are, according to a study called The Kauffman Index: Startup Activity 2015 Trends.
The Kauffman Index: Startup Activity tracks new business creation in the USA. With an interesting approach of not only amassing data on new entrepreneurs in their first month, Kauffman also pulls in factors covering new employer businesses in their first year.
And among all that swirling of facts, figures and statistics, the Kauffman Index revealed that:
Baby Boomers (approx. 55-70 years of age) make up 25.8 percent of all new entrepreneurs in the 2015 Index. That is decidedly up from the 1997 Index when they were only 14.8 percent of all new entrepreneurs.
Meanwhile Millennials, the expected rulers of the entrepreneurial roost, have lost footing. Younger entrepreneurs (20-34 years of age) have been on the decline, down to 24.7 percent in the 2015 Index from a higher 34.3 percent of all new entrepreneurs in the 1997 Index.
Why is this?
Writing for Entrepreneur magazine on line, Peter Daisyme’s wrote the following in an article last year titled “Many Baby Boomers Are Choosing Entrepreneurship Instead of Retiring.”
“If you think the largest demographic in the entrepreneurial world is millennials, think again. Baby boomers are actually the most powerful entrepreneurial group, giving up retirement for Career Number Two (or three, four and so on.) The idea of retirement isn’t what it used to be, whether by need or by choice. ”
Boomers may be ready to retire from the 9 to 5 office job that they’ve toiled at for the last two or three decades, but they are not ready to retire from work. Years of experience should not be wasted, but rather be put to use in a business they now can control to better serve customers.
For many Boomers, funding isn’t as much of a problem as for a Millennial, as the Boomer has been working for years, amassing a nice set of financial nest eggs.
Or, on the other side of the spectrum, there are the Boomers who have not been able to save, and cannot afford to retire but need to make more money.
Either way, the force of Entrepreneurship is strong in all of these Boomers. And in you if you are also a Boomer. What makes you less prepared to succeed at opening a store on Main Street USA than someone 30 years younger?
What are some businesses you could open based upon your skill sets or personal interests?
Images courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
(Anthony M. Scialis is a social media strategist focusing on blogging & tweeting as a two-step customer service effort in bridging the gap between the wants of your small business to grow and the needs of your customers to be satisfied. Follow https://twitter.com/amssvs)
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